Drama
Drama
Drama
1. Introduction
Drama has been part of human civilization since time immemorial and has been presenting the human sensibilities to
human beings in artistic way so as to make them realize essential human truths. The English drama had its origin
in religion: it grew out of Liturgy (a religious ceremony) of the church. The early religious plays were broadly of
two types, the Mysteries and the Miracles. The best of the extant groups of Miracle and Mystery plays belong to the
15th century. Abraham and Issac is one of the most remarkable of these early plays. The early drama was cast under
the strict control of church. It was mainly written by the clergy and acted by the clergy within the church and its
language was Latin of the church service. As the popularity leaked out of the church, the performance was first shifted
to the church porch and then to some village field. Laymen now began to take part in the performances and then write
the plays whereas the Latin language was replaced by English, the native tongue. The increase in the number of fairs,
the increase in wealth, power, prestige of the merchant-guilds, did much for the development of the drama. In this
unit, we will be tracing the history of the British English drama from the medieval age to talk about the evolution
of drama and dramatic techniques.
It is generally noticed that drama was not part of the Old English period. The earliest evidences of dramatic composition
are supposed to belong to the thirteenth century. Bringing out the elements that helped in the development of English
Drama is not possible as still ecclesiastical and public life could be considered two forces to shape the dramatic
development in the initial stages. The theatrical seeds came with the entry of Normans in 1066 in England who
brought many clerical people carrying with them the ideas of mimetic rituals that were shown with the help of
dramas. These members performed certain episodes from the lives of Saints, the events from the Bible and even in
glorification of the martyrdom. It was only in 16th century that drama came to its fullest growth and Elizabethan
age was the golden one for its proliferation.
York plays are considered to be the best, but plays of Wakefield show more humour and variety, and better
workmanship. York plays aim to represent the whole of man's life from birth to death.
Aeschylus was known for his innovation, adding a second actor and
more dialogue, and even creating sequels. He described his work as
'morsels from the feast of Homer'. Sophocles was extremely popular
and added a third actor to the performance as well as painted
scenery. Euripides was celebrated for his clever dialogues, realism,
and habit of posing awkward questions to the audience with his
thought-provoking treatment of common themes. The plays of these
three were re-performed and even copied into scripts for 'mass'
publication and study as a part of every child's education.
The early tragedies had only one actor who would perform in
costume and wear a mask, allowing him to impersonate gods.
Did You
Know ? Eventually, three actors were permitted on stage.
“Comedy represents human beings as 'worse than they are,' while tragedy
represents humans as "better than they are. Tragedy is an imitation [mimēsis]
of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…through
pity and fear effecting the proper purgation[catharsis] of these emotions.”
– Aristotle in the Poetics
Around 335 BCE, Aristotle, in his work Poetics, stated that comedy originated in Phallic processions and the light
treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that the origins of comedy are obscure because it was not
treated seriously from its inception. Aristotle considers tragedy far superior than comedy.
For Aristotle, a comedy did not need to involve sexual humor. A comedy is about the fortunate arise of a sympathetic
character. Aristotle divides comedy into three categories or subgenres: farce, romantic comedy, and satire. On the
contrary, Plato taught that comedy is destruction to the self. He believed that it produces an emotion that overrides
rational self-control and learning.
In the Republic (Plato), he says that the Guardians of the state should avoid
laughter, "for ordinarily when one abandons himself to violent laughter, his
condition provokes a violent reaction.' "Plato says comedy should be tightly
controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state. Aristotle taught that
comedy was generally a positive thing for society, since it brings
forth happiness, which for Aristotle was the ideal state, the final goal
in any activity.
Also, in Poetics, Aristotle defined Comedy as one of the original four genres of literature. The other three genres are
tragedy, epic poetry, and lyric poetry. Literature in general is defined by Aristotle as a mimesis, or imitation of life.
