Bachelor Programme (B.D.P.) ASSIGNMENT- December, 2015 & … · The speaker’s cruelty and...

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3 e) What is the significance of the bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea horse in Browning’s “MyLast Duchess”.

The Duke of Ferrara reveals his pride in his art-collections. After describing the nature ofthe last duchess and hinting to the envoy of a foreign count why she was killed, he refers to hisproposed marriage wiht the count’s daughter and the handsome dowry he expects to receive. Hetells the envoy that the generosity of his master, the count, it known far and wide. He thinks the courtwill not deny his reasonable claim for a handsome dowry. Of course, says Duke hypocriticallyenough, he prizes the person of the count’s daughter more than wealth or dowry. As the envoy andthe Duke descend, the latter exhibits to the former the statue of Neptune taming his sea-horse, kepton the staircase. This statue is considered to be a rare specimen of art. It was curved out of bronzefor aim by the famous sculptor claus of Innsbruck.

3 b) Explain in brief the ‘miracle in black ink’ that Shakespeare speaks of in his sonnet.

In this concluding line of Shakespeare’s sonnet “Since brass nor stone...” the poet refers tothe destructive power of time and hopes for the survival of his verse to immortalize his love.

The poet frankly admits the invincible power of time to take away and annihilate the boastof creation, the pomp of possession and the show of beauty. He, however, reposes on one hope tofind consolation for his depressed heart. He believes with a doubtful joy, that his verse in praise ofhis love may shine against the dreadful doom of time. The poet cherishes in his heart of hearts thehope that his poetry will preserve the memory of his friend amid the cruel havoe of time. Nothing cando so unless this miracle that in black ink poet’s love may shine bright has might.

2.f) What picture of old age does Yeats build up in ‘An Acre of Grass’ ?W. B. Yeats feels the weaknesses and problems of old age. He is old and his physical vigour

has ebleed old age is silent and dark. It finds rest in quiet, pictures and books afford some relief tohim. His mind rests in the limited sphere of activities. He has no himself to high desires. His imaginationis desultory and the movement of the mind spends itself in the focus on vulgar and fleshly things.But this cannot give him the truth that he is eager to know.

Yeats attempts to overcome the problems of old age by rejuvenating himself. He wants togive up the rest and quiet of old age and equip himself with the frenz proper to old men,

“Grant me an old man’s frenzyMyself must I remark.”He longs for that frenzy - intensity akin to madness which Timmon, Lear or Blake had in

common even in their old age:“Till I am Timon and Lear

Bachelor Programme (B.D.P.)ASSIGNMENT- December, 2015 & June 2016

Subsidiary English(Frist Paper: SEG-1)


Or that William Blake.”The poet is old and has lost his inspiration and creative energy. The quiet of old age cannot

lead to work of enduring merit. The poet believes that knowledge of truth can be achieved onlythrough mystical insight. Mystical insight comes only with frenzy. Thus the poet must give up thequiet man that he has become. These men with their mad passion made a quest for truth andobtained an insight into truth.

Yeats thinks that this was known to Michael Angelo who retained hsi creative energy evenin old age. Thus inspired by frenzy his quiet will give way to kneenness of perception that will piercethe veil of death. It is not quiet and detachment that can make the truth known to an old man. It is themad passionof Lear and Timon and frenzy known to Michael Angelo that can reveal the truth to thepoet. He can retain his creative energy only with this frenzy. Frenzy has sexual and metal implication.Passion means physical as well as intellectual passion. Man Lear uses many sexual imageryunaccommodated man.

2.b) Show how the two chimney-sweeper poems contrast childhood innocence with adult hycocrisyand repression

The world of the ‘Songs of Innocence’ is largely a child’s world. It is a world of simplicity,purity, happiness and security though touches of the adult world of misery and guilt do occasionallyintrude here. The central situaltion in this world is that of a child or young animal delighting in lifeFear i snot necessarily totally absent from this world, but when danger threatens a parent-figure is athand to console and to comfort.

In ‘The Chimney Sweeper’, the title slaves, black with spot, become clean, free and happyin a green plain by a river in the sun. In spite of the obvious misery of their lives, the boys retain avision of eternal happiness and are sustained by it.

The world in the ‘Songs of Experience’ is a world of cruelty, tyranny, repression, evil, guilt,and suffering. The “Songs of Experience” are poems which describe the woes and injustices ofcivilized society. Some of these poems are satirical of the ‘mind-forged manacles’ of custom and law.The poems in this group show Blake in a mood of sadness and bitterness. Experience seems to havetaught Blake that men are shorsighted and blind and that they are ignorant of the spiritual nature oflife. Men wrongly prefer reason to the mystic vision and they wrongly prefer law and morality tonatural impulse.

