€¦ · romantic imagination. The poet hears the song of a nightingale. The song fills his mind with intense joy which orders on pain. Drunk with delight the nightingale brings him

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11. e) Q. “I wonder that each charter’s street Marks of weakness, marks of woe”.

Ans.: These lines are Blake’s London in first stanza. Blake shows his scorn for allkinds of restraints and prohileitions because they lead to a general suffering.

These are powerful lines in theis poem attacking three great evils of society.Cruelty is seen in the chimney-sweepers wretched condition, war as represented by the soldier.Lust represented in the harlot who is a threat to the purity of marriage and the happiness ofchildren. The river Thames too is imagined as enjoying the same kind of freedom.

Blake had a tragic realization of the restrictions which imprison and kill theliving spirit of man. This realization was his criticism of society and of the whole trend ofcontemporary civilization. His compassionate heart was outraged and wounded by thesufferings which society inflicts on its human material which seems indispensible to the efficientoperation of rules and laws.

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11. a) Q. Ful worthy was he in his lords were,

...... ....... ........ .......... .........

And ever honoured for his worthyness.

Ans.: Chaucer begins his description of the pilgrims with that of the knight. In Chaucer’s‘The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’ lines 47-50 there was a knight, he says, among thepilgrims, who was a worthy man.

It is significant that Chaucer begins the account of the different pilgrims with theknight. The knight is the most distinguished man of the company. The portrait of the knight isan idealized one. He loves truth, chivalry, liberality, honour and courtesy. He is also a devoutman. Chaucer’s knight is the personification of the ideals in which medieval man had aprofound belief. At the same time, however, he is also a figure of flesh and blood. Chaucer’sknight embodies the virtues which the medieval concept of knighthood demanded.

It is true that he is not ostensibly concerned with moral problems or with theidea of reforming mankind. But his consciousness of high moral standard is very much evidentin his representation of the knight, the Parson and the Ploughman. Each in his own fieldpresents the standard that should govern behaviour both private and professional; the knightis the representative of the love of truth, honour, liberality and courtesy. It is not more accidentthat Chaucer begins with a description of the knight.

8. Q. Discuss to what extent Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ may be considered aspiritual autobiography.


Ans.: The various lyrics constituting ‘In Memoriam’ were written by Tennyson to expresshis personal sorrow and grief over the pre-mature and shocking death of his friend, ArthurHallam. The poem became not only a moving and poignant expression of the poet’s privategrief and his deep love for the dead Hallam. In the course of his lamentations and wailingsover Hallam’s death, the poet began to ask himself questions of a metaphysical nature. Thepoet’s belief in God and immortality seemed to him to be challenged by certain scientificideas and theories. The doubts and the scepticism which troubled the mind of Tennysonduring the years of the composition of ‘In Memoriam’ wee not peculiar to him. Many otherpeople of a reflective turn of mind were also feeling disturbed by the scientific theories whichseemed to run counter to their traditional Christian beliefs. The poem, in addition to being adeeply and profoundly personal document, became also a moving and poignant document ofa general public interest.

For many people it was a simple step in argument to say that if natural sciencehad no need for God was non-existent. According to the evolutionary theories, many speciesamong plants and animals had become extinct in the course of the centuries, and manyothers were likely to become extinct. It was thus that there arose in England that Victorianconflict known as the conflict between Science and religion. Some scientists, intoxicated bythe achievements of science, asserted that nothing existed outside matter and force.

Such scientists were obviously sceptical about the existence of God, about theexistence of the soul and about immortality. But there were men of religion who asserted thatevery statement contained in the Bible was true, and that every discovery of science thatcontradicted a statement in the Bible was therefore false. A scientist Thomas Henry Huxleyinvented the term “agnostic” to describe an attitude of scepticism not amounting to denial. Inother words, while certain scientists tended to deny the existence of God and the soul, Huxleysaid that the knowledge of God was not possible to man. An agonistic was a person whoneither believed nor disbelieved the orthodox the logical doctrines. Huxley came into a bitterconflict with a clergyman, Bishop Wilber force, because the latter refused to accept the scientificevolutionary theories and stuck to a defence of religious orthodoxy.

The Victorian Age was shaken by new scientific discoveries, by theories ofevolution, by historical criticism of the Bible and by a general breakdown of the old religious,ethical and social beliefs. Tennyson shared all the doubts and fears of his age, as has beenshown above, but the emerged with his religious faith strengthened as already noted. Peoplefelt cheered by Tennyson’s spiritual recovery after he had given a full and eloquent expressionof his doubts and uncertainty.

7. Q. ‘Ode to Nightingale’ presents a conflict between the ideal and the real. Analysethe poem in the light of this Statement.

Ans.: When Keats is recalled the world of the nightingale’s song to the actual world,he realizes that fancy cannot make a man forget the realities of life so thoroughly as it isbelieved to do. In other words, the illusion produced by fancy or imagination is after all,


evanescent. Keats often escapes from the realities of life into the dreamland cast up by hisimagination. But he is not an escapist, as he is commonly taken to be. Escapism is always apassing mood with him, because he knows that such an escape is neither possible nordesirable as the following lines from the Nightingale Ode conclusively show

“Adieu! The fancy cannot cheat so well

As she is famed to do, deceiving elf!”

Keats certainly did not compose the great odes as parts of a composite wholeor comprehensive programme. Each ode can does have a separate entity. However, onreading, all of them, one cannot escape noticing the ideas and feelings which are common tothem. In the ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, Keats is obviously concerned with the ideas of death andimmortality, impermanence and permanence, the harsh reality of human suffering and theblithe happiness of the Nightingale’s song. The poet, however, returns to harsh reality, refusingor being unable to be anaesthetised in luxurious escape. As yet, Keats has not reached asatisfying conception of permanence, a quest which concerned him as a poet.

‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is an escape into the dreamland cast up by Keats’sromantic imagination. The poet hears the song of a nightingale. The song fills his mind withintense joy which orders on pain. Drunk with delight the nightingale brings him he longs toescape to the cloudland of the nightingale’s song to forget the anguish caused him by “theweariness, the fever and the fret” and the evanescence of youth, beauty and love. At first heseeks the aid of wine to escape from reality. But the next moment he gives up the ideas oftaking wine as a means of escape into his dream world and mounts on the viewless wings ofpoesy to land on the nightingale’s romantic bower. The song of the nightingale perches himon the height of his happiness and he wants to “cease upon the midnight” painlessly with thenightingale still singing to him.

The Romantic poets are all fed up with the heard, stream realities of life-its dinand bustle fever and fret. The realization that happiness in this world is but an occasionalepisode in the general drama of pain is too much for them to bear. So to forget their ownpainful experience and that of others they escape to the ideal land of their imagination.

5. Q. Justify the little of the poem ‘Resolution and Independence’.

Ans.: The poem, as critics have remarked, is not typical of Wordsworth but also oneof his best. But why call it ‘Resolution and Independence’ when ‘The Leech-Gatherer’ mighthave been suitable? Evidently, Wordsworth felt the former title to be more effective for bringingout the moral element in the poem. Indeed, he felt that the poem’s power lay in the lesson itconveyed. However, the modern reader feels the power to lie more in the evocation of the oldman’s figure appearing as an integral part of the desolate moor.

The poem begins with a series of nature pictures-all depicting the joy of themorning after a heavy shower in the night. The hare runs in flee, the skylark warbles and there


is the sound or roaring waters. But the excessive joy in the poet’s mind only turns to dejectionand sadness. He thinks of Chatterton and Burns he thinks of poets who begin life in gladnessbut are over-taken by madness and dejection. While meditating thus, the poet sees an oldman. The poet talks with him and as he hears the simple but dignified words spoken by theold and-the leech-gatherer-he realizes the significance of the strength of mind and permanenceof spirit behind the old age, poverty and decrepit appearance. We can call the poem a lyricabout the evolution of an observer through his devoting vision of an old man. The old man’sexistence is “mysterious”-he appears half-inanimate. The “old man is neither unequivocallyobjective nor the other because he looks as he does and means what he sees only to thisparticular observer who has just passed from joy in identifying himself with nature to despairin realising the difference from nature”, as Robert Langbaum observes.

The moral note is seldom absent from Wordsworth’s poetry. The old man,belonging as he did to the humble section of humanity, is a typical Wordsworthian figure. Thepoem is of personal importance to Wordsworth it shows him to be still capable of passinginto the visionary state when deeply moved by human encounters. The great significancewhich the old man came to have for him was the result of the accumulated fears and hopes ofhis creative years. Yet in the end it was a simple moral experience.

The title has obvious moral overtones Wordsworth could never ignore the chanceto moralise on Nature’s influence or the simple dignity of humble rustic life. Wordsworth isinterested in men as men and as part and parcel of the grand phenomenon of Nature. Theleech-gatherer typifies the humble section of humanity bereft of the artificial trimmings ofrefinement and civilization. The leech-gather is invested with the atmosphere of whatWordsworth called visionary dreaminess from which he was able to draw a strange inwardstrength and peace.

1. Q. Bring out the distinctive features of Chaucer’s humour with particular referenceto the characterisation of the prioress and the wife of Bath in ‘Prologue to theCanterbury Tales’.

Ans.: A humorist is a great humanist because he loves mankind inspire of its foiblesand weakness. While analysing Chaucer’s exuberant humour, we should remember that thepartition between humour and wit and that between both and irony and satire are often thin.They often merge into one another, according to the varying moods of the poet which, again,depend largely on his power of observation and capacity for deep and quick reaction to life.In fact, the human mind is roomy and the rooms have communicating doors.

One of the qualities that give to Chaucer’s characters their amazing life andrealism is his humour. He may be regarded as the first great English humorist. No Englishliterary work before him reveals humour in the modern sense.

Chaucer’s satire is mainly directed against religious corruption and againstwomen and incidentally against love and marriage. IN his choice of subject Chaucer shows


himself characteristically a medieval man, because the medieval secular thought, which isbest exemplified by chivalry, centred round these two themes-religion and women. Of feminineportraits there are only two in The Prologue-the Prioress and the Wife of Bath. But even inthese two portraits. Chaucer has made a wide sweep. This Prioress represents theconventional woman, and the Wife of Bath stands for the natural woman. It is to be noted thatin the portrayal of both these women, Chaucer has had his fling at those characteristics whichwere later to be handled future satirists. These portraits are the examples of prototypal satire.In the case of the wife of Bath his satire is almost farcical. But in the case of Prioress, it is verysubtle and implicit as we have seen above. In both the cases, however there is no sign ofbitterness or fierceness there are only light-hearted touches of a genial humorist.

The prioress, as painted by Chaucer in ‘The Prologue’, does not, in any way,seem to be merely an imaginary character. She truly represents the high class religious-minded lady of England of the fourteenth century. But at the same time, we must not miss tomark the gentle satire or ironical bit, which Chaucer makes on the over formality and overdelicacy. The natural portrayal of Prioress is an example of Chaucer’s realism. She is also afine example of sly humour and suggestive irony. Chaucer understands human nature.Therefore her feminine fragilities only amuse him. She is resented realistically and she typifiesthe traits of contemporary prioresses.

The most vivid and famous portrait in ‘The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’, isperhaps, the Wife of Bath. She is the most entertaining character in ‘The Prologue’. We enjoyher sheer vitality, robustness and earthly essence. Blake found her a pest sent to plague man.The view however, would not have found agreement with Chaucer, who eyed and presentedfolly in a tolerantly humorous manner. He accepted folly, vice and immorality as part andparcel of men as well as women. In presentation of the Wife of Bath, we certainly do havesatire, but the satire is not violent or bitter and fierce.

Chaucer is a humorist rather than a satirist. True humour enables us to lovewhile we laugh, and love the better for out laughter. Most of Chaucer’s humour is perfectlyinnocent fun. “A roguish playful irony is one of his commonest weapons, satire and seriousadmiration help, but good humour is always in his right hand”.

3. Q. write a short critical note on The Canonization as metaphysical poem?

Ans.: The term ‘metaphysical’ can be interpreted as beyond physical nature. Dryden was thefirst to use the term in connection with Donne by saying that affects the metaphysics. Dr Johnson laterdescribed Donne and his followers as the metaphysical poets. The term “metaphysical poetry” implies thecharacteristics of complexity, intellectual tone abundance of subtle wit, fusion of intellect and emotion,colloquial argumentative tone, conceits scholarly allusions, dramatic tone and philosophic or reflectiveelement.

Concentration is an important quality of metaphysical poetry in general and Donne’s poetryin particular. The poet develops the theme without digressions. Donne begins his argument with a friendwho dissuades him love-making. He tells him to stop his nonsensical talk and allow him to love. Let his


friend regard his love as a natural or hereditary disease. Let his friend mind his own business and look afterhis own career and fortune.

An expanded epigram would be a fitting description of a metaphysical poem. No word iswasted and nothing described in detail. There is a sinewy strength in style. Verse forms are usually simple,but always suitable in enforcing the sense of the poem.

Fondness for conceits is a major characteristic of metaphysical poetry. Of course allcomparisons discover likeness in things unlike, but in a conceit we are made to concede the likeness evenwhile being strongly conscious of the unlikeness. Donne often employs fantastic comparisons.

Wit striking and subtle marks metaphysical poetry. Indeed the conceits especially displaya formidable wit. So do the various allusions and images relating to practically all areas of nature and artand learning. Allusions to medicine, cosmology, ancient myth, contemporary discoveries, history, law andart about in Donne’s poetry.

Combination of passion and thought is a peaculier characteristic of metaphysical poetryand is another form of wit. Thus there is a unification of sensibility, use T.S.Eliot’s phrase, in metaphysicalpoetry. There is in Donne’s poems an intellectual analysis of emotion. Every lyric arises out of someemotional situation, but the emotion is not merely expressed. It is analysed. The canonization establishesthat lovers are saints of love Donne treats physical love as if it were divine love. Saints are canonized fortheir renunciation of the world and in comforts. In the same way the lovers have renounced the mad world.The love of Donne for his beloved causes no damage injury to the society or to the world. Other peoplecontinue to carry on their normal daily chores and duties. The love have lost the world but gained more inthe world of each other. The lovers are so to say dead to the world. They have, therefore, deserved thestatus of saints. They are the saints whose blessings other lovers will invoke. The lovers are devoted toeach other as a saint is devote to God. Some people may regard it as paradox of Christian Canonization,but there is no doubt that the tone of the poem is both serious and convincing.

Argumentation and reasoning balance the passion in Donne’s poems. In ‘The Canonization’there is passion expressed through beautiful metaphors:

Call us what you will, we are made such by love

Call her one, me another fly,

We are tapers too, and at our cost die.

But at the same time, the tone of the poem is intellectual and there is plenty of complexity involvedin the conceits and allusions such as the phoenix riddle.

The use of colloquial speech marks metaphys poetry as far as Donne is concerned. This isspecially appartment in the abrupt conversational opening of his poem for instarred “For God’s sake holdthy tongue and let me love.”

Donne arrests our attention both by the content and the dramatic style of his poetry.


Donne’s love poems are especially entitled to be called metaphysical in the true sense. Thepoem ‘The Canonization’ raises, even though it does not explicite discuss the great metaphysical questionof the relation of the spirit and the senses. The poem raises it not as an abstract problem but in the effort tomake the experience of the union of two human powers in love, and the union of two human beings in love,apprehensible. Often Donne speaks of the soul and of spiritual love.

Intellect and wit blending with emotion and feeling marks metaphysical poetry, especiallythat of Donne. Indeed, Donne represents very well the school of poetry somewhat vaguely called‘metaphysical’. He brought the whole of his experience into his poetry. He is erudite, ‘the monarch of wit’,colloquial rhetorical of familiar. He chooses his language from the court or the camp, the jargon of law,study or the market place. These qualities are present in Donne’s poetry in this love poem as well as in thelater religious poems. Gricrson aptly sums up: “Donne is metaphysical not only by virtue of his scholasticismout by the deep reflective interest in the experiences of which his poetry is the expression, the newpsychological curiosity with which he writes of love and religion.”

11. h Q. There is not room for Death

………………………………

And what thou art may never be destroyed.