Comedy is the third form of literature, being the most divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis,
followed by epic poetry, comedy and lyric poetry. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to
Aristotle's definition. Comedies begin with low or base characters seeking insignificant aims, and end with some
accomplishment of the aims which either lightens the initial baseness or reveals the insignificance of the aims.
The great tragic artists of the world are four, and three of them are Greek. It is
in tragedy that the pre-eminence of the Greeks can be seen most clearly.
Except for Shakespeare, the great three, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
stand alone. Tragedy is an achievement particularly Greek. They were the first
to perceive it and they lifted it to its supreme height.
"Drama in England is an independent development", according to Nicoll. But it passed through similar stages as did
the Greek drama. It has its origin in the liturgical services. Initially, dramas were in the form of Mysteries and Miracle
plays. Later on came the Morality plays. These were followed by the Interludes. Finally, the drama properly emerged
in England in the sixteenth century.
The first English tragedy was Gorboduc (1562) written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville. William Shakespeare
(1564-1616), one of the greatest English dramatists belonged to the Elizabethan- Jacobean period. Thomas Kyd and
Christopher Marlowe paved the way for Shakespeare, Webster etc.
Aristotle wrote the Poetics in fourth century B.C. which is the earliest
and the most influential essay on drama. The essay was a result of
close study of the Greek plays of his time. He has discussed the
nature and function of tragedy and poetry in general in this essay.
Medea by Euripides: The tragedy focuses on betrayal and revenge. The chief characters are Medea and her husband
Jason who is perhaps known for the Argonauts mythology, his slaying of the monster Medusa and capture of the
golden fleece. The play begins with Medea grieving and raging, as her husband has left her for another woman. Later,
Medea seeks her revenge. The play is a good interaction of love, passion, vengeance, justice, racism and misogyny.
It is held up by many as being an early feminist text.
Clouds by Aristophanes : The play is notorious for its caricature of Socrates. It was originally produced at the City
Dionysia in 423 BC.
Frog by Aristophanes: The comedy was written with an intention to evoke fun at the giants of Greek playwriting,
Euripedes and Aeschylus. A comedy rather than the typical tragedy, the work pits the two writers against one another
in an imagined battle to see who the best tragic poet is, with Dionysus serving as judge. In the final part of the play
Aeschylus says that Sophocles should have his chair after his death, not Euripides.
The protagonist of the story is Dionysus, the Greek God of wine, theatre, and dance. He is one of the many sons
of Zeus. In mythology, he is best known for his lack of convention, foreignness, and large female following.
Concerned about the current state of literature, Dionysus decides to travel to Hades, the underworld, to retrieve the
great poet Euripides, who had died a year before this play was written. Dionysus claims, ''I want a genuine poet,
'For some are not, and those that are, are bad.'
Survived Plays of Greek Writers
Prometheus
Orestes Trilogy : Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides
Aeschylus
Suppliants
525-456BC
Seven Against Thebes
The Persians
Ajax
Electra
Sophocles
Oedipus the king, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus
496-405BC
Trachinian Women
Philoctetes
Alcestis
Medea
Hippolytus
Andramache
Euripides Ion
485-406B Trojan Women
Electra
Iphigenia among the Taurians
The Bacchants
Iphigenia at Aulis.
Archanians
the Birds
Aristophanes
the Frogs
450-385BC
the Clouds
Lysistrata
Ques. : In Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex the first scene finds Oedipus__________. (NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2014 P-III)
(A) in conversation with a priest (B) in consultation with a general
(C) giving audience to an ambassador (D) in consultation with a minister
Ans. : (A)
The play opens in front of Oedipus' palace at Thebes. A plague besets the city and Oedipus enters to find a priest
and crowd of children praying to the gods to free them from the curse.