“The Chimney Sweeper’s distress now distinctly arouses the poet’s indignation. The littlechimney sweeper’s parents have gone to the church to pray, thinking that he is contented andhappy. But the child is quite aware of the ‘injury’ that has been done to him and so he speaks of thepriest and the king as making up a Heaven of our misery.”

There are a number of poems in the two groups which may be considered in pairs becausethey hav identical titles. In the first series for instance, “The Chimney sweeper”, while convey themisery of the little victims of society, emphasis the contentment and sense of security of the soot-covered boys. An angel comes and tells Tom that, if he would be a good boy, he would have God forhis father and that he would necessary lack joy. But in the second group, the poem with the same titleemphasises the misery of the chimney-sweeper and the cruelty not only of priests and kings but alsoof his parents. The wretched chimney-sweeper here is clothed in “the clothes of death”, while in thefirst poem the chimney-sweeper went leaping and laughing to bathe in a river.


1.e) Is Browning successful in his handling of dramatic monologue in ‘My Last Duchess’ ?

Browning’s favourite form is dramatic monologue in which lies the novelty of his art.Monologue or soliquy was a conventional feature of drama. Specially of tragedy. But Browing’smonologue is infinitely more adaptable, more subtle and free from vonvention. Being a psychologisthaving his main idea to study the incidents that go the compose the development of the soul.Browing found this form to be extremely suitable to this purpose. His purpose is to throw light intothe realm of consciousness and for this reason he frees himself from all the shackles tha impedeanalysis. He finds fullest freedom in direct and individual expression making each personality revealhis inner state.

The dramatic action begins with the duke’s showing the picture of the last duchess ont hewall of the envoy. There is the suggestion of the duke standing before the picture gallery anddrawing the curtain to show the painting on the wall. Browning is a poet of characters and situations.He takes a situation and through this situation he develops the character. In “My Last Duchess”, hetakes the situation of an egoistic duke who is a widower speaking to an envoy who has brought theproposal of a second marriage.

“My Last Duchess” is a greater dramatic monologue than “The Last Ride Together” becauseof its subtle and profound character studies. Browning succeds in telling so much of his story andrevealing as much of two human characters as he does these fifty six lines of rhymed couplets. Whatis important to Browning is the self-revelation of the speaker, a man of refined, artistic taste, butthoroughly inhuman and coldly materialistic.

The speaker’s cruelty and jealousy are suggested but at the sametime we get to know hsiconnoiseurship, his gentlemanly qualities. He has destroyed his wife but has preserved her beauty.Our moral judgement is suspended. We feel interested in the man who can tell his cruelty, jealouslyand pride to the man who has brought the proposal of marriage. He is pre-occupied with his standardsof judgement and oblivious to other judgements. He says “Then all smiles stopped together” andimmediately he says “there she stands”. We are caught in the tension between judgement on hischaracter and understanding of the man. He renounces his position as the duke and proceeds withthe ambassador downstairs. He postpones his business to draw the attention of the man to a bronzestatue of Neptune.

Thus the fine and delicate nuances of character have been indicated in a very subtlemanners. The speaker’s postures and gestures, the implied conversation and the implied action makeif a successful monologue. The situation and the background are clearly etched.

The poem is a good monologue. The presence of the second character is suggested. Hisaction and his responses are clearly hinted at. When the duke speaks of the ‘officious fool’ whobrought the cherrie and when he says ‘all smiles stopped together’ the envoy looks at him with afearful question in his eyes but the duke’s face resumes its mask a complacency.

1 d) Comment on Wordsworth’s philosophy of nature as expressed in ‘Tintern Abbey’.Wordsworth is pre-eminently a poet of Nature. He is a high-priest in the temple of Nature -

‘a worshipper of nature... unwearied in that service.’ Tuss in the main body of his writings natureoccupies a very prominent place and man comes second to Nature.

The greatest thing about his nature poetry is his intense belief that Nature is sentient andalive pervaded by an indwelling spirit whcih entering into every object of nature and even the mind


of man given them their characteristic freshness and beauty. Between this spirit in Nature and in themind of man there is a prearranged harmony which enables Nature to communicate its own thoughtsto man and man to reflect upon it until an absolute union between them is established.” Wordsworthsees a divine presence immanent in all objects of Nature and in the mind of man. Nature fills the mindwith sweet thoughts and beautiful scenes. The min in the store-house of these sounds and sights.IN weariness, gloom and loneliness, he draws upon them and derives pleasure from them. Thus thepoem ‘Tintern Abbey’ in a nutshell gives us almost all the main articles of the Wordsworthian creedof Nature.