Ans.: These two lines are from Emily Bronte’s poem “No coward Soul is Mine”. These twolines are the concluding lines of this poem. Towards the end of her grand tribute to God’s greatness andomnipotence in the poem No coward soul is mine. Emily asserts her conviction in emphatic terms that evenwhen man the heavenly bodies and the earth close to exist as they are God will remain entirely unaffectedby the gigantic turmoil and collapse of the Doomsday.

Here the poetess speaks of the eternal existence of God. God has always existed and willexist for all time to come. Man and the earth he lives in may go out of existence the stars and other existingthings may close to be. But God will remain behind. He is not subject to death, decay and destruction. Notonly does God exist in His full glory but also He will embody all that have ceased to be - the earth, man,stars and all created things. God is passionately and fervently addressed emphatically, hence this doublingof ‘Tou’. The supreme soul into which all human souls converge is the immortal world of eternity where thepossibility of damage or decay is absolutely ruled out.

The exaggeration in the statement here results from an excess of religious faith and fromcomplete submission to the will of the supreme Bing. God is the life breath of all men and things. WhateverGod may be, He is indestructible.

11. b) Q. If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


Ans.: These two lines are taken from Shakespeare’s sonnet no. 116. “Let me not tothe marriage of true minds.” In it the poet asserts the superiority of love to time. This view isabout the constancy of love is considered wrong. The poet is definite of the constancy of lovewhich tried to be tested on the poet. The poet would have written nothing and there would beno true love. The poet wants to mean that his verse and love sufficiently indicate the virtue oflove in which constancy, devotion and loyalty ever dwell and shine.

The lines powerfully bring out the poet’s high regard for love. He idealizes itand places it above time. This is both love and time well conceived. It is appropriately employedto signify the doomsday conceived by Catholicism and the power of love to withstand theravages of time. In fact a total impression of a very high art remains in the ultimate assessmentof these lines.


PGEG-23. b) Q. What do you understand by the term language variation? Why do languageschange?Ans.: Language can vary not only from one individual to the next but also from onesub-section of speech community to another people of different age, sex social classes,occupations or cultural groups in their speech. Thus language varies in geographical andsocial space. Variability in a social dimension is called sociolectical. According to socio-linguists, a language is code. There exist varieties within the code.

According to Edward Sapir ’language moves down time in a current of its ownmaking’. He further says that every word, every grammatical element, every location, everysound and accent is slowly changing configuration, moulded by the invisible and impersonal.For once the changed or modified element of language has gained currency and acceptancefrom the majority of the people speaking that language, no amount of breast-beating andalarms by grammarians can undo the change. Language change is so imperceptible and sominuscule that for quite some time it goes unnoticed. Since language changes in an orderlyand integrated manner, its equilibrium and basic characteristic are not disturbed.

3. c) i)Q. Give the morphological analysis of the following.Ans.: bookseller = book + sellers

A nominal compound is a combination of two or more words functioning a unitin a sentence.

Book -Sellers (N) (compounding)

book Sellers(Stemtroot) (Stem/root) Enthusiastically (adu)

enthusiastic (adj) ally(Class changing derivational Suffix)

enthusiast (n) ic (stem/roof) (Class Clanging deviuational suffix)

Prefabricated (adj)

Pre (class changing derivational prefix) fabricated (V)

fabricate (V) -d (inffection)(stem/root)


Vacuum is a free morphemeA free morpheme is a morpheme which can independently occur in the language.

Vacuum is a free morpheme, so it can occur on its own

Cleaners (N)

Cleaner (N) -S (inflection)

Clean (adj) -er(stem/root) (Class Changing derivational suffix)

3. c) ii) Q.Mention some of the functions for which English is used in India.Ans.: English in India then has the status of a second language not because a largenumber of people learn it after they learn their mother tongues but because it operates withinthe country in a certain way. In the beginning its use was restricted to specific contexts butgradually the range of use was extended.

Some of these functions are:-(i) The instrumental function: - English is used as means for achieving something.(ii) The regulative function:- The function is involved in contexts where a language is usedto regulate conduct,(iii) The interpersonal function:- Firstly English provides a link between speakers of mutuallyunintelligible languages within a country. Secondly at a personal level.(iv) The imaginative / innovative function: - This function refers to the use of English invarious literary genres.1. a) Q. What is language? How does it differ from animal communication system?Ans.: According to an ancient linguist of India, Patanjali, language is that humanexpression which is uttered out by speech organs. In Encyclopaedia Britanica, Vol.13,language is defined as “a system of conventional, spoken or written symbols by means ofwhich human beings as members of a social group and participants in its culture,communicate”.

“Language may be defined as the expression of thought by means of speech-sounds”. – Henry Sweet, the History of Language.

Anthropologists regard language as a form of cultural behaviour, sociologistsas an interaction between members of social group students of literature as an interactionbetween members of social group, students of literature as an artistic medium, philosophersas means of interpreting human experience, language teachers as a set of skills. Truly,language is such a complex phenomenon that to definite it in terms of a single level asknowledge, behaviour, skill, habit an event or an object, cannot solve the problem of itsdefinition. None of the above definitions are perfect.

Language is an organization of sounds, of vocal symbols – the sounds producedfrom the mouth with the help of various organs of speech to convey some meaningful message.It is the most powerful convenient and permanent means and form of communication. It is aset of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community.


No species other than humans has been endowed with language. Animalscannot acquire human language because of its complex structure and their physicalinadequacies. Animals do not have the type of brain which the human beings possess andtheir articulator organs are also very much different from those of the human beings.Furthermore, any system of animal’s communication does not make use of the quality offeatures, that is, of current systems of sound and meaning. Human language is open-ended,extendable and modifiable where as the animal language is not. The difference betweenhuman and animal system of communication is explained in extremely well.

Most animals have inter and intra-species communication systems tocommunicate with one another. They cry, hoot, beat, dance and coo, and to some degreethese noises and acts accomplish the same purposes as human language. They makeinstinctive noise. Animals as some scholars believe have both the discrete and non-messageas well as symbols is limited in quantity and dimension. Human languages on the other handare much more interestingly unlimited.

Animal communication thus is devoid of the ‘complexity’, ‘novelty’, ‘multiplicity’,and ‘creativity’ of human language. Animal communication is a closed system, it isunextendable and unmodifiable. The bees and the monkeys use even now-a-days the samecommunication system which they used, say, five thousand years ago. Hence animalcommunication lacks the variety found in the system of human communication. The numberof sentences in any natural language is inexhaustible. There is no limit to the number ofconceptual units in the human language, or to the number of possible symbols. Human languageis extendable and modifiable.Human communication is structurally complex while the animal communication is not. Theformer is conditioned by time and geography, the latter is not.

2. a) ii)) Q. Divide the following words into syllables and show which syllables haveprimary stress on themAns.: alleviation – alle – via – tion

Misunderstand – mis – un – der – standPioneer – pio – neerAbsolutely – ab – solute – lyPhotography – pho – to – gra – phyMountaineer – moun – tain – eer

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2. a) iii) Q. Write a phonemic transcription of the following: -Those who sold tickets quickly made a profit.

——————————————————u z hu: s uld tIKIi meld pr fitññññ


2. c) Q. Analyse the structure of the following Noun Phrases.Ans.: (i) A young girl with an umbrella chased the boy.

NP

NP Prep phr

Det Adj phr n prep NP

art Adj det N

art a Young Girl With an umbrella

(ii) The child neglected by the Parents.NP VP

NP

Det N

art Child

the Child

(iii) The fact that John is interested in grammar.NP Clause

GrammarNP

NP S (Clause)Det N

art that john is interested in grammarthe facet


(iv) A book of quotations from Shakespeare.NP

NP Prep phrDet NP

art N NP prep NP

a book prep N N

of quotations from shakespeare2. f (iii)Q. Creole: -Ans.: When a pidgin becomes a lingua franca, it is called a Creole. Thus a pidginmay extend beyond its limited function and permeate through various other activities. Then itmay acquire a standardized grammar, vocabulary and sound0system and it may then bespoken by an increasing number of people as their first language. It has neither such historynor much prestige either. But on account of its wider application and first language status, ithas to be distinguished from a pidgin. A Creole or a creolized language is a mixed naturallanguage composed of elements of different languages in areas of intensive contact. Well-known examples are the Creoles of the islands of Mauritius and Haiti.

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3.a) iii) Q. Distinguish between dialect and language.Ans.: Dialect: - A regional temporal or social variety within a single language is adialect; it differs in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary from the standard language, whichis in itself a socially favoured dialect. So a dialect is a variation of language sufficiently differentto be considered a separate entity within a language but not different enough to be classedas a separate entity a language, but not different enough to be classed as a separatelanguage. Sometimes it is difficult sub-division or a different language, since it may be blurredby political boundaries e.g. between Dutch and some Low German dialects Regional dialectsare spoken by the people of a particular geographical area within a speech community.

Language: - Language with its different varieties is the subject matter of socio-linguistics socio-linguistic studies the varied linguistic realizations of socio-cultural meaningswhich in a sense are both familiar and unfamiliar and the occurrence of everyday socialinteractions which are nevertheless relative to particular cultures, societies, social groups,speech communities, languages, dialects, varieties styles. That is why language variationgenerally forms a part of socio linguistic study.

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Q. 3. a) ii) Distinguish between semantic fallacy and logical fallacy.Ans.: Semantic Fallacy: - The traditional grammarians used meaning in the definitionor description of grammatical categories. This use of meaning as a tool or criterion in linguisticdescription makes grammar unscientific because meaning itself cannot be scientifically


captured. Meaning is vague, context bound and subjective. Let us consider the definition ofan interrogative sentence in traditional grammar. “An interrogative sentence is one that asksa question”. Now a sentence likes “could you pass me the salt?” is an interrogative sentenceas we all know. But does it ask a question? Of course no. It is actually making a request. Thispoint is that such meaning-based definitions are misleading, fallacious and therefore,unscientific.

The Logical Fallacy: -The traditional linguists held the rules of grammar should be governed by the

laws of logic. This belief they inherited from the speculative grammarians of the Middle Ageswho thought that human language mirrored the universe and because the principles of logicgoverned the universe they governed language also.

But we find that in every human language there are expressions / utteranceswhich may not be considered valid from the point of view of logic. In English, the traditionalgrammarian’s observation that it has three tense forms – past, present and future – is anexample of logical fallacy.

Q.1. b) English is ‘the most International of languages’. Discuss with suitableexamples.Ans.: English began as an obscure language spoken in a remote corner of the world.Nowadays it is the most important of all living languages. The vast expansion of Englishcultural and commercial influence in many parts of the world, together with the more recentdominance of the material civilization of America, has suggested too many that the day is notfar off when English will become the international auxiliary language of the world. We have toconsider the special merits which English has for being accepted as a world language forinternational communication. We have also to examine the defects of English which mightstand in the way at its becoming a language acceptable to all the nation of the world.

The world is fully alive to the need for an international language which can beused as the common medium for historical, political and scientific thoughts of the peoples ofthe world, besides meeting the made to supply that need by inventing artificial none of theartificial languages has been quite satisfactory as a universal language, may people all overthe world feel inclined to select one of the well-known and widely used languages as a worldlanguage.

In discussing which of the widely used languages should have a claim to beworld language, naturally the question of English appears foremost because of its alreadyvast influence. It is a fact that English occupies a very high place among the major languagesof world. Considered on the basis of the number of people who use it, English is second onlyto Chinese. It has the advantage of being the language of two of the most powerful andprogressive countries in the world-England and America. There is no denying that the nationsspeaking English enjoy political, commercial and technological predominance. In the scientific


field English is the only language which is very profitably used. It is for these reasons thatEnglish has every chance of becoming a world language.

As for the possibility of English becoming a world language, we must admitthat there are two main obstacles to this. One is the vast and varied vocabulary of English,which is not easy to master in a short time by any foreigners. It is on account of these thingsthat H. G. Wells has imagined English becoming the language of his Utopia after being shornat its grammatical peculiarities and having had its spelling systematized and improved.

Some of the points in favour of as well as against the adoption of English as aworld language have been discussed here. But no positive conclusion can be arrived at fromthis discussion. Whether it is really desirable for English to become a world language is aquestion which perhaps concerns the anthropologists rather than philologists.

2. (f). (V) Nasals: |m|The soft palate is lowered, the mouth is closed and the air passes through

the nose. The tongue is held in a neutral position. The vocal cords vibrate and voice is produced.It may be defined as a voiced bi-labial nasal consonant. Examples- Lamb, Lamp

|n|The soft palate is lowered so that the air passes through the nose. The

vocal cords vibrate is produced. The sound may be defined as a voiced alveolar nasalconsonant. Examples- need, never.

|h|The mouth is blocked by the back of the tongue pressed against the

soft palate. The sound is voiced. It is defined as a voiced velar nasal consonant. Examples-singer, longing.

2. a) (i) Fricatives: |f|The articulation of |f| the soft palate is raised, thereby shuting off the

nasal passage of air. The vocal cords are wide apart. |f| is thus a voiceless labio dentalfricative. Examples- Family, Far

|v||v| is articulated exactly like |f| except that during the articulation of |v| the

vocal cords vibrate producing voice. |v| is thus a voiced labia-dental fricative. Examples-Very, Visit.

|o|The articulation of |o| the soft-palate is raised, thereby shutting off the

nasal passage of air. The vocal cords are wide apart. |o| is thus a voiceless dental fricative.Examples- thick, thing.

|j||j| is articulated exactly like |o| except that during the articulation of |j| the

vocal cords vibrate, producing vice. |j| is thus a voiced dental fricative. Example- the, this.|s|


|s| the soft palate is raised so as to shut off the nasal passage of air. |s|us thus a voiceless alveolar fricative. Example- some, same.

|z||z| is articulated exactly like |s| except that during the articulation of |z| the

vocal cords vibrate producing voice. |z| is thus a voiced alveolar fricative. Example- Noisy,Busy.

|f||f| the soft palate is raised so as to shut off the nasal passage of air. It is

defined as a voiceless palate – alveolar fricative consonant. Example- Shape, Ship.|z|

|z| is articulated exactly like |f| except that during the articulation of |z| thevocal cords visible producing voice. |z| is thus a voiced palate-alveolar fricative. Example-Vision, Rouge.

|h||h| the air from the lungs escapes through a narrow glottis with audible

friction |h| is thus a voiceless glottal fricative. Example- Harm hair.

3. (d) ii) Bow-Wow Theory:-This theory traces the connection between the sound and the word. Supporters of this theorypoint to words which are directly imitative of nature sounds and maintain that these form thecore of the vocabulary and thereby the basis of language e.g. cuckoo, hissetc They alsoargue that a child, learning a language tries to reproduce the characteristic sound of an animalor a bird and refers to the dog as bow-wow, the cat as mew-mew and to cow as moo-moo.While admitting the fact that the onomatopoeic or echoic element has played an importantpart in the coinage of many words, one cannot explain the origin of the large variety of otherwords whose sounds do not echo the sense. This theory can be dismissed as an incompleteand imperfect explanation of how language obtained its articulate structure.

(2) (f) (ii) Q. Give a classification of the diphthongs in English.Ans.:

There are eight diphthongs in English........................................Diphthongs are of three kinds.

(a) Diphthongs with a glide towards a central vowel are called centring diphthongs................................ as in dear, air poor.(b) Closing Diphthongs are those in which the glide is towards a close vowel.e.g. ............................ as in bay, buy, boy, bough, bow.

(1u 1)(1 1)

(E )(eil)

( i)

(ai) (aui)


Diphthongs may also be described as follows:(c) Diphthongs with a front glide are called Fronting Diphthongse.g. ................................. as in maid, bide, boy(d) Diphthongs with a back glide are called Retracting Diphthongs.e.g. ............................... in cow, so.

Q. What is the function of affixes in English? Explain with suitable examples.Ans.: Prefix, suffix and Infix together is called affix. Free morphemes allow boundmorphemes to be appended to them. Most of the forms have a tendency to extend by allowingbound forms to be stuck to them. This process is known as ‘affixation’. E.g. In ‘unnecessarily’the two bound morphemes are attached to ‘necessary’ which is the stem. ‘Root’ is the ultimateof any free morpheme. In this example ‘necessary’ is both ‘stem’ and ‘root’. ‘Stem’ can bedivided further. Un-and-by are affixes English has no infixes.

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Q. 2. A) Volpone is a play of social satire. Comment!