Ques. : Which among the following plays by Aristophanes is an attack on 'modern' education and morals as imparted
and taught by the radical intellectuals known as The Sophists ? (NTA UGC-NET June 2014 P-III)
(A) Clouds (B) Wasps
(C) Acharnians (D) Knights
Ans. : (A)
Clouds : A comedy by Aristophanes, first performed in 423 BC in Athens. It is an attack on 'modern' education and
the morals taught by the sophists. In the play Socrates and his pupils are ridiculed and their school, the Phrontisterion
('Thinking Shop') is eventually burned to the ground. Scholars have often wondered why Aristophanes chose Socrates,
some believe he was selected simply because of his fame.
In the Medieval England, drama was primarily religious in nature as the plays were written and performed under the
purview of the church. For example, the Mystery plays were presented on the porch of the cathedrals or by strolling
players on feast days. Miracle and mystery plays, along with moralities and interludes, later evolved into more elaborate
forms of drama. Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest forms of medieval plays where the
medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux. They developed
from the 10th to the 16th century, reaching the height of their popularity in the 15th century before being rendered
obsolete by the rise of professional theatre in England.
There are four collections of medieval plays, which are sometimes known as "cycles." The most complete is the
York cycle of forty-eight pageants. They were performed in the city of York, from the middle of the fourteenth century
until 1569. There are also the Towneley plays of thirty-two pageants, once thought to have been a true 'cycle' of plays
and most likely performed around the Feast of Corpus Christi probably in the town of Wakefield, England during the
late Middle Ages until 1576. The Ludus Coventriae (also called the N Town plays" or Hegge cycle), now generally
agreed to be a redacted compilation of at least three older, unrelated plays, and the Chester cycle of twenty-four
pageants, now generally agreed to be an Elizabethan reconstruction of older medieval traditions. Besides the Middle
English drama, there are three surviving plays in Cornish known as the Ordinalia.
These biblical plays differ widely in content. Most contain episodes such as the Fall of Lucifer, the Creation and
Fall of Man, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, Abraham and Isaac, the Nativity, the Raising of Lazarus, the
Passion, and the Resurrection. Other pageants included the story of Moses, the Procession of the Prophets, Christ's
Baptism, the Temptation in the Wilderness, and the Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin. In given cycles, the
plays came to be sponsored by the newly emerging Medieval craft guilds.
The guild system rose in the 14th and 15th centuries in Germany and
then spread throughout Europe. Guilds were made up of craftsmen
who pursued a similar trade by forming groups or associations to
train and support members, sort of like a trade union. Over time,
guilds began to take over the roll of staging theatrical performances.
Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, the morality play is a genre of Medieval
and early Tudor theatrical entertainment, which represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre.
In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral
theme. Morality plays are a type of allegorical drama where the protagonist is met by personifications of different
moral aspects who try to lead him to choose a Godly life over one of evil. The morality plays were most popular
throughout Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Somonyng of Everyman (The Summoning of Everyman,
c.1509-19), usually referred to simply as Everyman, is a late 15th-century English morality play which was the most
popular amongst all the morality plays. Like John Bunyan's allegorical poem Pilgrim's Progress, Everyman (1678)
deals with the question of Christian salvation using allegorical characters. The play is the allegorical accounting of the
life of Everyman, who is a representative of all mankind. In the course of the action of the play, all the characters
are also presented allegorically, where each character personifies an abstract idea such as Fellowship, (material) Goods,
Knowledge, etc.; and the conflict between good and evil is dramatized by the interactions between the characters.
Miracle Plays : A miracle play, or a saint's play presents a real or fictitious account of the life, miracles, or martyrdom
of a saint. Almost all surviving miracle plays concern either the Virgin Mary or St. Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop
of Myra in Asia Minor.
Mystery Plays : The mystery plays, usually represent biblical subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder
of Abel, and the Last Judgment.
Morality Plays : An allegorical drama popular in Europe especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, in which the
characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which moral
lessons are taught.
Interlude : An early form of early English Dramatic theatre, interludes were performed at court or at "great houses"
by professional minstrels or amateurs at intervals between some other entertainment, such as a banquet, or preceding
or following a play, or between acts. Some plays were called interludes that are today classed as morality plays. John
Heywood, one of the most famous interlude writers, brought the genre to perfection in his The Play of the Wether
(1533) and The Playe Called the Foure Ps.