In his eyes Nature and Man are the twin manifestations of the same all-pervasive spirit.Humble and rustic life is the main theme of his poetry of man. He has dealt with the simple rustics,who are the children of the soil and live in the bosom of nature, foar from the madding crown. Theirsimple joys and sorrow, their general goodness and innocence, their fearless independence andrugged sincerity the poets loves to celebrate. He avoided the picture of sophisticated men andwomen who live in town and have more complexities of character than the peasants and dalesmen ofthe countryside.

Wordsworth says that Nature is a never-failed friend, who does never ‘betray the heart thatloved her.’ It is her privilege to lead us through all the years of our life form joy to joy. She is also asource of moral strength and inspiration. Many times when we feel depressed by weary strife andevil days and evil tongues, it is Nature that fortifies and strengthen our mind. The slanders ofenemies, the sneers of selfish men, the evil judgements, the cold and formal cortesies of vivilisedmen do not affect a man who loves nature deeply and isncerely. Contemplation of nature has a greatinfluence on the highest part of man’s life and mind and inspires his nameless, unremembered actsof kindness and love. And perhaps the greatest and the most sublime gift of Nature is that thecontemplation of nature’s beauties induces in man burden of the mystery of life and unique islightened and with a quiet vision man can see into the mystery of things.

In a far deeper sense than this he is called a poet of Nature ‘because he has intensely andwhich he is never tired of repeating in many a verse. He inducted a new nature worship in Englishpoetry.’

3. c) What does the poet mean by ‘these beauteous forms’ in ‘Tinter Abbey’?

Five years have passed since Wordsworth visited the banks of the Wye and beholds hehears the murmur of the Wye and belhols the steep and high wooded hills meeting the bue sky whichimpresses his mind with the sense of deep loneliness. Resting under the dark fig tree he looks at thegreen cottage garden and orchard turfts with their green unripe fruits. Once again he sees the hedge-row run wild and the pastoral farims all dropped in green. He sees the curls of smoke rising fromamong the trees – the smoke which may be coming out from the tent of gipsy or from the cave of ahermit.

“The worlds revolve like ancient womenGathering fuel in vacant lots.”


These lines occur in T. S. Eliot’s “Preludes”, section IV. The evening street lies like thecollapsed body of a man tramped over by worker returning home form office in the evening. There arealso images of stuffing pipes, “evening newspaper and conscience of a blackened street,” The poetis moved by the implications that inform the sequence of images depicting the scences of nasty,grimy, and squalid evening. When he conjures up the picture of the squalid slum, his mind is fillediwth the images of extremely gentle things subject to endless suffering. He perceives somethingdeeper and far better buried beneath the monotany and isrt . But the next moment he dashes away thebasurd, degrading suggestion that there is anything good to be discovered in the worlds of thetwon,. He compares the penurious to the circular motion of poor old women gathering fuel in vacantcorners to evoke out their living. The sight is too deep for tears but one has to laugh in away in orderto live in this world.

2.a) i) Write the substance and comment on this poem,“Let those who are in favour with their stars....................................................................Where I may not remove nor be removed.”

Substance : The poet is happy in the thought of his love for his friend’s love for him. Thelove is indestructible. The feeling behind this sonnet is one of complete contentment based on theconfidence that the poet’s friend love him as much as he loves his friend.

This sonnet entirely new idea. The poet here expressed his complete contentment with hsilife even though he may not have own any public honours and titles. This is a poem of personal innature. It expresses a feeing or emotion which is always very strong and often very intense.

This poem is a kind of Shakespearean Sonnet which is lyrical also. It is a spontaneousexpression of some strong personal feeling or emotion in musical language. It is undoubtedly writtenin choice language and possess what is known as the felicity of word and phrase. There is also anappropriate simile in the sonnet. Here the royal favourite is appropriately compared to the marigold.It presents a wide range of human feelings. The poet adopts the pattern of three quatrains ofrhyming lines, followed by a rhyming couplet. though hehe also the rhyme-scheme of the quatrains.