Ans.: Ben Jonson was a socially conscious artist. He knew very well that he had towrite to the tastes of the contemporary society to remain a successful playwright. At the sametime he thought it his duty to point out the evils pervading in society. The realisation of thatdual duty is clearly seen in the prologue where he says to the audience that his intention is “tomix profit with your pleasure.” Yes, “amusement and instruction” of society were the aims ofJonson. The passion for reform is to be found in all his plays. But in Volpone it is found mixedwith exquisite dramatic skill.

Renaissance reached England from Italy. Venice and Florence, among theItalian cities, stood as symbols of the new culture spreading in England. The love for adventure,belief in the unlimited power of the human soul, desire for transcendence, longing to freeoneself from the choking hold of religion, a love for the finer things of life, a zest for life, cravingto become rich and above all an emphasis of individualism are some of the salient featuresof Renaissance. As these features spread in England, the associated vices too found itsplace in society. Jonson found the newly sprung views causing degeneration of contemporarylife. He saw that greed on avarice, is a cardinal vice, giving birth to other vices.

In Volpone he presents this vice, how it flourishes, and how it comes to its ownend by internal fight among the forces of evil. For presenting such a story he chose Venice, asthe setting because that city was notorious in Jonson’s time for vulgar and immoral life. However,the evils he presented in the play were those found in contemporary England. The story of acertain captain Thomas Stutton who exploited several people by giving them hopes ofbecoming his heir was popular in Jonson’s England. There were several like Sir AnthonyShirly, the adventurer and Sir Henry Wotton, the English ambassador to Venice, known toJonson, who caused a wave of Italianisation in England. Many more such contemporaryincidents and people might have prompted Jonson to write a play like Volpone. A closeexamination of the play will reveal that the satire in the play is directed against the Englishsociety he lived in.

We find in Volpone a skilful combination of satire and the comedic. It followsthe tradition of the classical comedy, where motifs, situations and characters contribute to thefun in the play. The situations in the play, at times, become too much for a comedy.

Q. 1. a) Critically analyse Hamlet’s speech to the players.

Ans.: When Hamlet learns from the ghost that his matter has committed not onlyincest but also adultery, and further that Claudius murdered his father, uncertainties confoundhim. He is uncertain, regarding the veracity about the ghost’s intentions, since it could easilyhave been an evil spirit. Furthermore, he is uncertain as to how he is to avenge his father’s


murder which he thinks is his loyal duty. Groping in the darks desperately wanting to act, hecan only come up with one solution – which he must feign madness till something bettercomes his way. This continues for a long time till the opportunity arrives at his doorstep in theform of the arrival of the players to the court. Hamlet invites the king and the queen andrequests the players to enact the murder of Gonzago. His motive in staging this play is toestablish the authenticity of the ghost’s revelation as well as the guilt of Claudius, since themurder of Gonzago is very similar to the murder of the late king as revealed by the ghost.

The play within the play also reveals Shakespeare’s own theory of play acting,for what Hamlet utters about the art of acting is in fact Shakespeare’s own view also. Andwhen Hamlet tells the players neither to be too passionate nor to be too tame in enacting theplay, we immediately realise that Hamlet is speaking on behalf of Shakespeare.

It is often assumed that the introduction of the ghost into the story involves thechange in the method of the murder. In Saxo, Hamlet’s father was butchered, and Belleforestadds explicitly that he was set up at a banquet. The murder, done in secret, is an innovation.But although a secret murder might require a ghost to reveal it, the converse does not follow.We may accept the usual complaint that the secret murder deprives Hamlet of his traditionalmotive for pretending madness; but this weakness, if it is one, can easily be exaggerated.Indeed Shakespeare seems to capitalise on it by linking the pretended madness with agenuine emotional are great. There are consequences for the murderer’s character as wellas for the revenge’s task and a revenge that cannot be openly declared invites a subtlerintrigue. The king’s move to penetrate Hamlet’s madness is matched with Hamlet’s to establishthe king’s guilt. The device of imagining the crime in the play requires, if it is to be unmistakableboth by the perpetrator and by us a murder of a singular kind and Shakespeare establishesin his play magnificently.

The idea of a murdered betraying his guilt on seeing his crime represented ina play is not novel and popularly reported instances were presumably known to Shakespeare.The dramatist makes a cogent entity from diverse sources. Once he has the central idea inmind, he takes us into Hamlet’s mind to intellectualise the character and by doing so transformsit.

Some critics have stated that the king could not have possibly seen this preludesince he was engaged in animated conversation. Yet this is hardly based on reality, though itis true that he does not appear to be disturbed. This prelude is termed appropriately as themouse trap by Hamlet when the king asks him the title of the play; in more ways than one it isprecisely that for Hamlet stages the play with the sale motive of trapping the king.

Q. 1.b) Bring out the comic elements in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Ans.: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ was the most important work of Oscar Wilde.It was first performed in St. James’s Theatre in London on 14th February 1895. It is Wilde’sfunniest play and it is also the most poignant play, if we have in mind the disaster that struck


its author only a few weeks after its glittering first night when Queensberry instigated theprocess that led to Reading Goal. Originally the play was written in four acts. But at the requestof the play’s director Alexandar, Wilde shortened the play by dropping the entire third act ofhis original version. The play as we find it now in three acts, gives if a more spacious andmodern look. Farce should have the speed of a pistol shot, said wide and speed is, indeed adistinctive and curious feature of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a comic masterpiece. The theme is entirelyfantastic where weaknesses of Wilde become less obvious. The play has no purpose exceptto be gay. As a contribution to English comedy, it ranks with the plays of Sheridan. It ran inLondon even during the deepest disgrace of its author and appears now to have taken a sureplace in the repertory of English stage classics. It is the funniest and most attractive play. It isa farce taking us into realm of absurdity in an attempt to recover lost innocence. Throughlaughter, it tries to purge us of sin and evil. It is the one and only play of Wilde that has notcaused much disagreement among his modern day readers and viewers. Ever since its firstproduction, it has been delighting generation after generation of viewers.

The play derives its comedy from the two girls Gwendolyn and Cecily believingthemselves to be engaged to the same young man ‘Earnest’ and two young men Jack andAlgenon trying to get themselves Christened as ‘Earnest’ by Dr. Chasuble who is willing tooblige them both. The high point of comedy is reached whom Jack comes in mourning dressand enters his country seat after killing his imaginary brother ‘Earnest’ only to find Algernon‘Bunburing’ there with Cecily posing as ‘Earnest: The question of Jack’s parcentage and thefact that he is a ‘foundling’ picked up from an abandoned handbag at Victoria Station and thefinal revelation that he is the own brother of Algernon provide brilliant opportunities for Wildeto unleash several moments of non-stop fun and comicality. With the establishment of theidentity of the hero, the complications in the plot are solved and the young lovers are happilymarried. Lady Bracknell, the mother of Gwendolen provides excellent punch to this brilliantcomedy by her inimitable character and pungency for brilliant wit and ironical humour.

It reveals in its own improbability and absurdity. It is consistently farcical in tone,characterization and plot. A baby mislaid in a hand-bag at a London railway station, and thecompletely arbitrary desires of young ladies to marry men with the name Ernest are themainsprings of the plot. “In ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, in fact, Wilde really invented anew type of play and that type was the only quite original thing he contributed to the Englishstage. In form it is farce, but in spirit and in treatment it is comedy.

In it absurd and the improbable from a fantastic combination to provide a richcomic fare, Wilde says that this play, his chief aim was to provide unalloyed entertainment.So he exploits all the characteristics of farce to provide a pure comedy for his audience.

Q. 3. C) Compare on the characterisation of Cecilia and Gwendolen in The Importanceof Being Earnest.


Ans.: Gwendolen Fairfax: Gwendolen is the only daughter of Lord and Lady Bracknell.Gwendolen is very intelligent and highly practical. Gwendolon is very frank and forthright inher views. She is astounded by the beauty of Cecily, the ward of Mr. Worthing. She wishesthat Cecily were forty two and more than usually plain for her age. She becomes jealous thatErnest might feel attracted towards his ward. She feels unburdened when Cecily tells her thatshe is the ward of Jack and not Ernest Worthing. But soon her dormant jealousy is rousedagain when Cecily tells her that she is engaged to Ernest Worthing. Gwendoloen is light-hearted, spirited and witty by nature. Her remarks are highly humorous. She shows her proclivityfor indulging in paradoxes. She tells Jack, “Few parents now a day pay any regard to whattheir children say to them. The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.” Thisbesides, her statements abound in humorous remarks inducing spontaneous laughter in theaudience. She, like the other characters of the play, contributes to the high comedy of theplay. She is both a type and an individual. Her love affair with Jack, the hero after runningthrough rough weather for a while ends in a happy note with her marriage to Jack, who isfound to be a potential ‘Ernest’!

Cecily Cardew: Cecily Cardew is a pretty young lady of eighteen. She is thegrand-daughter of Mr. Thomas Cardew. She is the ward of Jack Worthing and she lives withher guardian in the Manor House at Woolton in Hertfordshire. She is a hearers to a richfortune bequeathed to her by her grandfather, Thomas Cardew. Jack considers Cecily “asweet, simple and innocent girl.” Algernon regards her as “the visible personification ofabsolute perfection.” Aware of her limited intelligence, she confesses that she must marry asimple man, for “I don’t care to catch a sensible man. I shouldn’t know what to talk to himabout “She is an attractive girl. Gwendalen wishes she were” not quite so very alluring inappearance.”

Q. 3. E) Write short note on the role of the priests in Murder in the Cathedral.

Ans.: The three Priests in the play are Becket’s fellow member of the Church. Theyrepresent like the Chorus, the claims of humanity from without just as the Tempters representthe temptations from within. The three Priests are numbered- one, two, three. It would beeasy to dismiss this numbering as done for the sake of convenience at the first reading. Yet itwould be difficult to assign one is speech to another at random. It is clear that they are sharplyindividualised and their speeches bring out their particular attitudes.

The first Priest is an elderly, worldly wise man, fond of his food. He is also anemotionally excitable person and easily affected by the joy or the danger of the events aroundhim.

The second Priest is younger and aggressively loyal. He is also a more prosaicand reasonable person, efficient and practical in his outlook.

The third Priest is a deeper thinker than the other two. In the beginning heseems rather sceptical and pessimistic but he is able to see the end of things. It is befitting


that it is he who in the end pronounces the epitaph on the Knights. “Go, weak and men, lost,erring souls, homeless in earth or heaven.” Grover Smith says that the first Priest resemblesthe women of the chorus: the second Priest typifies the potential moral strength of the knight’simmoral practicality and the third Priest resembles Becket himself.

Q. 3.f) What in your opinion is Pozzo’s function in watting for Godot?

Ans.: Frightened and utterly dependent on his slave, Pozzo is nevertheless the manwho cannot stay in one place. Once the whip cracking master of men and worldly possessions,Pozzo is yet unable to give up the myth of action even when his powers fail him. Throughblindness he has entered the shadowy world of indeterminate space and time, a universewhich is “like nothing”. His sightlessness as he himself states, is that of Fortune, an absurdblindness. Unlike Tiresias, he does not possess a third eye which would allow him to look intothe future. A grotesque Oedipus at the crossroads, led by an idiotic slave, Pozzo, is as cut offfrom any future as from his past. He does not real, having met Estragon and Vladimir before,perhaps because they were of no impotence to him except as a temporary and accidentalaudience, nor will he remember them the next day.

In the portrayal of Pozzo, Beckett has given us a caricature of God, the absolutemonarchy. Pozzo is the living symbol of the Establishment. Nothing must discourage him.When Vladimir asks him: “What do you do when you fall far from help?” He answersunhesitatingly, using the royal “we”, or perhaps including his slave, “We wait till we can get up.Then we go on. On!” We know this for it is Pozzo who formulates a striking definition of thehuman condition when he says: “They give birth astride of a grave.”

Q. 2. C) Bring out the significance of the Julia Faulkland episode in The Rivals.

Ans.: The Faulkland-Julia episode constitutes the sub-plot of The Rivals. Julia is ayoung, parentless girl who possesses many good and laudable qualities of head and heart,she under the tutelage of Sir Anthony Absolute. Though she belongs to the fashionable, carefreeand pleasure loving section of the society, she loves Faulkland, an incorrigible sentimentalisthaving some readymade and fixed ideas about love and marriage. She loves him sincerelythough Faulkland has none of the qualities which ladies admire in a man. But Faulkland doubtsthe sincerity of her love and imagines rivals for her hand. He cannot rest sure as to thesingleness and sincerity of her love. Every time Faulkland meets Julia, he unreasonably andfoolishly quarries with her and Julia leaves him in tears being unable to bear with his faultfinding nature. When, for the best time he comes to test her sincerity of love with the concoctedstory that he has murdered a man, and as a consequence, has to fly from the country, Juliafeels very insulated and realizing that his nature can never be reformed, she jilts him. The iceof her anger, however, melts away when she discovers that he was involved in the duel affairand as such his story was not altogether baseless. She also consents to marry him when Sir


Anthony asks her to do so on the strength of his hope that Faulkland with mend his behavioursurprisingly after marriage.

The Julia-Faulkand episode contains some of the features of the sentimentalcomedy. The sight of the undeserved sufferings of Julia for no fault of her own drawssympathetic tears from the audience. The Julia-Faulkland episode is marked by moralising.Julia’s last speech to Faulkland seems to be a moral lecture delivered from the pulpit. Shesays to Faulkland by way of advice: “When hearts deserving happiness would unite theirfortunes, Virtue would crown them with an unfading garland of modest, hurtles flowers; but illjudging passion will force the gaudier rose into the wreath, whose thorn offends them, whenits leaves are dropped.”

The dramatic value of the Faulkland-Julia sub-plot lives in the contrastedparallelism it provides for the main plot. It serves to set off the main plot. It drats with the themeof love like the main plot, but its hero and heroine widely contrasted with those of the mainplot.

3. (b) Q.Comment on the significance of the opening scene of Hamlet?

Ans.: In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet the opening scene of the play is of greatsignificance. Shakespeare’s definitive style is articulately expressed in his way of creatingsuspense in his opening scene. He provides the audience with sufficient knowledge in orderto enable an understanding of the occurring situation, but he leaves out just enough informationin order to capture the audience’s attention. Shakespeare used a specific arrangement inorder to establish a plot line, and choose the actions and words of his characters very carefullyto achieve just the right atmosphere.

Immediately Hamlet is set on the gun platform of Elsinore Castle, characterisingthe tension in Denmark. The night time scene holds more significance to the Elizabethanaudience than to the contemporary as it introduction of ghost of old Hamlet ensnares theaudience with its supernatural prowess. Importantly Hamlet is absent in the opening scene,showing that the major characters are only as significant as the minor roles.

2. (d) What role does Octavius play in Man and Superman?

Ans.: Shaw gave a sub-title to Man and Superman. ‘A comedy and a philosophy’ for‘Man and Superman’ though it was written early in Shaw’s career, represents the culminationof Shaw’s theory that the drama is but a device a track, if

you like forgetting the public to listen to one’s philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy,economic philosophy – Shavian philosophy.


In its simplest terms, the philosophical meaning of the play is that in the warbetween the sexes, woman always emerges conqueror even if man, her antagonist be asuperman, that in a battle between instinct and intelligence, instinct always wins. In Man andSuperman the predominant idea is the relationship between the sexes and its impact on theevolution of a better future man, the superman.

We find Woman, in this play, as the superior sex. For it is her lot to take themajor responsibility in the act of procreation. Man has only an infinitesimal role to play in thisprocess. The maternal aspect is biologically more significant and mother symbolizes thefemale principle of the universe. From the point of view of sex ‘Woman is nature’s contrivancefor the perpetuation of the human race.’ Man is Woman’s instrument for fulfilling nature’sbehest in the most economical way.’ When the blind out powerful force of creation is workingin her she pursues Man even as a hunter is hunting down the quarry, until he is captured.Woman is the pursuer Man the pursued. In this life perpetuating process she uses all hercharms all her cunning and all her abilities to ensure for her the most desirable male. It is theinstinctive cunning in her that makes him idolize her and worship her. The hab of sex relationshiptoo is created by the same instinctive force. There is no romanticism in sexual love. Neither isthere anything divine in it. It is merely a trap of woman to capture Man as a male to father herchildren.