Ques. : In medieval England a __________was understood to be a trained craftsman, one who worked under a master
who owned the business. (NTA UGC-NET June 2015 P-II)
(A) pardoner (B) summoner
(C) journeyman (D) manciple
Ans. : (C)
In medieval period a journeyman was a craftsman who had fully learned his trade and earned wages but was not yet
a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for judgment. If the work
were deemed worthy, the journeyman would be admitted to the guild as a master.
The Second English Comedy : Gammer Gurton's Needle is a domestic comedy, a true bit of English realism
representing the life of peasant class. Gammer Gurton is an old woman who loses her only needle while mending a
pair of pants belonging to her servant, Hodge. Hodge is disappointed at wearing pants full of holes now. Diccon, a
crazy beggar, pretends to summon the devil to ask his advice in this issue. Diccon claims that the devil told him that
the answer to this problem would be found between Cat, Rat, and Chat. The rest of the play is seen in search of
the needle with hilarious methods. Diccon made up all kinds of stories to make everyone angry at each other. Diccon
is given a rather mild punishment, and he jovially slaps Hodge on the ass. Hodge feels a prick then and discovers the
needle in his pants.
The First English Tragedy: The first English tragedy Gorboduc or Ferrex and Porrex was written by Thomas
Sackville and Thomas Norton and was acted in 1562 only two years before the birth of Shakespeare. Norton wrote
the first three acts; Sackville wrote the last two. It was the first play, a verse drama to be written in blank verse and
also based on the political theme that was anew to the Elizabethan realm.
The play is about a good king named Gorboduc. He gives his kingdom away during his lifetime to his sons. The sons
quarrel over the throne. Porrex, the younger son, kills his brother, Ferrex. Their mother, Queen Videna, avenges the
death of her older son by murdering Porrex. Gorboduc and Videna are then killed by their horrified former subjects.
The chain of slaughter and revenge was written in direct imitation of Seneca, a Roman dramatist. Senecan
influence is also evident in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, and in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Hamlet.
Ques. : Here is a list of early English plays imitating Greek and Latin plays. Pick the odd one out :
(NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2013 P-II)
(A) Gorboduc (B) Tamburlaine
(C) Ralph Roister Doister (D) Gammer Gurton's Needle
Ans. : (B)
Ralph Roister Doister (1553) is the earliest known British comedy, by Nicholas Udall, while Grammer Gurton's Needle
by John Still (1543-1626) is an example of an early English farce, and was printed in 1575. Thomas Norton and
Thomas Sackville performed Gorboduc in 1561. It was the first English play in blank verse and the first English
tragedy on a Senecan model.
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The drama is comparably the greatest force of the Elizabethan times or the Renaissance. It is in Elizabethan age
that drama found an expression in bountiful terms. The greatest of the English dramatist, William Shakespeare, is
a product of this age. Apart from Shakespeare there are host of other dramatists who made the age proud by their
dramatic creations. In fact, these regular playwrights, Kyd, Nash, Lyly, Peele, Greene and Marlowe brought the English
Drama to the point where Shakespeare began to experiment upon it. These dramatists are also known as University
Wits as their plays are influenced by their education of the classical works of literature.
There is found the greater classical influence of Seneca on
Elizabethan Literature. The Senecan elements were used in the
combination of native tradition as for the taste of Elizabethan
audience. A vigorous activity translating the works of Seneca was
also seen during 1559-1581.