2.f) Comment on the two kinds of childhood — one past, the other present —found in the essay ‘Dream Children’..Ans.: When Lamb wrote this essay he was fatigued with the hard labour and drudgeryof life as an accounts clerk in the East Indian Company. The death of his elder brother,John, had also been a great shock to him. His heart was heavy and his spirits were low andhe was haunted by a feeling of sorrow and desolation. Sadly he looked back upon thebarren track of his life and brooded how he could have been in a smiling green valley.The essay “Dream Children; A Reverie” displays Lamb’s forceful fancy mingled with hisrecollections of the bygone memories. Here he gives an account of his boyhood days, hisyouth and his unsuccessful courting. Lamb had to dedicate his life to his sister Mary Lambwho had been a patient of seasonal madness and had killed her mother being once in thefit of that deadly disease. He had to sign an undertaking that he would look after her andgive her an asylum. As a result of this he could not marry Ann Simons whom he hadcourted for seven years. The bachelorhood which was forced upon him was something hefound difficult to endure. Of course, he attempted to laugh away but he was almost obsessedwith the desire for children of his own and a little happy home. His suppressed desire findsa superb literary expression here. In his essay he provides a truthful picture of hisgrandmother Field, wilfully substituting Norfolk for Hertfordshire where she actually lived.The account of his courtship with Ann Simons is also true. Her coyness, difficult and denialhad all been port of his experience.Just before the children entirely disappear, they tell him that they are nor his, nor Alice’s.They are only what might have been and would have to wait long before they could haveexistence in the world of the living. On waking Lamb finds himself quietly seated in hisbachelor armchair where he had fallen asleep. The essay is indeed, appropriately named.The interpretation of the dream in Freudian manner is not at all difficult. Lamb’s unfulfilleddesire assume in his dream, the pseudo realistic forms of children as they creep round himpressing his to tell them a story about their elders. What is extraordinary is the way Lambattributes to the shadowy figures, the charm and delicacy of imaginative reality. The end ofreverie is unusually sweet in its tragic impact upon the reader’s fancy. The entire essayvibrates with the author’s love of live, his passionate earning for the real experience of aloving husband and affectionate father.2.i) Enumerate a brief history of the essay as a literary genre.Ans.: The origins of essay writing may be traced in the writings of Greek Philosopherslike Theophrastus and Plutarch and their Roman counterparts like Cicero and Seneca.


Subsidiary English(Second Paper: SEG-2)


The term essay was first used by the French writer Montaigne in his collection calledEssays’ in 1580. The title means ‘attempts’ and it indicated Montaigne’s personal opinionregarding subjects like ‘of illness’ or ‘of sleeping’. In England, essay writing came to existswith Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626). Most of his essays are short discussions such as ‘oftruth’, ‘of Adversity’, ‘of studies’, and so on. Bacon insisted on the importance of what isknown as ‘scientific method’. That is the belief that knowledge could be enlarged byobservation of the world, by the collecting and recording of facts and by the inductionfrom them of general laws.The major change in the style of essay-writing took place with the advent of the periodicalsin the eighteenth century. They also saw the advent of serialized stories, which CharlesDickens among others, would later perfect. However, the most important outgrowth ofthe eighteenth century periodical was the topical on periodical, essay. Although novelistDaniel Defoe made some contribution to its evolution with his Review of the Affairs ofFrance (1704 – 13), Addison and Steele are credited with bringing the periodical essay tomaturity.The next important writer in the history of essay writing is Charles Lamb consisting ofThomas Babington Macaulay (1800 – 1859) and Mathew Arnold (1822 – 88). Theessay was a means of serious intellectual discourse. Both these writers are well known fortheir scholarship. This is a rather and sketchy discussion on the history of essay writing inEngland.1.c) Discuss ‘Araby’ as a modern short story.Ans.: Araby relates the author’s visit to Araby, a grand oriental fete which was held inDublin between the 14th and the 19th May in 1894. James Joyce’s ‘Araby’ is by no meansa conventional short story narrating any traditional tale of situations and character. It is infact a symbolic story of human predicament – the aspiration of idealized love shattered bythe realism of modern day life.For the central character of the story the young boy, Araby symbolized a fair from whichhe would buy a gift as a token of his love for his beloved. Thus it symbolizes his dreamworld of romance and beauty but unfortunately such dreams are shattered when he isunable to procure any gift. The Araby at once symbolizes both the boy’s quest for idealisticlove and beauty and his subsequent failure.The theme of the story is Dublin and its general decaying condition symbolized by thepitiful degraded life amidst which the boy is in search of beauty and romance. So thecentral theme is modern one characterization is done with the help of psychology used asa modern device. Perhaps the general theme is a quest for beauty symbolism in ‘Araby’ isimplicit. It works on among the dreary atmosphere. Love and romance flower and flourishin this atmosphere. Love is also used in religious symbolism. There are traits of a modernshort story.The story is remarkable for the bareness of the prose in comparison to the later works ofJoyce. It suggests a terribly run down condition of Doubling, where everything is smothered