To develop this theme, Shaw claimed to have written a modern, philosophicalinterpretation of the Don Juan story, which means that Don Juan is reincarnated as a Shavianhero in England at the turn of the century. The closest resemblance between Shaw’s hero andthe libertine celebrated in music and literature lies in their names. John Tanner, Don JuanTenorio. Any other similarity is purely coincidental for Shaw transformed literature’s mostnotorious libertine into a man of moral passion a Nietischean superman who lives a life ofpure reason in defiance of the traditions of organized society. The philosophical meaning ofthe play arises from the fact that Tanner, representing the good man, is unsuccessful indefending his chastity. Pitted against a scheming female who embodies the sexual, maternaldrive, Tanner is forced to surrender his control of sexual instinct. He capitulates and marries.In effect, he commits moral suicide by succumbing to conventionally.

The conclusion of the play is then a gloomy one for Shaw. By marrying Ann,Tanner admits that woman, bolstered by the “Life Force”, is bound to triumph, that man, eventhe superman, is bound to abandon the pursuit of his own goal to serve woman in her goal ofperpetuating the race.

The Megatherium and Ichthyosaurus which are extinct are examples of thefailures of the Force in its attempt to reach perfection however there is general progress inthe process of evolution. The species on the whole are undergoing change slowly but steadilyat every step reaching a higher and higher stage of development. Men are superior to othercreatures because they have superior brains and better self consciousness. The supermanof the future is to be more brainy and more self-consciousness than men of the present. Toreach that stage men have to give up base concepts like that of the romantics, superstitionslike that of religion as it is practised and live a life of contemplation.



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Q. 3. B) How important is Miss Bates? Discuss with reference to Emma.

Ans.: Miss Bates is a minor character but has a significant role to play in the novel.The comic element is provided by Jane Austen in the character of Miss Bates. But theseemingly incoherent and trivial talk Miss Bates is used as a vehicle to create realism andbring Highbury alive to the reader. It is she who conveys the scene and relates what everybodyis doing and one monologue of Miss Bates conveys more than pages of narrative, eitherrevealing character or throwing light on some hidden aspect of the story.

Jane Austen uses Miss Bates garrulity to reveal character as well as to throwlight on the happenings in Highbury. Miss Bates is thus important in providing a sense ofrealism to Highbury. We learn of other people’s character through their reaction to Miss BatesMr. Knightly is unfailingly kind, Emma is irritated and bored by her foolish talks and is rude butlater apologetic, Mrs. Weston and Mr. Woodhouse both praise Miss Bates for her happy andcontented nature and Jane Fairfax never complains about her.

Due to her garrulity Miss Bates may seem “so silly, so satisfied, so smiling, soprosing, so undistinguishing and so unfastidious and so apt to tell everything relative toeverybody” yet she is so genuinely full of goodwill and praise for everyone, so totally lacking inguide or cruelty, so cheerful in her poverty and grateful to her good neighbours and friendsthat it is impossible to dislike hr. Even Emma seems to admit this whe4n she says, “Povertycertainly has not contracted her mind I really believed that if she had only a shilling in theworld, she would be very likely to give away six pence of it”. The reader has to agree with Mr.Weston that Miss Bates is a “standing lesson on how to be happy”. Miss Bates then, isridiculous only on the outside, in reality she is depicted by Jane Auston with great understandingand sympathy.

Q.3. f) Comment on the opening of Heart of Darkness.

Ans.: The theme of the novella revolves round Marlow and Mr. Kurtz. It is Marlow whonarrates the story of its African journey and his subsequent meeting of Kurtz there. We meetMarlow at the very beginning of the novella as a narration but Kurtz appears only towards theend. Both Marlow and Kurtz are indispensible for the theme of the novel. The novel reflectsthe conditions that existed in the Congo in the closing years of the nineteenth century when itcolonized by the while Europeans. He also depicts the clash of two cultures the Europeansand the black natives. There is another narrator who in the beginning narrates the life ofMarlow and his past experiences.

The novel opens with the first narrator informing the reader that they were fivemen on board “Nellie” the sailing boat. It stood at the estuary of the river Thames. It waswaiting for the turn of the tide to sail down the river. The atmosphere was gloomy, calmnessenveloped the boat. There on board were the Director of company, the lawyer, the accountant,Marlow and the narrator himself.


The inmates of the sailing vessel were sitting in a meditative mood. Marlow satcross-legged, the palms of hands outward in the posture of a saint. He had sunken cheeks,yellow complexion, and a straight pack. They hardly al conversed with each other; they satand stared at the river. A reverential attitude towards the ancientness of the river was wraithlarge on their faces. A kind of nostalgia of the past enveloped their minds. They thought aboutthe great sailors and sea men who were explorers and adventures errant knights of the medievaltimes that had sailed across this river.

Q. 3. E) What are the implications of the title Middlemarch?

Ans.: The novelist has called the novel Middlemarch and also given it a subtitle, astudy of Provincial Life. The title is an appropriate one, for the novel gives us a realistic vividand comprehensive picture of provincial life of England as it was in the years immediatelypreceding the Reform Act, 1832. The picture is so vivid and comprehensive, that it has beensaid that if there is any hero in the novel it is society of Middlemarch. The novelist has drawnheavily on her memories of early girlhood and these accounts for the truthfulness and vividnessof her portrait of provincial life. In the 1830’s provincial life was the same in every part ofEngland for the railways had not yet destroyed rural isolation and seclusion. This makesGeorge Eliot’s study of provincial life a microcosm of the provincial life of England.

The action of the novel takes place in Middlemarch or the neighbouring parishesof Tipton, Lowick or Freshitt. The local of Middlemarch has been left vague and indistinct,though it is generally identified with the town of Coventry in the Midlands. These are so becauseit is a novel about people and not about place or ideas. The setting is at once ample andplain. It is a world of family circles and fragile reputations and no scene is more skilfully managedthan poor Mrs. Bulstrode’s round of visit to her friends the pitiless self-protection of society ishere relentlessly exposed.

Q. 3. A) Comment on the role of any one minor character in Tom Jones.

Ans.: Lady Bellaston: -

In Lady Bellaston, Fielding has painted the picture of a dissolute societywoman she is a window, or perhaps a divorcee, no longer young but squire wealthy. Even inthe autumn of her life, she was all the gaiety of youth, both in her dress and manner. Butunfortunately for Tom, she is insufferable on account of being cursed with foul breath.

Lady Bellaston is a sex maniac. She uses her wealth to seduce and keep aseries of young men. It is with her that Sophia takes shelter in London but she uses Sophiaalmost as bait to attract Tom and cast on him her own amorous vales for the gratification ofher sexual desires. She also exploits Tom’s poverty.

Lady Bellaston is an unscrupulous intriguer. When she discovers that Sophiastands in her way with Tom she feels no compunction at persuading Lord Fellamar to attempt


a rape on her, and when she finds that Tom is no longer amenable to her licentious approaches.She plans his ruin and suggests to Lord Fellamar the idea at Tom’s impressments. Fortunatelyshe does not succeed in either attempt.

Q. 2. A) Critically comment on the role of Harriet and Jane Fairfax Emma.

Ans.: In all of Jane Austen’s novels we come across women, not in relation to menbut in a more intimate relationship amongst members of their own sex. Wherever women areshown talking to each other the novelist provides a wealth of intimate details which make thescenes come fully alive.

Harriet Smith: Jane Austen’s portrayal of Harriet Smith as a simple, pretty andsomewhat stupid woman serves to highlight Emma’s supernal intelligence and also her highhandedness in taking control of Harriet’s life. The circumstances of Harriet’s life her illegitimacyand her back of any real accomplishments leave her no option but to be happy in the verysensible and appropriate match with Mr. Robert Martin. But sweet, docile and timid Harrietconsiders it a great favour to be patronised by Emma and in her anxiety to please Emma,she sets aside her own inclination and refuses Robert Martin’s proposal at Emma’s behest.Jane Austen portrays Harriet Smith sympathetically and even Emma praises Harriet Smith’s“true tenderness of heart” which prevents her from blaming Emma for any of her owndisappointments. Harriet Smith is a realistic portrayal of the simple, docile and somewhatstupid woman of poor circumstances and yet she functions as a foil too. It is through her thatmuch of Emma’s cleverness, capacity to delude her, high handedness and snobbery arerevealed.

Jane Fairfax: Jane Austen portrays Jane Fairfax as the intellectual type ofwoman who because of her poverty and circumstance has limited choices. Jane isaccomplished in music and is very elegant and beautiful, but an orphan with not much wealthor means, she is condemned to the life of a governess, the only other option being marriageto Frank Churchill. Jane Fairfax stands throughout the novel, as a kind of counterpoint toEmma. She is as beautiful, as elegant as and even more accomplished than Emma herself.Definitely Jane Austen as also the reader would agree that marriage to Frank Churchill wouldbe a better option than the life of a governess. Jane Austen is often faulted in hercharacterization of Jane Fairfax for despite all her accomplishments, her cold reserve makeher seem colourless, when compared to the vivacity of Emma. But Jane Fairfax is importantin highlighting Emma’s character. Emma as well as the reader can sympathize with JaneFairfax’s fortitude in bearing up to all the gossip, insinuations and humiliating circumstanceswhich had resulted from Frank Churchill’s selfish desire to keep the engagement a secret.Emma is contrite and makes amends and bears no ill-will even when Jane Fairfax rebuffsher. Jane Fairfax may seem cold and passive but that is because the author does not give aninside view of Jane as she does of Emma the central figure.


Jane Austen was no social reformer, yet her novels constitute essentially astudy in woman’s psychology. All her novels portray a wide range of female characters andthe point of view presented is usually through the heroine’s reaction to her environment.

Q. 1. B) Is heart of Darkness an autobiographical novel? Give reasons for your answer.

Ans.: Heart of Darkness is the record of Conrad’s own experiences that he receivedwhile visiting Congo in 1890. “Heart of Darkness”, as said by Conrad, “is experience, too butit is experience pushed a little beyond the actual facts of the case for the perfectly legitimate,I believe, purpose of bringing it home to the mind and bosoms of the readers,” He was of thebelief that in the elaborate sense every novel contains an element of autobiography and thiscan badly be denied, since the creator can only express himself in his creation. Further, hesaid, “The nature of the knowledge, suggestions on hints used in my imaginative work, hasdepended directly on the conditions of my active life.” This novel had its origin in personalexperience. It is the transmutation of the personal and autobiographical into a great work ofart.

Conrad went to the dark continent and commanded a river steamer in 1890.During this journey he succeeded to satiate that wish which he expressed in this childhood byputting his finger on a map of central Africa and said that one day he would go there. As achild, Conrad had noted the black spot in the centre of a map of Africa, with a snake-like riverforming the entrance to this heart of darkness. In the novel the protagonist Charles Marlowalso has expressed to his friends on the deck of a steamboat about his great attraction forCongo River.

Now when I was a little chap I had passion for maps. I would look for hours atSouth America, or Africa, or Australia and loose myself in all the glories ofexploration.................... But there was one yet – the biggest, the most black, so to speak –that I had a hankering after.”

Conrad has mirrored himself in the character Charles Marlow who was narratingthe story of his journey to the dark continent of Africa. In 1890, Conrad was a born seamanand had intense yearning for exploration. As Marlow was considered a mad man by thecompany’s doctor who asked him; “Ever any madness in your family?” Like him Conrad too,must have been considered mad when he sailed in 1890 on his voyage into the heart ofdarkness.

From the very beginning of the novel Marlow is presented as sceptical that isvisible in his being full of hesitation and doubt at the enterprise. Conrad was full of romance,adventure, thrill, idealism when he started his journey whereas Marlow of the “Heart ofDarkness” was injected with doubt and suspicion. For Conrad the journey took its start withbright expectations but Marlow felt that he was going to the centre of earth itself.

Mr. Kurtz is the transformation of this agent Klein. Marlow took care of the healthof Mr. Kurtz who met his tragic death towards the end of the novel. In spite of the fact that Klein


got transformed in the character of Kurtz but we cannot say boldly that Kurtz and Klein are justthe same because Marlow’s description of Kurtz’s character does not match to anything thatConrad had witnessed. We can regard Klein as an idea for the portrayal of Kurtz in the novel.Conrad nowhere found this person Mr. Klein as incarnation of evil during his journey to Congo,as Marlow, while portraying the character of Kurtz, narrated his devilish activities. Conrad, inhis diary, was not that impressed by Klein as Marlow was in the novel. Overall estimationsays that Heart of Darkness consists of autobiographical elements.

Q. 2. E) Bring out the implications of ‘darkness’ in the novel Heart of Darkness.

Ans.: Heart of Darkness is an excellent synthesis of various themes. A number ofthemes are so masterly intermixed rather they are dissolved into the novel that any attempt toseparate them out seems a sin and spoils the charm of the novel. Conrad has interwovenvarious themes in such a manner that a unified design and artistic unity emerges out of it.Thus, this novel is a compact masterpiece. Themes that are used in the novel are: theme ofevil theme of imperialism, theme of lack of self-restraint, theme of isolation, theme of theexploration of darkness, theme of reality and appearance.

On the surface level Heart of Darkness is the story of a journey to the darkregion of Congo but it is symbolical of the journey into the sub conscious of human mind also.Marlow, everywhere, has explored himself from within as well as revealed the inner soul ofcharacters also. There are several incidents and descriptions given by Marlow that are like aprobe into the unexplored region of the sub-conscious mind. He frankly states about his ideaof work ethic, detest for lie, value of inner-strength, hunger and self-restraint and his ownfeelings about various characters like Accountant, Manager, Brick-maker, the Russian andMr. Kurtz.

He says that he hates lies because he find a taint of death in it, he boldly admitsthat though he does not like to work but it is work that enables a man to understand his owncapabilities. He has called brick maker “papier- Mache Mephistopheles, Manager as nothingwithin this many. Mr. Kurtz “hollow at core” etc. Thus at several points he pen – iterates deepinto the dark region of mind and portrays it vividly and effectively. Therefore in spite of beinga story of a journey into the Congo region, this novel is a journey into the subconscious of thehuman mind also.

From the very outset of the novel Marlow feels a distinction between reality andappearance. The truth is something different hidden behind the curtain of appearance. Firstwhen he comes across this aunt who helped him a lot getting the job of skipper in a steamboat appears as co-operative, simple and innocent but Marlow, later on, says that she was ahypocrite, posing something that was not natural to her. When he sees the useless blasting ofrock, target less firing of gun, he gets the clear picture of futile efforts made by white-personsto civilized the Congo men and ameliorate their conditions of life.


Thus we have seen that so many themes are blended in to a single novel Heartof Darkness. This novel has multarious themes but all are so skilfully interwoven that theyproduce an artistic beauty, unified pattern or design, and overall cast spell-bound effect overthe reader’s mind.

Q. 1. A) Emma presents the conflict between women’s independence and dependency.Discuss.

Ans.: The last decade of the eighteenth century had seen the rise of Feminism inEngland, if not as a wide spread social movement, at least as a generally accepted ideal.Jane Austen was no social reformer, yet her novels constitute essentially a study in woman’spsychology. All her novels portray a wide range of female character and the point of viewpresented is usually through the heroine’s reaction to her environment. Thus, it is that thedisabilities of women, their subordination to men, their lack of education, their economicdependence and the resultant frustration, their preoccupation with marriage and husbandhunting become manifest in her novels. Frequently the men in her novels are seen through theeyes of her women characters. The good sense and mature judgement of Mr. Knightleybecomes racemes recognizable, only through appreciative understanding of Emma. In brief,she portrays all her heroes only as the kind of men liked or disapproved by women of sensitivityand taste.

The whole subject matter of Emma revalue’s around the discussing Emma,who is both. The theme is the heroine’s painful discovery of the truth about herself, the gradualstripping of herself of illusion, her progress as it were from conceit snobbery and high-handedness to humility and self knowledge. The obstacles between the heroines’s amissand their fulfilment are not the contrivances of a villain but the outgrowth of her nature and hersurroundings.

True to her small world of two squares of ivory, she depicts her character exactlyas she must have found them in actual life. They may have one dominant trait pride, snobberyor prejudice or garrulity but it does not mean that they are flat characters. The gift of keenobservation helps Jane Austen in realising the characters in their complete psychologicalcomplexity so that we have three dimensional or round characters who are living and life-like.The complexities of thoughts and motives can be studied in the wide range of female charactersthat Jane Austen presents in Emma.