“The popular dramatists took many hints and ideas from Seneca:
melodramatic plots, long speeches made by dying heroes, ghosts crying for
vengeance, moralizing choruses, the useful messenger and single line
dialogue.” – Helen Morris
University Wits: University wits is a group of English dramatists, who wrote in the 16th century (around 1580)
and were educated at the university Oxford or Cambridge. This group transformed the native interlude and chronicle
play with their plays of quality and diversity. Some wrote poetry, some tales, some plays, some all three. For some
we have almost nothing but their reputations. All wrote in pre-Shakespearean styles that separated them from the
writers of the previous drab era. The term "University Wits" was coined by George Saintsbury, a 19th-century
journalist and author.
These writers were great entertainers, composed poems, plays, poetry and even prose works. Some of them were
also actors on stage. The university wits put drama on the high pedestal of art by shaping a fusion of the newly arrived
classical tenets, the traditional native forms and the folk material. As David Horne, author of the only biography of
George Peele, puts it: "All were learned and classical in their tastes and interested in courtly literature".
John Lyly (1554-1606) John Lyly was born in Kent in 1554. He was brought up in Canterbury where he likely attended
the King's School at the same time as Marlowe. Lyly received the A.M. degree at Magdalen College, University of
Oxford, in 1575. After failed petitions for support from Lord Burghley for a fellowship, Lyly moved to London. He
became instantly famous with the publication of the prose romance Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit (1578) and its
sequel Euphues and His England (1580). Euphues is a Greek word for graceful. Euphuism, as the elaborate prose
style modelled on Lyly came to be called, was at the height of popularity in the 1580s. Euphuistic style has two
features: An especially elaborate sentence structure based on parallel figures from the ancient rhetorics and a wealth
of ornament including proverbs, incidents from history and poetry, proverbs, and similes drawn from pseudoscience,
from Pliny, from textbooks, or from the author's imagination.
Lyly's style had a marked impact on contemporary writers, not the least on Shakespeare. Polonius in Hamlet, Moth
in Love's Labours Lost, and the repartees of Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing show signs of Lyly's
influence. In 1583, Lyly married Beatrice Browne, a Yorkshire heiress. The same year he became in control of the
first Blackfriars Theatre. He wrote several prose comedies for children's companies, all geared towards the courtly
audience. These plays included Campaspe (1584), Sapho and Phao (early 1580s), Endymion: The Man in the Moon
(1586-7), Loves Metamorphosis (1589), Midas (1589) and Mother Bombie (1589). Lyly's only play in verse was the
comedy The Woman in the Moone (1594).
Ques. : Who among Shakespeare’s contemporaries did not write tragedies ? (NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2014 P-III)
(A) Thomas Kyd (B) John Lyly
(C) Christopher Marlowe (D) Ben Jonson
Ans. : (B)
Though Lyly laid the foundation of Elizabethan comedy in plays, but he did not write tragedies.
George Peele (1558-1596): An Elizabethan dramatist who experimented in many forms of theatrical art: pastoral,
history, melodrama, tragedy, folk play, and pageant.
Works
The Arrangement of Paris (1584) was a courtly mythological pastoral play, which paid tribute to Queen
Elizabeth.
The Battle of Alcazar (1594) was a semi historical play in five acts which relates the events of battle.
The Famous Chronicle of King Edward, the first (1593) : It is a play by George Peele, published 1593,
chronicling the career of Edward I of England.
The Old Wives Tale (1595) : It is a play by George Peele first printed in England in 1595. It was a romantic
satire on the current dramatics taste. The play has been identified as the first English work to satirize the
romantic dramas popular at the time.
The Love of King David and Fair Bathsheba (1599) : The work has its source from scriptures.
Thomas Kyd : Thomas Kyd, the English dramatist was born in 1558 in London. He is considered one of the most
important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.
Although well-known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins (an early editor of
The Spanish Tragedie) discovered that Kyd was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his Apologie for Actors
(1612). A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including
the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare. Evidence suggests
that in the 1580s Kyd became an important playwright, but little is known about his activity. Francis Meres placed
him among the best for tragedy and Heywood elsewhere called him Famous Kyd. Ben Jonson mentions him in the
same breath as Christopher Marlowe (with whom, in London, Kyd at one time shared a room) and John Lyly in
the Shakespeare's First Folio.