in decay. It is in this atmosphere that the boy becomes infatuated to Mangan’s sister. Themovement of her body and tossing of her hair shows the tremendous fascination sheexercised upon him.The devotion to his idealized beloved has become entangled with escape to the magic andluxury promised by the coming bazaar. The boy eagerly waits for the night of fulfilment butthe rest of the story is a downhill rush from dreams of enchantment to disillusion. On thecrucial day his uncle is late in coming home a garrulous visitor calls time passes and notuntil nine o’clock is he able to make his journey to the bazaar. He reaches his goal only tofind out everything on the point of closing down. The stall holders have relaxed into privateconversation, the lights have been put out and the boy senses that has been deceived. Thefinal ‘epiphany’ moment comes with his disillusion and frustration. He comes to realise thathis love is but an infatuation just as the spell of the name ‘Araby’ is broken at this momentof littler disillusionment, his love too was illusory and unreal.1. a) Discuss the significance of the title of the novel A Tale of Two Cities.Ans.: In preface to ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Dickens informs us that he firstconceived the main idea of this story when he was acting with his children and friends, inWillkie Collin’s drama of ‘The Frozen Deep’ in 1857. But it was only a vague fancy at thattime and the circumstances of his personal life were not favourable to his developing theidea in a novel. Towards the close of January 1858, the idea came to his mind again.Various titles for the new book suggested themselves to him. One of these titles was: “Oneof These Days.” Six weeks later he considered another title ‘Buried Alive’ but thought it tobe too grim. Eventually he hit upon the present title “A Tale of Two Cities.”The story of this novel concerns a group of private individuals who are somehow drawninto the whirlpool of a great public and political event which is the French Revolution. Twodominant themes of the novel are resurrection and renunciation. Resurrection implies deathand rebirth and in the novel it appears in several forms. Dr Manette is ‘recalled to life’ fromhis prolonged imprisonment in the Bastille and soon he recovers his sanity also. Thus thereis a double resurrection in the case of this man who from the physical point of view hadbeen buried alive in a prison cell and who from the mental point of view had lost his sanity.There is a resurrection for Barton too who, though he does not escape death is to beimagined as having passed to another world to lead a new life. His sacrificial death is initself a resurrection because it means his moral regeneration. Draney’s relinquishment ofhis ancestral property and title and carton’s sacrifice of his life for the sake of the womanhe loved constitute the theme of renunciation in the story.These two themes of the novel are developed in a connected manner against the backgroundof some of the events of French Revolution. Episodes relating to the French Revolution donot occupy too much space in the story so that while we are given an adequate idea of theviolence and the bloodshed that took place during the years of French Revolution ourattention is not taken away from the main characters and their fortunes.So the title of this novel is very appropriate.


3 e) Who is Montaigne ? What makes his essays entertaining?Ans.: Montaigne was one of the most significant philosophers of the FrenchRenaissance, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre. His work is noted for itsmerging of casual anecdotes and autobiography with serious intellectual insight his massivevolume ‘Essais’ contains some to the most influential essays ever written. In his own lifetime,Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. The tendency in his essaysto digress into anecdotes and personal ruminations was seen as detrimental to proper stylerather than as an innovation and his declaration that ‘I am myself the matter of my book’was viewed by his contemporaries as self indulgent. In time, however, Montaigne – wouldcome to be recognized as embodying, perhaps better than any other author of his time, thespirit of freely entertaining doubt which began to emerge at that time. Much of modernliterary non-fiction has found inspiration in Montaigne and writers of all kinds continue toread him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal storytelling.3 c) What is meant by epiphany? Which lines in ‘Araby’ constitute the epiphany?Ans.: An epiphany is a moment when the essence of a character is revealed, when allthe forces that bear on his converge and we can, in that instant understand.‘Araby’ follows the epiphany pattern. The meaning is revealed in a young boy’s psychicjourney from first love to despair and disappointment and the theme is found in the boy’sdiscovery of the discrepancy between the read and the ideal in life. The story opens witha description of North Richmond Street, a blind, cold ................. silent street of fixed,decaying conformity and false piety. The boy’s house contains the same sense of a deadpresent and a lost past. The former tenant a priest, died in the back room of the house andhis legacy – several old yellowed books which the boy enjoys beating through becausethey are old.2.b) Compare and contrast Lucetta and Elizabeth Jane..Ans.: Lucetta is evidently conceived by the novelist as a foil to Elizabeth Jane. There isa striking parallelism in the situations in which the two have been placed in the story. LikeElizabeth who was the daughter of a sailor, Lucetta was the daughter of a military officerand had their share of poverty and hardship in early life. Both of them had been elevatedto fortune in the beginning of youth Lucetta became rich by a legacy left by an aunt andElizabeth, through her mother’s reunion with Michael Henchard. Lastly, Lucetta proves aformidable and successful rival to Elizabeth in the love of Donald Farfrae. After the tragicdeath of Lucetta, Donald turns to Elizabeth Jane who has earlier excited his passion,marries her and the union promises to be a very happy one. This parallelism in situationserves to bring out the contrast between the two more vividly.Elizabeth is a perfect flower in the Wessex garden. She is a child of nature and grows upto womanhood far from the contamination of modern civilization. But Lucetta is a typicalproduct of civilization. She is fashionable, capricious, passionate interested in fine ladiesand something of a coquette. She has her full share of accomplishment and culture, can