Emma has a wide range of women characters. From the intelligent but deludedEmma to the simple, garrulous, foolish but kind hearted Miss Bates, Jane Austen covers awide spectrum. Harriet Smith, Jane Fairfax, Mrs. Elton, Isabella, Mrs. Goddard, Mrs. Bates,Miss Weston, Isabella all act foils in some way highlighting the character of the central figureEmma, either though comparison or contrast. Nevertheless each of them is sympatheticallyportrayed and each has a separate existence an identity of her own.


Jane Austen was too genuine a creative artist to get involved in the contemporarysocial or political problems, but the disabilities that women of her times suffered from movedher very intensely and although her characters are more of them reformists there is an underlyingdisapproval of the circumstances which forced women to seek marriage. It is evident in andHarriet Smith. The convincing portrayal of the wide range of women characters in Emmatestifies to Jane Austen’s skill in characterisation and her deep insight into femininepsychology.

2. (e)Q. “Great Expectations” as a memory novel is a memory novel’

Ans.: Great Expectations can be considered a memory novel. Whereas the socialspecial boundaries of the story have been kept confined within narrow limits, Dickens exploresPip’s memories in depth. He even plumbs the half-recollected depths of memory and bringsthem up to the surface of consciousness. He then releases the full flood of detailedinterconnected events that lay bare the springs of conduct and choice. To put it in the words ofR.George Thomas. “The entire novel is constructed like a series of radiating spokes whichmove away from a single remembered experience and which are held in place and perceptiveby the fully rounded circumferential knowledge of the mature Pip.”

The novel being the narrative of a single individual the limitation is obviousbecause the incidents must come into the preview of direct personal knowledge andexperience of the narrator only gradually. Hence certain facts are revealed as great surprises.Along with pip he also must have been thinking that the rich patron who wanted Pip to beeducated into a gentleman can only be Miss Havisham. The great discovery of Pip that it is tothe convict Magwitch that he owes all his wealth surprises the reads no less than Pip himself.Again Este.. was considered by Pip for a long time to be a k..... of princes hailing from anoble family. But the reverse fact was that she was the daughter of his convict patron andMolly the woman of criminal tendency who did the housekeeping of the lawyer Jaggers. Thusthe mode of the novel helped in the gradual but very surprising revelation of undreamt of facts.

Three emergent stages in Pip’s recollection help the reader to share Pip’sever-deepening probe into the suppressed layers of recollection. “The simplicity of the relationof childhood memories in stage one is reflected in a general directness of style. The textureof stage three is much more complex, for as the action speeds up, it is accompanied bysubstantial revelations about the pre-history of Magwitch, Compeyson, Miss Harisham andEstella, which are reflected in more frequent echoes of images and scenes from the twoearlier stages Graham Greene believes that this novel was written in “delicate and exactpoetic cadences, the music of memory that so influenced Proust.”

It is natural for persons hailing from ordinary or lower strata of society to beoverwhelmed by an inferiority complex. The same was the case with Pip with a lot of sufferingin the wake of that obnoxious emotion. The contemptuous treatment at the hands of Estellacan be called the root cause for the external manifestation of this deep-seated emotion. He


feel humiliated, hurt, spurned and offended. He started with stifled anger and agony. Pip saysthat in a secluded spot he cries, kicks the wall and plucks his hair.

On the whole Pip has to his credit many positive virtues endearing him to manypeople. His weakness and frailties pale into insignificance by the side of his virtues. There isno wonder of after reading the entire novel we begin to love and admit for his sagacity,intelligence, presence of mind, amiability and other good qualities. The humorous way inwhich he describes the mannerisms of persons like a Wemmick, Jaggers etc cannot beconstrued as something opposed to the deference they deserve for what they do to Pip. Hissnobbishness and extravagance in spending money are all passing foibles worthy of beingcondoned.

Even as a child Pip had a high sense of morality. He experienced the prick ofconscience whenever he committed something he thought to be morally wrong. The fact thathe had a few lapses and faults does not prevent Pip from recovery and adequate improvementand reformation. He becomes a better person in the end than he had been at the beginning.The snob’s progress was towards regeneration and hence the sympathy of the reader isretained. The fact that he neglected Joe and became indifferent to Biddy does not make usblind to his real virtue - that was his achievement. Pip gets a wider knowledge of the vastsociety though the great expectations ceased to be great as far as he was concerned. Hebecomes better and polished in his speech and manners. He cultivated the friendship ofpersons of diverse character like Herbert, Jaggers and Wemmick. The novel is really a memorynovel of music of memory.

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Q.1. Critically analyse Aristotle’s definition of Tragedy.

Ans.: The Poetics is chiefly concerned with Tragedy which is regarded as the highestpoetic form. In it the theory of tragedy is worked out so admirably with such insight andcomprehension, that ‘it becomes the type of the theory of literature.’ Aristotle in his poeticsstudies the tragedy in detail giving its definition and analysing it various constituents andelements.

Aristotle defines tragedy as “the imitation of an action, serious, complete andof a certain magnitude, in a language beautiful in different parts with different kinds ofembellishments, through action and not narration and through scenes of pity and fear bringingabout the ‘Catharsis’ of these or such like emotions.”

Having examined the definition nature and function of tragedy, Aristotle comesto a consideration of its formative or constituent parts. He enumerates its formative elementsas plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and song.

Plot: - Aristotle declares plat to be of supreme importance, the soul of Tragedy,more important than the mere revelation of personal qualities, or the intellectual processes ofthe dramatic characters concerned Aristotle considers plot “the first principle the soul ofTragedy”.”The most important of these parts in the arrangement of incidents; for Tragedy isnot an imitation of man, but of human action and life and happiness and misery. “Thearrangement of incidents is the plot.

Characterization: - As regards characterisation in general, Aristotle lays theydown four essential qualities. First the characters must be good, secondly they must beappropriate. Thirdly they must have life-likeness. Fourthly they must have consistency. Thecharacters must be life-like, must be true to their type, i.e. their profession, rank or class; theymust be true representatives of human nature they must be like the traditional or historicalpersonage on whom they are modelled and whose name they bear.

Diction: - Aristotle has a lot to say on the poetic action. He states the essentialdifference between the language of verse and ordinary prose speech. He specifies the wordsin common everyday use. Foreign words, dialect words and words newly coined, metaphoricalwords and archaic words. Aristotle treats diction as an active concept and relates it closely tothe poet’s command of the metres.

Thought: - Thought is the power of saying whatever can be said for what isappropriate to the occasion. “Thought is required where a statement is made or somestatement is proved or disproved. Thought is the intellectual element in a Tragedy and it isexpressed through the speech of a character.

Spectacle: - The spectacle or the scenic effect has more to do with stagecraftthan with the writing of poetry and hence Aristotle is of the view that the dramatist must dependfor his effects on his own powers rather than on spectacle. According to Aristotle there can be


no worse enemy of the art of the dramatist than the theatre manager and reliance on thetheatrical and the sensational has spoiled many an excellent play.

Song or Melody: - Song or the lyrical element is to be found in the choric partsof a tragedy it is the choric parts of a Tragedy, it is the embellishment which distinguishes thetragedy from the Epic. It is this element that makes Tragedy pleasant.

Aristotle’s views may be challenged but their history is the history of Tragedy.But major defect of his theory of Tragedy is that his conclusions are based entirely on thedrama with which he was familiar and hence often his views are not of universal application.

Q. 2. What does Mathew Arnold mean when he says ‘Poetry is a criticism of life’?

Ans.: Arnold’s views about poetry are elaborately stated in his “study of poetry”, whichfirst appeared as an introduction to A.C. Ward’s selections from English poets. Arnold has ahigh conception of poetry. He is confident that poetry has immense future. “It is in poetrywhere it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on will find an ever sure andsurer stay.” It is capable of higher uses interpreting life for us, consoling us and sustaining us,that is, it will replace what we understand by religion and philosophy dependent on reasoning’s,which are but false shows of knowledge. Poetry with such a high destiny must be of thehighest standard.

It is in poetry which is a criticism of life that the spirit of our race will find its lastsource of consolation and stay. Arnold himself explains “criticism of life” as the noble andprofound application of ideas to life and laws of poetic beauty as truth and seriousness tosubstance and matter and felicity and perfection of diction and manner.

Arnold believes that poetry does not present life as it is rather the poet addssomething to it from his own noble nature and this something contributes to his criticism oflife. Poetry makes men moral better and nobler but is does so not through direct teaching orby appealing to reason, like science, but by appealing to reason, like science, but by appealingto the soul of man. The poet gives in his poetry what he really and seriously believes in, hespeaks from the depth of his soul and speaks it so beautifully, that he creates a thing ofbeauty and so a perennial source of joy. Such high poetry makes life richer and has the powerof “sustaining and delighting us, as nothing else can.” It answers the question, “How to live,”but it does so indirectly by conforming to the ideals of truth and goodness and thus by upliftingand enabling the soul. Arnold is against direct moral teaching; he regards didactic poetry asthe lowest kind of poetry.

Poetry plays an eminent role in life. It is more important than religion. Poetry is“a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for that criticism by the laws of poetic truth andpoetic beauty.” Poetry, therefore, should be a real classic. Poetry of Homer, Dante,Shakespeare, Milton and the like is a serious criticism of life and therefore good poetry.Excellence of poetry lies both in its matter or substance and in its manner of style. But matterand style must have the accent of “high beauty, worth and power”. If the matter of a poet has


truth and high seriousness, the manner and diction would also acquire the account ofsuperiority. The two are vitally connected together.

Arnold was actually against romantic poetry in which the poets were expressingpersonal sentiments and emotions without caring for the general human nature. The poetswere typing to build an imaginative atmosphere of their own, which though fascinating was ofno use in affecting that self-realization which was the aim of Wordsworth. The greatest poetsand philosophers of all ages have believed that the ethical view of life is the essential view oflife and Arnold also believed the same. It had become all the more important in his own agewhen materialism had dominated the life of the people and when religious values were crusheddue to the development of science.

Arnold knew the malady of his age very well and protested vigorously againstit. He wanted to renew the permanent ethical values of life and to reconstruct art on its truebasis. He also believed that art, thus realised, would help men in achieving ethical values.Therefore he insisted on the union of the best subjects and the highest expression in poetry.Only poetry of this sort can achieve its ultimate end.

Q. 5 How does Dryden make a relative estimate of the English dramatists over theFrench in “An Essay on Dramatic Poesy?”

Ans.: In the second part of the ‘Essay of Dramatic Poesy’, Dryden discusses therelative merits of the French and the English drama. The pre-occupation of the French playswith a single theme does not give them any advantage in the expression of passion. Thereverses are cold and the long speeches in their plays are tiresome. During the performance ofFrench play, “We are concerned for our troubles, instead of being concerned for their imaginaryheroes.”

Long speeches may suit the genius of the French, they do not suit English whoare a more sullen people and come to the stage for refreshment. Shot speeches and repliesare more likely to move the passions and repartee are the chief graces of comedy. In thechase of wit the English have reached perfection, and are superior to the French.

The more characters in a play the greater will be the variety. The Englishdramatists follow this rule. As regards the performance to violent scenes and battles, theEnglish are fierce by nature and prefer action on the stage. As regards incredibility, if theaudience can imagine an actor to be a king, they can also imagine three soldiers to be anyarmy. It the English are balanced for showing too much of the action, the French can beblamed for showing too little of it.

He points out that the French dramatists too strict an observance of the ruleswas itself fatal to many artistic effects. By their servile observations of the unities of time andplace and integrity of scenes they have brought on themselves than death of plot andnarrowness of imagination which may be observed in all their plays. The French dramatist


Cornalle himself admitted that the unities have a cramming effect violation of unities by theEnglish dramatists had added to greater variety of plots.

As for rhyme the English used it as well as blank verse before it was adoptedby the French. Neander boldly affirms, to prove the superiority of English plays over the French,that many English plays are as regular as French Drama and that they have more variety ofplot and character.

Thus Dryden through Neander asserts that English dramatists have farsurpassed all the ancients and the modern writers of other countries. In the irregular plays ofShakespeare and Fletcher there is greater spirit and more masculine fancy than in any of theFrench.

Q.6 Show how Wordsworth’s definitions of poet and poetry are romantic spirit.

Ans.: Wordsworth had an exalted conception of his own calling. In his ‘Preface’ hecalls poetry “the most philosophical of all writings”, “the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge”,“the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science”, “the image of manand nature”, etc. In one of his letters he writes, “Every great poet is a teacher, I wish either tobe considered as a teacher or as nothing.” In one of the celebrated passages of the Excursion,he writes: “the poetry has its value and significance in framing models to improve the schemeof man’s existence and recast the world.”

Wordsworth tells us that the function of poetry is “to produce excitement in co-existence with an overbalance of pleasure.” Poetry does provide momentary pleasure, as isprovided by the use of metre and such other external aids which temper and soften even thepainful emotions. But such pleasure is not the real aim of poetry. Poetry aims at a pleasurewhich is much higher, the pleasure which results from the realisation of truth.

The poet is a man gifted with more lively sensibility, enthusiasm and tenderness.His reactions or responses to external nature must be more powerful than those of ordinaryhuman beings because he is endowed with an active sensitivity and a greater imagination.He is effected by absent things as if they are present. He must be able to recollect andrecreate the past pictures. The poet is in possession of a more comprehensive soul whichenables him to partake of others emotional experiences by identifying himself emotionally,with others. He must possess a zest for life greater than ours. He is a man who has thoughtlong and deep. He possesses sincerity and takes care to revise and reshape his ideas so asto render them fit and easy to grasp. He is a man speaking to men and his aim is to establishcommunion with readers, to achieve which, he must render his language easy, shorn of allpendant.

The poet’s paramount function, according to Wordsworth is to convey general,universal or operative truth. The poetry explains and interprets things more clearly andpleasingly. The poet brightens our understanding of things in the world around us. The poet


arouses in us, noble sentiments such as sympathy, love, mercy, pity thereby refining our crudepassions and ennobling our mind and soul.

Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge. It is as immortal as the heart of men.Wordsworth hoped that his poems would create to extend the dominion of sensibility for thedelight, honour and benefit of human nature. Poetry increases our knowledge of human lifeand human nature and so makes us wiser and also nobler and better.

Q. 7. What are the basic points of difference between Wordsworth and Coleridge onthe theory of poetry?

Ans.: The relation between language and poetry is a complex one and every majorpoet had tried to solve the issue in his own way. But Wordsworth and Coleridge occupy acentral position in the history of English criticism, because between them they brought outseveral crucial issues which still remain unsolved of course theoretically speaking.

Wordsworth in his zeal for establishing a natural mode of poetry stressed theneed for primitive purity of poetic language. He had maintained that the language of rustic lifearising out of repeated experience and regular feelings is a more repeated experience andregular feelings is a more permanent and a far more philosophical language than that whichis frequently substituted for it by poets.

One kind of speech could not be more real than another. But in a given instanceit might be either more or less poetic, in his appreciation of Wordsworth’s own poeticperformance. Coleridge noted that Wordsworth’s suffered the difficulties of a ventriloquist inhis undue liking for the dramatic form. Either a rustic speaker was invested with aWordsworthian authority of utterance or an opposite fault appeared matter of fact,circumstantialities and a downright prosaic.

Coleridge, in addition to criticising Wordsworth tried to give in his own way aphilosophical definition of language. He says: ‘The best part of human language, properly socalled is derived from reflection on the acts of the mind itself’. The language of a poet is aninternal process and has very little to do with external forces. By implication the richness ofMiltonic language presupposes an individuating principle which is more acceptable than theamorphous commonness of the common language of the rustic people.

On the theoretical plane Coleridge definite seems to be taking the upper handbut the Wordsworthian inclination is still a strong energising factor behind many modern writers.The primitive overtone of language has especially gained ground because of modernscholarship. Coleridge on the other hand, by stressing the individuating principle of poeticlanguage reminds us rather of many later theories propounded by persons like Maltarme,Sartre and others. Of course, the peculiarities of some later theories were not directly guidedeither by Wordsworth or Coleridge.