In 1593, after falling under suspicion of heresy, he was arrested on the charge of atheism and tortured into giving
evidence against his roommate. Kyd denied the charge of atheism and attributed the offending manuscript to his
roommate, Christopher Marlowe:
"shuffled with some of mine (unknown to me) by some occasion or writing in one chamber two years since."
The situation is rich with remarks of treachery: that Marlowe set Kyd up, that Kyd returned the Favor, that Marlowe's
subsequent death was covertly arranged as a result. Current evidence suggests that Marlowe may have been an agent
provocateur employed by the Privy Council in its anti-Catholic activities. Kyd was eventually released from prison, but
seems to have been broken by the imprisonment, torture, and disgrace. He died in December of 1594, in poverty, not
yet thirty-six years old.
Works
The Spanish Tragedie (Hieronymo is Mad Again): Kyd probably began his career as a popular playwright
about 1583 and produced this most significant work. It was based on the tragedies written by the Roman
playwright Seneca, whose plays focused on murder and revenge. It was Kyd who established the revenge
tragedy on the Elizabeth Stage which included William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
The Spanish Tragedy tells the story of Hieronymo, marshal of Spain, whose son Horatio is murdered by
Balthasar, son of the viceroy of Portugal, and Lorenzo, son of the Duke of Castile, because Balthasar has his
eye on Bellimperia. Bellimperia is Lorenzo's sister, and she loves Horatio – and this is why poor Horatio is
murdered by Balthasar and Lorenzo. Bellimperia, who witnesses the brutal murder of her lover, sends a letter
to Horatio's father Hieronymo, informing him that it was Balthasar and Lorenzo who murdered his son, and
Hieronymo vows revenge on the two men. However, before he can avenge his son's death, Hieronymo decides
– much like Hamlet in Shakespeare's later play – that he needs to prove that the letter was indeed from
Bellimperia and that both Balthasar and Lorenzo are indeed guilty of Horatio's murder. There follows a series
of delays in Hieronymo's enactment of revenge, delays which succeed in sending him mad.
Cornelia (1594): This work can be attributed to Kyd which he adapted from a French play by Robert Garnier.
Arden of Feversham: Another play which has sometimes been attributed to Kyd is Arden of Feversham, a
dramatization of a crime that had been reported in Holinshed's Chronicles.
Thomas Lodge: Poet, playwright, and physician Thomas Lodge was the son of a lord mayor of London. Lodge made
his first appearance at the University of Oxford about the year 1573 and was afterwards a scholar under the learned
Mr Edward Hobye of Trinity College. In 1578, he joined Lincoln's Inn, London for the study of law. However, he
left it midway, went against the wishes of his family and took up literature. He first was noticed in literacy circles
for his Defence of Plays in 1580. This pamphlet was written in reply to Stephen Gosson's attack on stage plays.
Lodge's best known play in his prose romance is Rosalynde, which provided the plot for Shakespeare's As You Like
It. His other plays include An Alarum Against Usurers (1584), Scillaes Metamorphosis (1589), The Wounds of Civil
War (1594) and A Margarite of America (1596). Lodge also collaborated with Robert Greene on the play A Looking
Glass for London and England. While Lodge gained some success for his literary endeavors, he gradually became
convinced about its lack of monetary potential.
Robert Greene: Greene, who achieved distinction in the vigorous characterization and could handle better a love story,
was born about 1560. His plays comprise Orlando Furioso, Friar Bacon and Friar Bunguy (The Honorable Historie
of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay), Alphonus king of Aragan, etc. His most effective play Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay deals partly with the tricks of the Friar, and partly with a straightforward romantic love story. His A Notable
Discovery of Coosnage (1591) seeks to expose the practices of the panders and whores, swindlers and card-sharps
of London for the unwary, and A Disputation Betweene a Hee Conny-Catcher and a Shee Conny-Catcher (1592)
and The Blacke Bookes Messenger (1592) continue in this genre with lurid descriptions of the London underworld.