speak French and Italian fluently. Morally she is vain, frivolous and skittish and free fromscruples.Indeed, Elizabeth Jane is so much impressed with Lucetta’s mental accomplishment thatshe wonders how a woman of her age could reach a stage of perfection. For herself, sheis always sorry that she has no education a fact which might lower her down in the estimationof the people and to make good this deficiency she applies herself hard to study. She doesnot indulge in any love of finery and has little desire to shine as a town beauty. AgainElizabeth is a sober girl, calm and equable in temperament.Thus while Elizabeth is an essential rustic girl, Lucetta is urban in her manners and outlook.3.b) Discuss the role of Abel Whittle in The Mayor of CasterbridgeAns.: Of all the minor characters in the story Abel Whittle is the most interestingand leaves a sweet impression on our mind. Hardy has given him a distinctive individuallythat marks him out from the rest of his comrades in the farm house of Henchard. He is dull,slow-witted fellow, whose task is to drive the wagon bringing hay from the neighbouringfarm houses of Turnover. The poor fellow has the invertebrate habit of over sleepinghimself and coming late to his work. His anxious will to be the earliest among the workersand his efforts to get up early in the morning are of no avail and he invariably fails in themoment of action. One day he is very unfairly treated by Henchard for failing to turn up intime to do his assigned work of accompanying a wagon bound for Turnover.3. d) Analyse the role played by Woodifield in the short story ‘The Fly’ ?Ans.: The first part of the story presents the boss as a man stout, rosy andhappy-go-lucky. He rolls in his office chair and still strong although he is five years olderthan his friend who has retired. He is proud of his room and of his new furniture’s, newcarpet and electric heating. He shows his friends the furniture and the carpenter and wavesexultantly towards the five transparent pearly sausages glowing softly in the titled copperpan. He decorates his office which reflects the picture of higher class society. He asks hisfriend to drink and himself drink it with relish.


2.e) How does disguise become an important sub-theme in The Merchant of VeniceAns.: There are a number of scenes in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in which Portia produces onsome readers and on some spectators in a theatre, the impression that she is a pedantic woman whomakes a display of her great intellectual powers and who seeks to impress other with her intellectualCalibre. Jessica is basically a modest girl even though she takes the initiative in eloping with Lorenzo.She disguises herself as a boy.The readers find an element of masculinity in Portia’s nature. She puts on a male disguise without theleast hesitation and without the least bit of shame. In this respect she is to be contrasted with Jessicawho also puts on a male disguise but who feels ashamed of being seen in that garb. Portia’s readinessto put on masculine clothes and to appear as a man shows a back of that shyness and bashfulnesswhich are a true characteristic of a woman.An element of masculinity combined with an element of pedantry or conceit in Portia’s entire behaviourin the Trial Scene. Their argument here is that if a brilliant plan for the rescue of Antonio had occurredto Portia, she could have contacted Dr Bellario and told him the line of reasoning that he shouldadopt in the Venetian court to which he has been invited by the Duke of Venice to act as judge in thecase. She was wearing masculine clothes and parading as a man, to do something which she couldhave done by proxy.Not only does there seem to be an element of masculinity in Portia’s going to Venice in male disguiseand presiding over the proceeding as the judge, but also an element of pedantry in the manner inwhich she conducts the trial. She begins by acknowledging the validity of the bond which Antoniohad signed. Having accepted the bond as valid and as having fall legal sanction she asks Antonio toprepare his bosom for Shylock’s knife. Then she suggests to Shylock to keep a surgeon ready toAntonio’s wounds. But Shylock rejects this proposal. Eventually she tells Shylock that he has everyright to cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh out no right at all to shed any blood in the course of hiscutting off the flesh. This whole procedure followed by Portia has been thought by some readers tobe a proof of her pedantry and her love of affection and ostentation.1.a) Analyse the significance of the Porter Scene in Macbeth.Ans.: Belief in magic and witchcraft, in ghosts, fairies and spirits interfering in human affairs andcontrolling the destinies of men was almost universal in the days of Shakespeare. The supernaturalis introduced by him to import an element of mystery and spiritual significance to the pictures ofhuman life, though latter generations with more rational outlook have looked askance at them orregarded them with twitter.In ‘Macbeth’ the dramatist has introduced the ghost of Banquet as well as unnatural, ominousevents like place on the night after the murder of Duncan. There are witches in the play. They havetheir Queen Hecate as well as their familiars a toad, a cat etc. The very first words uttered by thewitches, “Fair is foul and foul is fair” strike the keynote of the play, in which the values are all topsy-turvy and in which the4 chief protagonist make evil their goal. Their doctrine reverses the natural


