IGNOU BEGC-133 - British Literature

SECTION A I. Explain the following passages with reference to the context. 1. “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis; But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman; and to be king stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence You owe this strange intelligence? Or why Upon this blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting.” 2. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: - I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but A dagger of the mind? A false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” 3. “He did it like an operatic tenor—a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills. We nearly burst with laughter at him; but when the sergeant ran up as white as a sheet, and told us they’d sent us the wrong cartridges, and that we couldn’t fire a shot for the next ten minutes, we laughed at the other side of mouths.” 4. “"Thou hast betray'd thy nature and thy name, Not rendering true answer, as beseem'd Thy fealty, nor like a noble knight: For surer sign had follow'd, either hand, Or voice, or else a motion of the mere. This is a shameful thing for men to lie.” Section B II. Write short notes on the following: a. The three phases of Thomas Hardy’s writing. b. The ‘Porter Scene’ in Macbeth. c. Tennyson as a representative poet of Victorian England. d. The influence of Ibsen on Bernard Shaw. III. Write short essays on the following: a. Justify the title of Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man. b. Discuss the major themes of Tennyson’s poem “Morte d’Arthur”. Section C IV Discuss Hardy’s approach to the natural world, as expressed in Far Fom the Madding Crowd.

SECTION A I Explain the following passages with reference to the context. 1. “I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’ other.” 2. “Out, damned spot: out I say! One, Two: Why then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, My Lord, fie! A soldier, and affear’d? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to accompt”? 3. “He did it like an operatic tenor—a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills. We nearly burst with laughter at him; but when the sergeant ran up as white as a sheet, and told us they’d sent us the wrong cartridges, and that we couldn’t fire a shot for the next ten minutes, we laughed at the other side of mouths.” 4. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me? I have lived my life, and that which I have done May He within himself make pure!” Section B II. Write short notes on the following: a. Characterisation in Far from the Madding Crowd. b. The ‘Banquet Scene’ in Macbeth. c. Tennyson as a representative poet of Victorian England. d. Bernard Shaw and the ‘discussion play’. III. Write short essays on the following: a. “Arms and the Man is considered to be an ‘anti-romantic comedy’”. Do you agree? b. What are the main themes of Tennyson’s poem “Morte d’Arthur’? Briefly explain the allegorical significance of the poem. Section C IV Write a brief critical appreciation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd, bringing out the significance of the landscape of Wessex in the novel.