His Quip for an Upstart Courtier or A Quaint Dispute between Velvet-Breeches and Cloth-Breeches (1592) compares
the lives of the courtier (Velvet Breeches) and the merchant (Cloth Breeches) in order to find which is deserving of
more respect. Greene criticised Shakespeare 'an upstart crow' beautified with our feathers in Groats-Worth of
Wit.
Ques. : Identify the correct group of playhouses in late sixteenth century London from the following groups :
(NTA UGC-NET June 2014 P-II)
(A) Curtain, Rose, Swan, Globe, Hope (B) Curtain, Rose, Swan, Globe, Sejanus
(C) Hope, Curtain, Rose, Swan, Globe (D) Swan, Curtain, Rose, Globe, Thames
Ans. : (A)
The Playhouses : Seven amphitheater playhouses were built in London in the sixteenth century : the Red Lion in 1567,
the Theatre in 1576, the Curtain in 1577, the rose in 1587, the Swan in 1595, the Globe in 1599 and the Fortune in
1600.
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) : Marlowe is considered to be the most talented of pre-Shakespearean. Christopher
Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. He was the first English playwright
to reveal the full potential of dramatic blank verse and the first to exploit the tragic implications of Renaissance
humanism. Marlowe was the second and eldest son of John Marlowe, a Canterbury shoemaker. Marlowe received
a scholarship from Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury to study music, religion, Latin and literature and entered
Kings school, Canterbury. Later, he joined Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, from late 1580 until 1587. He wrote
only tragedies and no comedies. His plays are known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists.
He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who followed in his innovative play-writing his footsteps, particularly
with regards to the history plays. He was official spy of queen Elizabeth.
The heroes of the first three plays of Marlowe were consumed by
burning passion which leads them to their miserable end.
Tamburlaine had thirst for power over all Asia, Dr Faustus had thirst
of limitless knowledge and Barabas had a sense of revenge.
Works
Dido, Queen of Carthage: It was his first play which was written while he was a student at Cambridge with
contributions by Thomas Nashe, but it was not published until 1594. The story of the play is based on the
classical figure of Dido, the Queen of Carthage following an intense dramatic tale of Dido and her intense love
for Aeneas (induced by Cupid), Aeneas' betrayal of her and her eventual suicide on his departure for Italy. The
book has its source from Books 1, 2, and 4 of Virgil's Aeneid.
Tamburlaine: His second play, Tamburlaine The Great, about a Scythian Shepherd and his thirst for power
was published in 1590. It was about the conqueror Timur, who rises from shepherd to warrior. It is among
the first English plays in blank verse and with Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, generally is considered
the beginning of the mature phase of the Elizabethan theatre. Tamburlaine was a success, and was followed
with Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. The term Marlowe's mighty line was coined by Ben Jonson.
Marlowe's famous mighty lines first came into focus in this play and also established blank verse as the staple
medium for later Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic writings. The play details the brutal rise to power and the
mysterious end of the bloody 14th-century Mongol conqueror Timur, or Tamburlaine. Marlowe's gifts are displayed
not only in his supple poetry but also in his ability to view his tragic hero from several angles, revealing both the
brutality and the grandeur of the character.
Dr. Faustus (1604): This play of Marlowe is about a scholar, who in his quest for infinite knowledge and
power, sells his soul to the Devil. It is based on the German Faust Buch. It was the first dramatized version
of the Faust legend of a scholar dealing with the devil.
Doctor Faustus, a respected German scholar, is bored with the traditional types of knowledge available to him
and yearns to know more than logic, medicine, law, and religion. His friends, Valdes and Cornelius, begin to
teach him magic, which he uses to summon a devil named Mephistophilis. Faustus tells Mephistophilis to
return to his master, Lucifer, with an offer of his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of having Mephistophilis
with all knowledge of magic.