It will require a delicate sense to accept either the view of Wordsworth orColeridge, but it is possibly reasonable to conclude that granted the specific virtues toWordsworth. Coleridge seems to be more consistent and discriminating.

Q.12. What is Dr Jhonson’s view on Milton’s early poems?

Ans.: Milton’s early compositions in verse were in Latin, Italian and English. DrJohnson honestly confess that, because of his unfamiliarity with the language, he cannot speakabout them as a critic, the Latin poems are commended by him as “lusciously elegant” althoughthey are emulative of the writing of ancient writers. From the point of view of style these poemsare distinguished by “the purity of diction and the harmony of the numbers.” Yet, all the poemsdo not have the uniformity of standard. Dr Johnson is in his own characteristic style adverselycritical of Milton’s shorter poems, particularly the lyrics, odes and sonnets. According toJohnson, Milton hardly feels comfortable in writing the lyric poems.

About Milton’s other poem, better known and more popular, ‘Lycidas, DrJohnson’s views are not much favourable. He observes that the diction of the poem is ‘harsh’,its rhymes uncertain and the numbers “unpleasing”. He is particularly critical of the use ofmyth and mythical figures and images in the poem. According to him, the use of myth on aboard scale had obstructed the spontaneous expression of grief on part of the poet. As aresult, the feeling of bereavement in this pastoral elegy sounds artificial, mechanical andstereotypical. In Dr. Johnson’s opinion ‘Lycidas’ is sometimes unjustly praised simply becauseits writer is nobody else than Milton. In this connection Dr Johnson goes against the poeticstrategy of mingling the Christian with the pagan, the ecclesiastical with the pastoral.

Perhaps because of his neo-classical background he never liked the romanticaura, associated with the poem and the violation of the principle of propriety andappropriateness so typically ingrained in the neo-classical perception of literature.

Q. 14, Discuss the New Historicist assumptions of interrelationship between historyand the text.

Ans.: New Historicist scholars begin their analysis of literary texts by attempting tolook at what other texts both literary and non-literary a public could access at the time ofwriting and what the author of the ‘original’ text might have read. They also, however, attemptto relate texts to the political and socio-economic circumstances in which they originated.For example, a well-known New Historicist reading examines the travellers’ tales andgeographical works available to William Shakespeare about the discovery of the ‘New World’and relates them to his play ‘The Tempest’. Therefore, this reading argues, we should interpretShakespeare’s play less as a ‘timeless’ literary creation and more as a product of the contextin which it appeared and should see it as contributing to contemporary debates aboutcolonialism.


In New Historicist interpretation as a consequence, history is not viewed as thecause or the source of a work. Instead, the relationship between history and the work is seenas dialectic, the literary text is interpreted as both product and producer end and source ofhistory. One undeniable side-benefit of such a view is that history is longer conceived as insome vulgar historical appearance of the work. At the same time, though, it must not bethought that the New Historicism dispenses with the cognitive category of priority. For theNew Historicist it is ideology, not history, which is prior. The literary text is said to be a constituentpart of a culture’s ideology by virtue of passing it on but the ideology nevertheless exists‘intact’ intelligible in a form separate from the work. If it didn’t the critic could not discern arelationship between work and ideology and if the ideology were not prior to the work, itwouldn’t be a historical relationship.

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Q.3. Would you give with the view that Miller is ironic and sympathetic at the sametime? Answer with special reference to Death of a Salesman.

Ans.: Every individual has his roots in the society. So, any story, any drama enteringaround an individual takes into its periphery, somehow, his society, too. Faith, beliefsand ideals, hopes and aspirations of an individual are generally an adumbration of the faiths,beliefs and aspirations of the society at large. Individual either adheres to or revolts againstwhat the society has to offer to him.

Willy is the salesman in Death of a Salesman. Willy is one of those heroes whowant to adhere themselves completely to the values of their society. He is a salesman mainlybecause of this. Willy Loman fanatically pursues the American dream of success which isexactly what contemporary American society strives for. Will’s fall results from a dichotomyinherent in his nature and in his desires. Instinctively, Willy loves nature and cherishes humanvalues of love, friendship, sympathy and sincerity. But the dream he has dedicated himself, todemands complete stripping off these values-may, it in fact demands putting on negativevalues.

What is negative from the human point of view is ironically that which guaranteesthe positivity of ‘successes’. So we see that the fall was imminent. Negative values put on bya wrong person can lead one to nowhere. Double negatives can never make a positive. Onecan live amidst contradictions, but one who has based his life on the sand of contradictions isbound to collapse any moment. Willy is perhaps the best-known and the most typical of moderneveryman. Willy Loman is the epitome of the element of corrosion that is taking root in themodern society. Based on falsehood, exaggeration and propaganda, this society is selfdestructive, hollowing not only the businessman lines but also boring through the privatedomains of personal relationship. When the infrastructure of personal relationship is not takencare of the superstructure of the individual does not take long to crumble.

Willy is child-like in the credulity with which he believes everything of this society.This also reflects his inherent purity of though, simple at heart, he thinks the world to be soand takes it word at its face value. This society has fed him with hopes and promises, neverto be fulfilled. He is so much a part of this society that almost unconsciously he is stuffingLinda, Biff, Happy and even himself with promises never to be fulfilled; these are meredelusions. Primarily, to Willy, his family is utmost but the basis of his upbringing of his sons isthat they should employ their attractive personalities and be a success in the profession ofsalesmanship. He wants them to achieve the finale of what he had begun or at least wanted.He wants them to be equipped to face this competitive society.

As befits a proper salesman, Willy cannot and does not think in any terms otherthan those of selling. He has lived amidst these terms and earns his livelihood from them.Even in his death, he sells himself, yet Willy’s goat, his happiness lies in giving and receivinguniversal adoration and love and not accumulation of material wealth, as should have beenthe case, Willy the salesman and Willy Loman’s failure is largely due to the society, his family


and also because of his mould-the type of man he is. Of course society and individual areboth responsible for each other, what one makes of the other and what the other derives fromit.

In fact, Miller makes a bi-pronged attack, with his play as a work of art. Millerlashes out at society, which tends to annihilate the individual or the man who cannot come toterms with it and is a threat to this society. The subtle duality is beyond the grasp of theseminds that have accepted simple-mindedness as the norm.

Q. 4. Attempt a critical appreciation of the poem ‘Because I could Not Stop for Death’.

Ans.: Writing own obituary in ‘Because I could Not Stop for Death’ Dickison subvertsconventional temporal Vertis and problematizes attitudes to death and dying. She is unableto imagine the end of the journey because she is unable to imagine the end of death, nothaving encountered the experience herself. Another view is that she speaker is always awareof death, which lurks in her memory but which cannot guarantee her passage to eternity sincethe death is not her own.

The deceptively conversational tone of the opening is almost Metaphysical inits capacity to shock the reader with its dramatic content. The logical and explicatory natureof the conjunction “because” that launches the reflective movement of the poem along withthe adverb “kindly” assigned to death, serves to enforce a ritual of civility that one does notassociate with a mortal intervention. There is almost a sense of cosiness within the carriage,if one overlooks the allegorical aspects of the speaker’s companions Death and Immortality.

The speaker narrates her experience of a journey, an early evening ride duringwhich Death boarded her carriage. Chaperoned by the comforting presence of Immortality,she rode on through familiar countryside, past the school and fields of grain till they “passedthe setting Sun”. The idea of a frontier crossing is introduced only to be contra diced by theobservation:”He passed us”. The desertion by the sun brought forth a coldness for which thespeaker was not prepared in terms of attire. The paused before a House that turned out to bea grave “a House that seemed / A Swelling of the Ground Complexities, both thematic andtemporal surface at the end of the poem with the speaker’s posthumous apprehension oftime, space and direction, and the mention of Horses Heads that the speaker had originallythought to have been facing toward eternity.

The introduction of realistic doubt in the last two lines of the poem, “I first surmisedthe Horses Heads / was toward Eternity” bonds elements of surprise and piquancy, and addto the discourse of perception that runs through the poem. A circular thrust to the imagery isprovided by the mention of the carriage, which returns one to the beginning of the poem, andestablishes the horse-drawn vehicle as an image of significance. Distance, direction, andangles of vision in a practical sense, but actually generating doubt about the direction theyface, thus complicating the poetic discourse with competing meanings and perspectives.


A unique feature of Dickinson’s individuality is that she does not give her poemstitles, possibly fearing that the latter would limit interpretation by imposing a measure ofauthorial jurisdiction. The brevity of Dickinson’s poetry is compensated by the semantic andsymbolic intensification of meaning wrought through her use of words and figures. The carriagedoubts up for a hearse, while the gossamer gown and tulle tippet suggest bridal attire and itsstark inappropriateness in the funereal context.

Dickison favours the hymn slanza, yet she often undercuts its formal norms withher unorthodox punctuation and syntactical disruptions. The colloquial tone employed at thebeginning beliefs the seriousness of theme and sets up a contrast that is sustained in variousways throughout the poem. The rise and fall of the iambic rhythm seems to echo the sound ofthe carriage wheels as they move over the countryside.

Q. 5. Asses the contributions of William Bradford ad John Winthrop as historicalwriters of the New Enlightenment.

Ans.: The earliest Puritan records were historical and descriptive accounts of thesettlers’ response to the new land. The envisaged apprehension of the same may be seen asbeing curiously interconnected Puritan narratives defined a shape for the writing of America,but they also questioned how and whether language could reveal the extraordinary experience.

William Bradford: -

Bradford of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock, regarded as the father ofAmerican history, provides in his “History of Plymouth” plantation the earliest documentationof this colonial period. Bradford’s History had been left in manuscript and had been used byhis nephew Nathaniel Morton for his book “New England’s Memorial”, after which many writersused it as source – material. It disappeared during the British occupation of Boston and wasgiven up for lost till it surfaced in 1855 in the Fulham Library in London.

Bradford’s History in its minute and detail remains a faithful chronicle at day –to – day life as it was lived in the colony at Plymouth. During the period of the voyage thehistory was recorded almost as soon as it was made but upon the completion of the sameand with the first sow in the Plantation at Plymouth the entire, became frequent and regularand the observations were largely limited to the more significant of the happenings in the lifeof the instant colony. This is to be expected in the light of Bradford’s growing involvement inthe administration of the colony, an exercise that claimed his time and attention to a verylarge extent. That the patriarchs themselves had a nation of this historic affiliation becomesevident from Bradford’s spontaneous identification of the hardships sugared by him and hispeople with those endured by St. Paul.

John Winthrop: -

John Winthrop led the fleet that carried the 600 odd pilgrims across the Atlanticin 1630. One of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop, with characteristic


scrupulousness, went on to record the minute of that migration in him Journal. His narrativeprovides, not only a record of the day – to – day life as it was lived in the colony, but also theworbeings of the Puritan mind in its negotiation of a changed geographical, historical, socialreality on an alien continent. John Winthrop’s journal, which developed into “The History ofNew England”, was twenty years till a few weeks before the author’s death in 1649. Winthropseeks to register in plain and unadorned prose, through a balanced and dispassionate manner,the events, both momentous and mundane that unfolded in the life at the colony atMassachusetts Bay.

Q. 6. Comment on the significance of the little of O’Neill’s play Mourning BecomesElectra.

Ans.: The little of the play manifests the influence of Greek myth and classical Greekdrama on the play and the play Wright. These have structured the story of the trilogy andinfluenced the dominant tone of the play. O’Neill was an admirer of the classical Greek dramaand was greatly influenced by the content and style of these. In the present play we find severalelements including the use of determinism employment of Fate, use of some form of chorusand so on.

The title of O’Neill’s trilogy refers to Electra who, in Greek mythology, was thedaughter of Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, the king of Mycenae, and Clytemnestra. Thecouple’s other children were Iphigenia and orates. Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia in orderto win favourable winds during the Trojan War. After a ten year siege Troy was ravage andAgamemnon returned with Priam’s daughter Cassandra as a prize. However, after their returnhome, they were murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus who then seized power.Orestes helped by Electra, killed his mother and her lover. Electra’s hate for her mother andher relentless desire for revenge is the subject mother of the dramas of Greek dramatists likeEuripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus. O’Neills play is particularly structured on the Oresteiaof Aeschylus.

A reading of the play clearly established a close parallel between the Greekstory and that of O’Neill. O’Neill’s interest is obviously in Lavonia who replicates Electra’srole. She avenges the murder of her father Ezra Mammon who, like his Greek counterpartreturns from a war – American civil War. Ezra is murdered by his wife christen who has, likeher Greek counterpart a lover in Adam Brant.

In the end Lavinia locks herself in the Mannon House that houses memories ofthe past. She survives deaths, murders and suicides. She entombs herself in the house.Mourning, in the end, becomes Lavinia.

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Q. 8. Attempt a thematic analysis of Frost’s poem, “After Apple – Picking”.


Ans.: The situation presented in the poem is the culmination of the harvest, and thepreparation of the apple-picker for the long rest of winter. The speaker, who is physicallyfatigued and emotionally fulfilled after his prolonged labour of picking apples, is able to evokeboth the senses of decline and satisfaction associated with the season of autumn. Thoughweary after his labour and reflective in his repose, the speaker does not abandon theexploratory mode of the earlier poems in the collection, and he moves from meditation to arevelation carrying his readers with him.

‘After Apple-Picking’ is concerned with the mysteries of sleep and dream, deathand spiritual transcendence. Sleep and death in their suggestion of the culmination of a processrepresent an end. The poem explores several understanding of the nation of ‘end’. It presents‘end’ both as a conclusion of things and as a cessation of being. The decline of autumnapprehending the ‘long sleep’ of winter; the end of the day with its accent on the winding up totakes and of course, the gathering in of the harvest, equally enforce the sense of a logical orexpected conclusion to activities, processes and temporal cycles.

The sense of an end along with the notions of decline and death, so persistentlyaddressed in the poem yet admit of another state of being, that is the dimension of dream, atranscendent experience beyond the border of sleep. The additional burden of meaningaccruing from this expansion of frontier complicates a simple pastoral reading of the poemwith subtle shades of meaning.

Being centrally concerned with the polarities of labour and rest, beginningsand ends, the poem derives its thematic balance from the nation of transition. Autumn is aseason of both abundance and emptiness when barns are filled even as the field are shorn ofgrowth. It is associated with culmination even as it ushers in a spell of hibernation. Whilethere is no evidence of actual sleep, the speaker is overwhelmingly at the threshold ofdrowsiness.

Q. 12.Discuss the significance of the name Joy-Hulga in ‘The Good Country People’.

Ans.: Joy-Hulga, ‘a large blonde girl who had an artificial leg-dull to the view, but witha mind of her own. Later she even does a Ph.D. and has a cache of prophetic sayings.

Hulga is an unusual girl, who is an atheist and declares to the shallow youngman quite openly.

We are all damned, but some of us have taken off their blindfolds and see thatthere is nothing to see. It’s a kind of salvation. In an intimate interlude with the young man,Hulga agilely climbs into the high loft, surprising him. “We won’t need the Bible” she tells him.

As he desires to see her artificial leg, he persuades her that it makes her unique.She takes off her leg, her symbol of independence and gives it to him. As he finally discardsher, helpless, in the loft and moves off, Hulga maintains her quiet, “sitting on the straw in thedust.” The only sing of her heartbreak is the reference to her ‘Churning face’.


Life, love, hope all touch her and Hulga stoically counter all Trauma. We wonder,though, how she would descend from the loft, the boy having stolen her artificial leg.Expectations of an exciting new life had made her ascend, but as gloom descends upon thedespairing girl, her being stuck in the left an intermediate region, begins to take on symbolicsignificance.

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Q.13.i)Orin Mannon

Ans.: Orin Mannon is the most interesting character in the play. He is tall, big-bowedman with a wiry frame and characteristic lifelike mask quality about his face. He bears astriking resemblance to his father Ezra Mannon in his physical features, with the same aquilinenose, heavy eyebrows, swarthy complexion thick straight black hair and light hazel eyes. Hismouth and chin have the same general characteristics as his father’s but the expression ofhis mouth gives an impression of tense over sensitiveness, which was quite foreign to hisfather. He speaks jerkily with a strage, vague and preoccupied air. He wears a moustachesimilar to Brant’s which increases their resemblance to each other. Although only twenty, helooks thirty in his baggy, ill-fitting uniform of a first lieutenant of infantry in the Union Army.