Subsidiary English(Third Paper: SEG-3)


order of things; “Fair is foul and foul is fair” is the satanic principle of Evil be thou my good. It echoesin Macbeth’s first words, he goes on to adopt it in order to gain the throne and then finds that hecannot escape from it.The world of this play is the world of false values in which Macbeth is guided by deceptive apparitionsand hallucinations. His moral sense becomes as confused as are his physical senses when he cannotdistinguish the real from the unreal dagger and it is latter that directs him to the murder he followunreality.Unlike the witches, the ghost of Banquet which appears in the ‘Banquet scene’ is entirely hallucinatoryin character. It is purely a subjective phenomenon. It is an objectification or externalisation of thesubjective state of Macbeth. It is a creation of his guilt obsessed imagination and as Lady Macbethreminds him very much like the dagger he sees just before the murder of Duncan. That is why noneelse of the characters see him. It does not speak and it vanishes as soon as Macbeth takes heart andexclaims.Macbeth sees the ghost just after the murder of Banquet. It is a product of his guilt obsessedimagination, an instrument of divine punishment and justice. The facade of decency has a murderousheart and the appearance of Banquo’s ghost is the harsh reminder of Macbeth’s wickedness. Theghost is the externalised form of Macbeth’s guilt and fear of discovery invisible to the others but aterrifying reality to Macbeth himself.The supernatural in the play has been closely integrated both with character and action. It is notmerely a horrible, crude blood-curdling phenomenon which it is in the works of his lessercontemporaries. Shakespeare has given to his audiences what they wanted, but in a much purifiedand exalted form1 d) How would you estimate the Antonio- Bassanio relationship in the light of the tradition ofmale friendships of the Renaissance ?Ans.: Antonio is a rich merchant of Venice. He besides being a general favourite with the‘magnificoes’ of Venice, entertains a truly noble affection for Bassanio. Not only does he assure hisspendthrift friend, ‘my purse, my person, my extremist means lie all unlocked to your occasions, ‘buthe goes to such lengths of self-sacrifice at the risk his very life to assist him. With the utmost self-renunciation he is quite ready to die, requiring only that Bassanio shall grieve not for him. Such alove as this makes one come to the conclusion that there must have been some starling worth evenin the fortune – hunting Bassanio to evoke such affection. His generosity also justifies the remarkthat he trades as a lover.From the account of his ‘argosies with partly sail’ and his, ‘ventures squandered abroad’, we gatherthat Antonio is a man of considerable substance. When Salarino rallies him on his melancholy, andattributes it to anxiety for his merchandise, Antonio answers in a carefree manner. And again whenBessanio would prevent him from imprudently entering into so dangerous a bond with the Jew,Antonio says, with utter disregard of consequences.Bassanio is a young gallant of Venice, and a close friend and relative of Antonio. In the beginning,we are not at all impressed by him, and take on unfavourable view of his character. At the outset, heappears as most conspicuous for his reckless, spendthrift nature. He seems very little different fromSalanio and Salarino and Salarino, who are merely, ‘hangers-on’ to the wealthy Antonio. He comes ashe says he had often come before, to borrow money from his friend, with only a remote chance ofevery paying him back. He likewise very frankly states his reasons: he has much ‘disabled’ his‘estate’.