Orin is presented as a young man of over-credulous nature who lacks power ofjudgement and decision. He readily believes the vision of Mrs Mannon about the Brant affair,which makes the reader pity him or rather, his innocence. The ghastly scenes of war fromwhere he has just returned, seems to have impaired his reasoning and self control this affectedmanners, ways of talking and go it, all speak of the shock that he has received due to were,where in killing the enemy troops has killed and he very often brings their references backduring the course of his conversation with Lavinia and Mrs Mannon.

His weakness in the matters of taking own decisions is partly due to his head-injury, which had driven him mad for some time. He is a toy, a play thing in the hands of hismother and sister – the two dominant feminine characters who fight in the play to secure theirends.

Orin Mannon is a unique creation of O’Neill’s mastermind, typically singular inhis behaviour and ways. His sufferings and mental conflicts very naturally remind one ofShakespeare’s masterstrokes ‘Hamlet’. Orin stands for Greek orestes.

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PGEG-7

Q. 1. Critically discuss the language and style used by Raja Rao in the novelKanthatpura.

Ans.: One of the most serious difficulties faced by the Indo-Anglian novelist is theproblem of a suitable medium of expression. He must use English in a way that is distinctivelyIndian and still remains English. He must to use bend or break the language he uses, as toconvey through it the feel of Indian life, convey t hrough it the attitudes and responses thatare characteristically Indian. In other words, he must evolve an Indian English, just as there isan American English, a Canadian English and even an Australian English. Raja Rao refer tothis problem in his famous preface to Kanthapura, a preface which is a minor classic in itself.

In Kanthapura, the village women speak of the cat that has, “taken to asceticismonly to commit more sins. Raja Rao’s use of this device is always in character. Such proverbsused by the old-narrator are entirely appropriate to her and do not sound artificial or unnaturalin the context in which they have been used. And Raja Rao never uses them too frequently.However, sometimes he uses expressions which are obviously not English and which havealso no counterpart in Kannada. It is a falsification of language and is a serious fault. Forexample, “He gave her a very warm bed”, “the old man was sitting on the Verandah, his handupon his nose, deep breath of meditation.” But such expressions are much less frequent inhim then in novelists like Bhabani Bhattacharya.

At other times, he uses words from the Indian languages directly in Englishwithout any translation or modification. But he realised that he English language can stand avery small dose of this device and so he uses it very sparingly. He does not use only wordslike kumkum or aarthi more for the sake of clarity than for any special effect, nor does he useexclamations in Kannada.

In Kanthapura by his skilful manners use of language he has succeeded inconveying the distinctive modes of thinking, manners of observation and instinctive responsesof the Kannada people. The flavour of Kannada comes out of the unobtrusive use of Kannadafigures of speech and terms of reference. The following sentences taken at random fromKanthapura illustrate this point.

Postman Subbayya, who had no fire in his stomach, and was red with red andblue with blue.

Raja Rao uses English like a master, as one would use one’s own mothertongue. English syntax and structure are modified and broken to suit his purposes. RajaRao’s use of language is dramatic and truly creative. Raja Rao’s use of Imagery is equallydistinctive and creative. His use of images is functional and not merely decorative. His similesand metaphors are drawn from the common, everyday objects and phenomena, hence theyserve to clarify and elucidate.


V.Y. Kantak is all praises for Raja Rao’s style and points out that his use ofEnglish made us regain our faith in the Indian’s “Creative use of English”. His English seemsto spring from the Indian scene, the Indian manner, gesture and speech absorbs it and yetsuffers no distortion.

Q.2. Analyse the portrayal of the central character in Mulk Raj Anand’s novelUntouchable.

Ans.: Bakha is the portrayal of the central character in Mulk Raj Anand’s novelUntouchable. Bakha is a young man of eighteen, strong and able bodied, the son of Lakha.His father is the Jamadar of all the sweepers in the town and the cantonment and officially incharge of three rows of public latrines. Sohini is his sister. The novel is an epic of sufferingand humiliation. Bakha is not simply an individual outcaste rather he represents the entirecommunity of the outcast treated as untouchables and subjected to live most miserably.

The co absence of paradoxical attributes in his character gives thrust to a dualpersonality. There are two paradoxical aspects of his character. The first aspect reveals thathe surrenders and submits himself to the superiority of the high caste Hindus. He has inheritedsuch traits as a result of thousand years of subjugation. He deems them as invincible power.That is why he behaves like a slave. The second aspect of his character is that he hassmouldering revenge and vengeance. His spirit of revolt urges him to be an open rebel ofcaste-ridden society, hackney rituals, senseless customs and ruthless tyranny. He is strongboth physically and mentally. But an endless and perpetual servility has become an inseparableand indistinguishable part of his personality. His servility, obsequiousness, humility andgratitude, his aggressive attribute of revolt are the main features in his character.

Bakha is born in an outcaste family. He was nurtured in the atmosphere ofslavery. Besides the fact that he belongs to the outcaste, he does not accept his life andprofession as his inevitable destiny. But his father has submitted himself to the inevitabledestiny. Bakha is different from ordinary scavenger because he is intelligent, sensitive andhe has self-respect. He is neat and clean. He has sense of civility but Lakha is uncouth andunclean. Correlate his divine appearance with the author’s portrait of Rakha. They are not atgood terms with each other. Sometimes they start quarrelling and become hostile.

Bakha’s passion for fashion gives a comic colour to his character but he isaware of the fact that exotic clothes cannot transform him into an English gentleman. Althoughhe mimics their style but at the core of his being he is an untouchable an illiterate and illmannered sweeper, he has a desire to educate himself to transform into a better and refinedbeing. But he cannot afford education because he is too poor to go to school. His low birthdoes not allow him to sit side by side with children of the caste Hindus.

In brief Anand has given us one of the immortal characters of literature. Thenovelist has projected profound psychological insight in the portrayal of Bakha. He is awareand conscious of the social discrimination and injustice. He has the elements of revolt and


protest but he has inherited servility and humility as a consequence of thousand years ofracial and caste discrimination. He is a tiger at bay. He has been deprived of fundamentalhuman rights. Bakha is also a human being. He has the same blood in his veins as ethers. Ifwe co-operate with Bakha, he can rise to great heights.

Q.5. Discuss the portrayal of Roise in R. K. Narayan’s novel ‘The Guide’.

Ans.: Rosie is one of those butterfly type of women who frequently appear in thenovels of Narayan. She is the heroine of the novel. She has a charming and fascinatingpersonality. Raju falls in love with her at first sight and says, “She was not very glamorous, ifthat is what you expect but she did have a figure a slight and slender one beautifully fashionedeyes that sparkled a complexion, not white but dusky which made her only half visible as ifyou saw her through a film of tender coconut juice.” Her arrival at Malgudi, with her husbandMarco, plays havoc with the life and career of Raju the popular Railway guide.

Born in family of dancing girls, she knew who her mother was but not her father.She is given a college education and is an M.A. in Economics. She is flattered that a man likeMarco should wish to marry her and is devoted to him in spite of his impotence andpriggishness. But her inherited feeling for dance cannot be suppressed and when she gets achance to perfect the art, she seizes it. Her giving way to Raju is understandable. She mighthave resisted the physical urge if her husband had been the least kind and considerate: buthis inhuman coldness, Raju’s evident admiration and the opportunity so conveniently providedby her husband result in what seems a foregone conclusion. But basically Rosie is a goodgirl. She is amazed that her husband does not throttle her for her infidelity and is deeplygrateful to him for it.

When that husband throws her out and she has no other place to go to, shecomes to Raju. More than the attraction of sex is the desire to perfect her art and realiseherself fully in her god-given gift. She does not take long to achieve eminence. When Rajuwants her to give performances she is not unwilling. But with fame come unceasing demandson her time and energy. She has to fall into a routine and go round and round like a bull yokedto an oil-crusher. Her weariness of it all is like that of any film star. She is being exploited butsticks it out.

When she finds that her husband has produced a masterpiece, she cuts outhis picture from The Illustrated Weekly and puts it on her dressing mirror. She is surprised byRaju’s behaviour in the matter of the book and by the forgery. But she does not walk out onhim. To get him out of the mess into which he has got, she dances day and night and is willingto go round like a parrot in a cage or a performing monkey.

Raju exploits Rosie for his own advantage and narrow, selfish ends. He says, “Ihad monopoly of her and nobody had anything to do with her .............. she was my property.”And a little later ................ “I did not like to see her enjoy other people’s company. I liked tokeep her in a citadel”. Raju takes all the credit for her success and is of the view that she


would not be able to do without him. But he is soon disillusioned. She rises to new heights ofpopularity and stardom without her. He is amazed at her extraordinary vitality. He realises thatneither he nor her husband matters at all to her. The fact is that she lives entirely for her art andthose who enter her life must either become the willing instruments of her passion or sufferrejection. She leave her husband because he takes no interest in her art, but is contemptuousof its. He regards it as ‘monkey tricks’ or ‘street acrobats’. She falls for Raju because heappreciates and admires her art and helps her in her single-minded pursuit of it.

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Q. 6. Discuss Anita Desai’s novel, Clear Light of Day, as a novel in the modernisttradition.

Ans.: Mrinalini Solanki has given us an excellent analysis of this novel. This criticpaints out that Raja, Bim, Tara and Baba in this novel are the victims of an unwholesome,emply, hopeless atmosphere of childhood. They spend their days of childhood in a homewhich smells of disease and decay. The parents are busy with their own affairs, and do notbother themselves about the needs of their children. This kind of unhappy situation createsfear, insecurity, distrust and anxiety as the children grow up.

Furthermore, says our critic, Anita Desai in this novel gives a new dimension tothe part played by time. After the death of their parents, Raja and Tara follow the bent of theirminds and go to their separate destinations, so that Bim is left all alone in the old house tolook after the mentally retarded Baba. Bim feels very sore about the callous attitude of Rajawho has gone to Hyderabad where, in course of time, he gets married to the daughter of aMuslim family who used originally to live in Delhi and who owned the house in which Raja andthe other children had grown up. In spite of these emotional shocks, Bim continues to face lifewith courage and determination. She feels inferior to Raja and Tara who have achieved whatthey wished for she tries to make up for her own failure and frustration in life by looking afterthe helpless Baba. Her spirit of self sacrifice gives her an unconscious feeling of superiorityover the others. Concerned only with the welfare of Baba and with her work as a lecturer inhistory in a women’s college, she begins to feel completely alienated from Tara and Raja,and more particularly from Raja who had once written an insulting and humiliating letter to her.

Eventually, however a visit by Tara and her husband stimulate Bim’s mind torecall the past and in a prolonged mood of introspection and self-analysis, she arrives at theconclusion that her loved for Raja, for Tara and even for Baba had been wanting in someways. She becomes conscious of the flaws and the inadequacies in her love for them. In thisstate of mind she forgives Raja for the offensive letter which he had written to her and sendshim a loving massage through Tara who is going to Hyderabad with her husband and her twodaughters to attend the wedding of Raja’s eldest daughter.

In accordance with her resolve to look after Baba and to do many other thingsin life, Bim has remained unmarried and is now a confirmed spinster. In the final episode Bim


realizes that basically and essentially the bond between her, Raja, Tara and Baba has remainedand will remain, unshaken. Thus lime, the destroyer, is also time the preserver.

All the elements that threaten to disrupt the pattern of life in all its aspects arebrought under control through love, understanding, forgiveness and mutual acceptance. Thetriumph of these values over despair and destruction leaves the reader joyously participatingin the musical recital that concludes the novel.

Q. 8. “Tendulkar’s plays do not entertain, they instruct.” Comment on this statementwith reference to Silence! The Court is in Session.

Ans.: They play is conceived as a game and the idea that is happening on the stageis part-mock and part earnest gives the play its ‘theatrical’ edge. The mock-element pervadesthrough and through. What we are witnessing is a mere enactment of what is rehearsal ofsorts of nothing more than a mock-trial to be staged later in the day. The game sequence liftsthe performance somewhat since it offers so much scope for unconstrained physical movement,for fun.

Even so it is for the most part little more than an inset. But in Shantata the playand its structure revolve wholly round the idea of a game and include the essential ingredientof ‘reversal’. Benares who is on the offensive in the beginning, find herself trapped at theclose of the play. The harmless door-latch, which hurts her finger and draws her blood latershuts the group in and in fact, takes on the dimension of a blockade. The claustrophobicatmosphere inside becomes the kind of setting where social makes are stripped off.

When the members of troupe enter the room we half-anticipate banter andcordiality, as among friends. There is banter, no doubt, but alongside runs a strong streak ofpettiness. Perhaps for them theatre activity has reduced itself to an escape from personalfailures! Benare exposes that Sukhatme, in real life, is a lawyer without a brief, here will beseen exploding to parade his knowledge of the legal process. Sukhatme for his part, rules atKarnik’s so called grops of ‘intimate’ theatre. Supported by Babu Rokde, he has a dig at theunfortunate Donkshe, who has actually failed his Inter Science Exams but professes duringthe trial to be a scientific genius. Donkshe in turn mock at Rokde for his slavish dependenceon the Kashikars. And the group unites to ridicule the absurd gestures of mutual devotionmade by the couple and also their childessness. The whole lot of them tries to crucify Benaresbut at least in the first half of the play, she is able to outsmart them. The name of Prof. Damle,who does not turn up, hovers in the air, giving rise to some inexplicable uneasiness.

The characters in the play are individuals belonging to the middleclass whoare not truthful and generous to one another. They are dejected, discontented, neurotic, sadistic,conspiratorial and even treacherous. It is not out of genuine love that they have turned totheatre activity, but out of the sheer sense of their own failures in real life. To expect them to berefined, truthful and generous is perhaps crying for the moon.


Q. 11. Attempt a post colonial critique of Toru Dutta’s poem The Latus.

Ans.: In her description of the difficult situation Toru rises to the occasion and with thegift of radiant simplicity succeeds in managing occasional unpleasantness with great dexterity.Given the colonial content and British criticism of the position of women in our society, oneneed hardly point out that Sita’s virtue closely matches the strongly convoluted Victorian mythof sexual purity in Women. It is known that the form ‘sonnet’ had come to Toru from the Englishliterary tradition. But the wonderful ensemble in the poem has opened a new vista unknown tothe English language before.

In ’21 The Lotus’ Toru unburden her intimate joys and sorrows in ‘a simple andtransparent style’ that gives a liveliness to the poem all its own. Structurally a patriarchal sonnet,‘The Lotus’ is a sure representation of multiculturalism, an amalgamation of various traditionsand myth. It is a unique poem in which the Hindu faith, the Buddhist faith, the Greek and theRoman mythology all merge into one. It proves her craftsmanship that is so neat and yet socomplex and again so transparent that it could render an exquisite finish to the poem.

Q. 13. Describe Subhas Bose’s concept of progressive evolution.

Ans.: He also believed in the concept of progressive evolution. In his theorisation ofthe concept of progress he adduces three considerations. First, that the observation of naturalphenomena and history would give proof of progress. Secondly, Netaji and said that we havean intuitive apprehension that we are moving ahead. Thirdly, he added an axiologicalconsideration. He said that the faith in progress is a necessity both on biological and moralgrounds.

Netaji feels that the definitive stage and categories of evolutionary progressionwhich were formulated by the Samkhya philosophers in ancient times would not appeal to themodern mind. He mentions the Spenserian theory of evolution of social life from simple tocomplex. He also refers to the nation of the manifestation of blind will as accepted by VonHartman. Netaji’s awareness of the Bergson and theories of creative evolution and intuitionis evident in this writings though he feels that the Hegelian theory of dialectical evolution inmore adequate than any of these. Bose mentions Hegel, Spencer, Hartmann and Bergson intwo paragraphs in the book An Indian Pilgrim. Bose accepts that no theory can be adequateto philosophically describe the totality of reality but he thinks that the Hegelian concept ofdialectical progression both the realm of logical concept and in the earl of patio – temporalmanifestation is more adequate than the Spencer – a theory of evolution or the Bergson anconcept of creative evolution.

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PGEG-8

Q. 1. Is Dido a tragic charectar in Virgil’s Eneid? Give reason for your answer

Ans.: Aeneas’ other major opponent, Dido is a real woman, who as a woman scornedturns into a kind of Maenad of Fury. Her tragedy seems to be partly the result of the fact thatshe is a woman forced to take on a man’s responsibilities as the ruler of her people; manyfeatures link Dido to the even more monstrous woman in the second half of the poem, the‘Amazon’ Camilla, who evokes in equal measure admiration and a fascinated horror, andwho succeeds brilliantly for a while in the masculine world of war, before she disastrouslyreverts from being a warrior to a huntress in her pursuit of the spoils of choleras. Theseimages of dangerous women out of their proper place might well reminded a Roman audienceof the 20 B.C. of that ‘horror, the Egyptian wife’ Cleopatra, who according to Augustanpropaganda had threatened the existence of Rome itself.

The story of Dido, Queen of earth-age in Aeneid Book becomes Virgil’simaginative reworking of legend and history. The end result is a tragic story of passion,treachery and betrayal. The Greek historian Timaeus recounts how Dido’s brother Pygmalionmurdered his sister’s husband Sychaeus and fled to Libya and founded earth age. The Aeneaslegend does not mention his visit to earth age, but Virgil uses this as an opportunity to drawparallels between the destinies of Dido and Aeneas – both are enemies from their respectivehomelands, set up their own cities and leaders of their own peoples.

No exact literary sources can be traced for the portrayal of Dido’s character.Like the Homeric witches’ Eire and calypso who delayed Odysseus’s voyage, she entrances.Aeneas and detains him by her hospitality and passion. Virgil is however able to infuse morerealism and pathos to make her a convincing figure. Parallels have been found with otherunhappy heroines in classical literature – Euripides’ Media and the Media of Apollonius ofRhodes.

The character is dynamically depicted, first as the inspiring and confident Queenof her people, then as a woman subsumed by passion and by a love rejected, that transformsher into a symbol of vengeance. While the characterization begins with Venus narrating thestory of a wronged woman and drawing the sympathies of an audience, she compelsadmiration by her qualities of leadership and her generosity to those of distress. She ismajestic and gracious and the circumstances largely reflect the will of providence.

Virgil gives Dido a freedom of choice and her design for Aeneas Spells disasterfor herself. She is aware that her passion is immoral but she is unable to control herself. Didoseeks religious sanction to yield to love when, on a boar hunt, she is driven by a storm tospend a night in a cave with Aeneas. She sees flashes of lightning and hears the cry of thenymphs and believes that their union has been divinely sanctioned by Juno. Her tragedy liesin her self-delusion. She evokes pity because other positive aspects of her personality aretotally overshadowed by her guilty passion and she is trapped by circumstances of her ownmaking.


Dido’s pride gets the better of her and she is unable to reconcile herself toAeneas’ hosting his mission over her. Book II is dominated by her fury and bitterness expressedin passionate speeches that plead, reproach, entreat and curse Aeneas. The logicalexplanations of Aeneas, his devotion to his mission, and his effort in control his own emotionsare all ineffective in calming the anger of Dido. She is transformed into an archetypal figure ofhatred and revenge. Even as Aeneas leaves the shores of cottage, she mounts a funeral pureand commits suicide. She is unforgiving even in death as her ghost turns away from Aeneasin the underworld. The tragedy of Dido is the tragedy of uncontrolled passion.

Q. 4. Do you think that Nora in ‘A Doll’s House’ matures as the play progresses? Givereasons for your answer.

Ans.: We are indeed astonished when Nora at the end declares her independenceand steps out of her husband’s home into the street, slamming the door behind her. At thebeginning of the play Nora gives us the impression of being a thoroughly passive kind ofperson, hardly having any will and mind of her own but at the end she emerges as a strongminded and self-assertive woman who completely ignores Helmer’s advice not to leave herhome and pays no need to his appeals in this respect. The change or the development inNora’s character at the end is so great that some critics think this change to be dramaticallyincredible.

Nora there is certainly some truth in the charge that Nora’s decision at the endis too radical and sudden to be dramatically convincing. Nora gives us the impression ofbeing a thoroughly passive person, unable to make her existence really felt or sufficientlyrecognized by her husband or at least capable of having her own way in the house. Sheseems to be content with her role of playing the second fiddle to her husband. She acceptsthe role of an obedient wife, which custom and convention had imposed upon her. She hasbeen leading an apparently happy life with Helmer for the last eight or nine years. There is noindication at all that during this period there was any big difference of opinion between themor that there had been any friction between them.

In fact she has lived a life of subservience to her husband and has never feltunhappy or miserable about her status in the house. Even after having made a great sacrificeby secretly borrowing money from Krogstad and having gone to extent of forging her father’ssignature in order to obtain the loan, she has never felt self-important and she has never triedin the least to raise her stature in the eyes of her husband. She has been kept her wholetransaction with Krogstad a complete secret from Helmer so as not to hurt his ego and shehas regularly been paying the monthly instalment to Krogstad though in the process she hashad to deny to herself many pleasures such as buying fine dresses for herself. She certainlygives us the impression of an uncomplaining and contented wife.

Nora at the end of the play has come of age. She was immature at the beginningbut now she has achieved maturity. In fact she is now even more mature than Mrs Linde. Thismaturity accounts for the decision she takes to leave her husband and even her children. Nor


is it correct to regard Nora as an absolutely passive or servile woman even at the beginning.For instance, in the very opening conversation of the play she does not instantly accept Helmer’sview about the need for thrift. She argues that there is hardly any need for thrift now when theyare going to become rich soon, and she argues quite firmly. Subsequently she argues withHelmer again when she recommends Krogstad case to him. She is not absolutely docile.She does not hesitate to express her own point of view.

At a crucial moment, when Helmer comes out with his real reason for dismissingKrogstad, she tells Helmer bluntly that he is petty-minded. She is certainly not a piece offurniture in her household. She is even at the beginning a living person full of vitality andcourage. Secretly she even eats sweets, so little does not she care for Helmer’s view aboutsweets spoiling her teeth. There may be nothing heroic about her action in arranging formoney to take Helmer to Italy in order to save his life. In the play itself her heroic qualityemerges to the surface only at the end. This heroic quality has remained dormant all theseyears and it rises to the surface when the finest part of her nature is challenged, hurt andspurred to action.

Q.5. Are Medea’s actions too horrifying to be tragic? Give reasons.

Ans.: Euripides is supposed to have written a number of tragedies of which a feware at present extant. They are typical Greek tragedies no doubt but in the conception of thetheme and in the pattern of the conflict the Euripi dean plays appear much advanced upon thetragedies of his contemporaries. In the matter of religious character or fatalism too, histragedies are definitely more modern and realistic.

‘Medea’ is sort of revenge tragedy in which Euripides deals with a romanticlegend in an extremely realistic and human way. It is as a tragedy, a serious drama representinghuman suffering. The theme of the tragedy centres round Medea’s passion for revenge forthe wrong and injustice done to her by Jason, her husband who is ready to discard her andmarry a new woman, for his own political stability. Euripides represents in his tragedy not theromance between Medea and Jason, the celebrated legend of Greece but rather the passionand pain of a human who feels helpless, humiliated in a foreign land. The tragic motive of theplay rests on Medea’s dangerous plan of vengeance of crayon, his daughter and also on herown husband Jason. The play indicates how dreadfully she contrives her own children andleaves her husband utterly destitute of all, the theme of revenge and horror rings all throughthe play.

The gods are found unsparing, rather cruel to those who are proud, vain insincerefalse and guilty. This retributive justice which is the nemesis in the Greek play comes inEuripides in the form of human action and its consequences. In Medea the nemesis is Medea’srevenge motive which is the retribution of Jason’s infidelity and injustice to her.


Of course in Euripide’s play the main character is not the tragic hero, but thetragic heroine Medea. The deep tragedy comes to Medea, no doubt for her deep and devotedlove for her husband is foiled and her children are slain cruelly by herself.

Medea’s suffering is not awful, although her acts are bloody dreadful. The playevokes more of awe in desperation and dejection. There is not much pity for Medea as forOedipus or even Agamemnon, because of the entirely different attitude of the dramatists tothe tragic motive as well as tragic suffering involved.

The employment of the messenger a characteristic feature of the classicaltragedy, is found in the play but there is also a deviation in the concluding catastrophe, whenMedea is found with her slain children. This is something new for the convention of the classicalworld. Euripides as a matter of fact, appears less conventional and more realistic, lessaristocratic and more social in his tone. Consequently interest in his tragic plays is found tocomprise somewhat differently.

Q. 6. ‘The Inferno’ is a ‘microcosm of medieval life’. Discuss.

Ans.: ‘The Inferno’, which is the first part of the voyage, is a microcosm of eternalpain and hopelessness. Though Dante’s poem differs in many respects from the generalmodel of epic, his supernatural voyage to Hell and beyond, reflects the epic spirit and grandeurin a scale of its scope as a narrative. It is an expression of Dante’s profound revulsion againsta hopelessly degenerate and corrupt word. It is considered an encyclopaedic overview of themores, attitudes, beliefs, philosophies and aspirations mores, attitudes, beliefs, philosophiesand aspirations as well as material aspects of the medieval word.

The Inferno as a microcosm of medieval life and in particular fourteenth centuryItaly is Dante’s profound expression of despair against a corrupt and degenerate world. It isteeming with those the poet saw as directly or indirectly responsible for the state of ChristianEurope. The inescapable political reality of his day was the bitter struggle between the papacyand Empire for power. The Holy Roman Empire which has been the highest political authorityin Europe declined after the death of Frederick II of the German Hohenstaufen family. In Italythe papal interests were represented by the Gulfs and the imperial parts was the Ghibellines.Dante himself believed in a divinely inspired monarchy in which spiritual and temporal powerwould co-exist in absolute harmony but Florence was always a Guelph city, unable to effaceits defeat at the hands of the Ghibellines at Montaperti.

Canto X of the Inferno describes Dante’s engagement with this in his meetingwith the Ghibelline leader Farimata degli Uberti. Even within Florence there were factionsemerging from the quarrels of nobility, the Donati and Cerchi whose adherents came to beknown as ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’. Despite the predominance of papal forces in Florence Danteactively participated in political life, aligning himself with the whites who had a softer standtowards the imperial party of the Ghibellines several attempts were made at the reconciliation


of the popular factions, the most significant being the meeting at Florence between PopeGregory IX and the Emperor Charles of Anjou, but in vain.

Dante become a member of one of the Guilds, the Guild being powerfulmachinery in the government of commonwealth of Florence. He was also one of the six priorswho together with an official known as the Gonfalonier of Justice formed the signor which wasthe supreme exec tine authority in the state. An alliance between the ‘black’ leaders andPope Boniface VIII along with the French forces of Count Charles of Valois, the ‘Whites’ wasother thrown and the ‘Blacks’ established themselves as absolute rulers. Dante, along withmany other prominent whites were stripped of their possessions and public positions andbanished from Florence. The narrative of the Inferno in fact begins from the date when Dantefinds himself lost in a dark wood and his road to salvation obstructed by the fierce beasts.

Q. Consider Thyestes as a typical Revenge Tragedy..

Ans.: Thyestes is a tragedy of violence, intrigue, and revenge. Most of the plays ofSeneca are sensational and melodramatic. Blood, torment and the sense of impending doomloom large before our vision. A dark cloud of pessimism hangs overhead. Seneca is deeplyindebted to the Greeks for his models. Thyestes, however, has no equivalent among thesurviving Greek plays. Seneca’s play is so gruesome and fiendish that we cannot expect asimilar play from the Greeks, who had a larger and saner vision of life and who scrupulouslyavoided the element of horror. A part of the story of Thyestes was dramatised by Sophoclesand Euripides in plays entitled Thyestes with the Roman playwrights, the legend of Thyesteswas more popular and lent itself to dramatic treatment. Ennius wrote a play entitled Thyestes.Aecius dealt with this theme in his Atreus and Horace’s friend and contemporary variouswrote Thyestes, which according to Quintilian could well be placed beside a great Greektragedy. We have it on record that various plays were performed in celebration of the victoryof Actium.

For some reason or other the story Thyestes captured the Roman imagination.Even after Seneca the subject remained one of absorbing interest. Curiatius maternus wrotea play entitled Thyestes.

The Story of Thyestes is the story of revenge. Thyestes and Atreus were thetwo son of plops. Thyestes seduced Aerope, the wife of Atreus. Moreover he persuadedAerope to steal the magical lamb with golden fleece, lying in the custody of Atreus. Thyestesclaimed that the throne of Mycenae should go to one, who was in possession of the goldenfleece. Zeus, however, intervened in favour of Atreus. Atreus become the king and banishedThyestes from the land. Banishment was not enough. He therefore, sent for Thyestes on thepretent that he would also have a share in the throne. Thyestes returned with his three sons.Atreus cut off their limbs and boiled the flesh in a cauldron. He then invited him to a banquet.After Thyestes trad unknowingly eaten the flesh of his children, Atreus revealed the grim truth.Thyestes pronounced a curse on the family of Atreus and left.


The pursuit of revenge continued even in the succeeding generations, curiousstudents are aoked to read the chopler on the legend of Thyestes. The same story does notbear repetition.

The story of the revenge was so gruesome that it could not be performed onthe stage. In seneea’s age most tragedies were eloset dramas. What might appear terriblewhile listening would certainly appear gruesome and horrible on the stage. T. S. Eltol in hisIntroduction to Newton’s Ten Tragedies of Seneca rightly points out that “Sencea’s playsmight be practical models for the modern ‘broadcasted’ drama’. Instead of action Seneca inall his plays, introduced long monologues and declamations for recital.

Q. 11. What is the importance of the legend of Tantalus in Seneca’s ‘Thyestes’?

Ans.: Thyestes is the most gruesome of Seneca’s tragedies and in many respectsone of the most famous Tantalus, the king of Lydia, was the son of Jupiter by a nymph calledPluto. He was the father of Pelops, Niobe, and Broteas by Dione, one of the Atlantides. Hewas on intimate terms with the Olympian divinities and often dined with them. He, however,abused their hospitality by stealing nectar. Once urged by the curiosity to know if the godswere omniscient he cut up his son Pelops and served the flesh to the gods and goddesses.The gods alone recognised the contents the dish and refused to eat. Demeter, who was verymuch grief-stricken over her daughter Persephone, ate the left shoulder of pelops. Zeuspunished Tantalus severely and the mythologists offer different versions about the punishment.Tantalus was sent to hell with an insatiable thirst. He was placed in the midst of a vast pool ofwater and yet whenever he wanted to drink, the water receded. A bough loaded with deliciousfruits was all the while hanging overhead and that was also beyond his reach.

It is from his name ‘Tantalus’ that the works ‘tantalise’ is derived, i.e. anythingthat is sought and eludes one’s grasp. Another version is that Tantalus sat under a huge stoneand there was every possibility of its falling upon his head and completely crushing him. Hewas always kept under continual alarms. He could not die, because the nectar, stolen fromthe gods made him immortal.

Q. 12. What does the episode of Ageus contribute to ‘Medea’?

Ans.: The Aegeus episode is very important from the dramatic point of view. Aegeusis the king of Athens. He is an old friend of Medea. He happens to be passing through Corinthon a journey from the oracle of Apollo at Dephi, where he has been attempting to discover thecause of his childlessness. One his way he comes across Medea. They great each other, hetells her the details of his visit to the oracle and the answer given to him. He notices thatMedea seems sorrowful and asks the reason. She tells him about the troubles – how Jasonhas deserted her and how she and her children are to be driven into exile by creon. Aegeus isshocked that Jason will tolerate this mistreatment of his former wife and expresses hissympathy for Medea.


Medea tells Aegeus that if he will guarantee to give her sanctuary in Athens,she will repay him by ending his childlessness, using magic drugs that only she knows. Aegeusagrees if Medea is able to reach Athens on her own, Aegeus says he will be friend andprotect her, but he cannot offend Creon by helping her to leave Corinth.

The Aegeus episode has been criticized because it has no casual relation tothe rest of the play and is the result of a co-incidence. But it serves an important purpose,however, because it provides Medea with the means of escape that she requires. Aegeusdistress about his childlessness may be interpreted as an important factor leading to Medea’sdecision to murder her own children as a means of making Jason miserable, since she didnot intended to kill them before the Aegeus scene and could have got the idea after seeinghis unhappiness.

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