In the cases of Solanio and Salrino, we do not hear of any great affection for their benefactor andevidently their regard for him is not great. But there is something attractive in Bassanio’s generoustributes to Antonio.3 h) i) Write a paragraph on ‘India’s Missile Man’.Ans.: Popularly called the ‘Missile man’ of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam rose from humblebeginnings and earned the reputation of being the ‘People’s President’ who endeared himself to allsections, especially the young.A devout Muslim and son of a boat-owner, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, who assumedoffice as the 11th President on July 18, 2002 was seen as a figurehead who could help, heal some of thescars of the communal riots which broke out in Gujrat just a few months before.Born and raised in Rameswaram in Tamilnadu on October 15, 1931, Kalam who is known for havinga unique style joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation after studying physicsand aerospace engineering after graduating from Madras Institute of Technology.Mainly focussing on research in defence and space arena, he later involved himself in the India’smissile programme. His contribution to the ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology earnedhim the named as the ‘Missile Man of India’.Kalam who received several prestigious awards including Bharat Ratna, played a crucial role whenIndia tested its nuclear weapons at Pokhran in 1998 when the Vajpayee Government was in power.Kalam was quoted as saying that like most of the technology he spearheaded, he himself was ‘Madein India’ having never been trained abroad.Kalam succeeded K.R.Narayanan and served a full five year term 2002 until 2007 after he won thePresidental elections which was a highly one sided contest with Lakshmi Sehgal a revolutionary ofthe Indian Independence movement, as his rival. He secured the backing of all political parties. Withhis appointment, Kalam became the first scientist and first ever bachelor to occupy the RashtrapatiBhawan.3a) Show how the Interlude marks an important stage in the development of English drama.Ans.: In passing from the Morality proper to the Interludes, we pass from symbolism to realism.It has to be noted that unless we confine the term ‘Interlude’ to those plays of a realistic sort, we canfind no strict line of demarcation between it and the term Morality. The Hyckes Corner is in the maina morality, yet shows a clear development towards the greater elaboration of purely comic elements.It is with Rastell, Medwall, Sir Thomas More and John Heyhood – that we begin to move into a newrealm.These Inerludes had several peculiar features – it was a short play that introduced real charactersusually of humble rank, such as citizens and friars. There was absence of allegorical humour, oftencoarse and were scenes, a new feature in the English drama. In these respects, Interludes mark afurther advance upon morality plays.3d) What is the role of Banquo in Macbeth ?Ans.: Banquo is a brave general and heroic warrior. Banquo has highly described by a critic as thenoblest character in the whole play. The destruction of this noble personage through no fault of hisown illustrates the dictum that in every tragedy a good must be wasted because of its associationwith the evil. In point of bravery Banquo is almost equal to Macbeth with whom he shares thehonours for defeating the invasion from Norway. If Duncan seems to be warmer to Macbeth, it isprobably because Macbeth is a relation of his.


The brave soldier is absolutely free from prejudice or superstition. Sanity is the most prominent traitin his character. The witches prophesy to him as well as Macbeth. But while the superstitiousMacbeth is influenced by them Banquo gives no value to their prophecy. Banquo’s last and mostdramatic role is his ghostly appearance at the feast. He guesses quite rightly, that Macbeth hasmurdered his way to the throne. He realises the wickedness of what Macbeth has done and how theprophecy has been fulfilled. Banquo does not lack worldly ambition; he merely disdains evil methodsto achieve it.

3.e) Bring out the dramatic significance of the character of Launcelot Gobbo in ‘The Merchant ofVenice’.Ans.: Launcelot Gobbo is the servant, first of the Jew and later of the Christian Bassanio. But heis not merely a servant. Shakespeare describes him as a clown, meaning that he is a jester too. Theword ‘fool’ is also used for a person of that kind in Shakespearean drama. As a clown of a fool or ajester, Launcelot Gobbo makes a substantial contribution to the comedy of this play. However, he isnot as clever and intellectual a clown as certain other clowns created by Shakespeare.Launcelot’s role in the play apart from his contribution to the comedy of the play is very slight. Infact, Launcelot appears at different places and among different persons on different occasions. Hemoves from Venice to Belmont and from Belmont to Venice. He moves from the Jew’s house toBassanio’s and from Bassanio’s house to the Jew’s. He figures in the Lorenzo-Jessica love affair inthe caskets story and also in the Bond story, though he does not play any vital part in any of thesestories. By moving from one place to another and from one group of characters to another hecontributes in some measure, to the interweaving of the various stories in the play. In other words heserves as a connecting link among the various stories. But his chief contribution to the play is toamuse and entertain the audience.3. f) How does Shakespeare create the Venation setting in ‘The Merchant of Venice’?Ans.: ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is certainly permeated by the Venetian setting. The state ofVenice or the city of Venice is depicted in the play as an important centre of trade and commerce.Several references have been made in the course of the play to the Rialto which was the name of thestock Exchange in the city and several references are made to Antonio’s trading ships which aresailing upon the seas to different destinations. References are also made to Shylock’s money lendingoperations and to his usury. Then suitors of Portia come to Belmont from the four corners of theworld from France, England, Germany and Morocco.In connection with the Venetian atmosphere of the play, a critic says that the play is impregnatedwith the aroma of Italy and with Italian touches which transport into an Italian climate.2 a) ii) Make a précis of the following passage and add a suitable title.Ans.: Duty first and money income secondary partIt is not possible for a well-educated intellectual or brave man to make money of his life. All healthyminded people, who like making money and enjoy the happy feeling of winning it. A good soldier,clergyman, doctor do their work first and their income is second. Instead of their payment is stopped,they do their duty properly.

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