At Mephistophilis' return Faustus signs the contract in his own blood and Mephistophilis provides Faustus
valuable gifts and a book of spells to learn to make him happy with his decision. He also answers all Faustus'
questions about the nature of the world and refuses to answer only when Faustus wants to know who created
the universe. Mephistophilis and Lucifer bring in the seven deadly sins in human form to dance for
Faustus.
At the fame of Faustus, he reaches to the emperor and impresses him by conjuring up an image of
Alexander the Great. One of the emperors' knights sneers at Faustus' magical powers and Faustus punishes
him by making antlers sprout from his head.
As the end of his contract approaches, Faustus begins to dread his impending doom, and asks Mephistophilis
to call up Helen of Troy so that he might impress a group of his colleagues. An old man urges Faustus to
repent and turn back to God, but he sends Mephistophilis to torment the old man, and drive him away. Faustus
then summons up Helen again so that he might immerse himself in her ancient beauty. But time grows short.
Faustus, filled with dread, confesses his misdeeds to a group of his colleagues, who vow to pray for him.
On the final night of his life, Faustus is overcome by fear and remorse. He begs for mercy, but it is too late.
The clock strikes midnight and a group of devils enters Faustus' study to claim his soul. The next morning,
his colleagues find his body torn limb from limb, and decide to give him a proper burial.
The Jew of Malta (1590): This work of Marlowe was about a Maltese Jew's barbarous revenge against the
city authorities, has a prologue delivered by a character representing Machiavelli. It was probably written in
1589 or 1590 and was first performed in 1592.
The play is a good example of religious conflict, intrigue and revenge, and is considered to have been a major
influence on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The title character, Barabas, is seen as the main
inspiration for Shakespeare's Shylock character in Merchant of Venice. The play is also considered the first
(successful) black comedy, or tragicomedy.
The character of Barabas was much debated for its representation of Jews and controversial themes
intermingled with monks and nuns.
Edward the Second (1594): It is an English history play about the deposition of King Edward II by his barons
and the Queen, who resent the undue influence of the king's favourites have in court and state affairs. The
play was entered the Stationers Register on 6 July 1593, five weeks after Marlowe's death. The full title of
the earliest extant edition, of 1594, is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second,
King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer. The play presents the homosexual relationship
between Edward II and Gaveston. The play was first acted in 1592 or 1593. It paved the way for
Shakespeare's more mature histories, such as Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. Marlowe found most of his
material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587).
The Massacre at Paris (1593): It is a short and luridly written work, the only surviving text of which was
probably a reconstruction from memory of the original performance text, portraying the events of the Saint
Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, which English Protestants invoked as the blackest example of Catholic
treachery.
Apart from his dramatic verse, Marlowe also succeed in non-
dramatic verse. His Hero and Leander is a mythological poem
consisting of 818 lines. This unfinished poem was completed after his
death by George Chapman.
Ques. : Christopher Marlowe's heroes are said to be larger than life, exaggerated both in their faults and in their
qualities. They have a desire for everything in extreme. In one of his plays the hero wants to conquer the whole world.
The name of the play is __________. (NTA UGC-NET June 2015 P-II)
(A) The Jew of Malta (B) Doctor Faustus
(C) Tamburlaine the Great (D) Edward II
Ans. : (C)
Tamburlaine the Great, first play by Christopher Marlowe, produced about 1587 and published in 1590.
Ques. : There is a play on the name of Machiavelli in the prologue to Christopher Marlowe’s
(NTA UGC-NET July 2016 P-II)
(1) Doctor Faustus (2) The Jew of Malta
(3) Tamburlaine, the Great (4) Edward II
Ans. : (2)
The Jew of Malta (The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta) is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably
written in 1589 or 1590. The plot is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop
of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean that takes place on the
island of Malta.
Ques. : Which of the following pair best describes the characteristic features of Marlowe's portrait of Tamburlaine ?
(NTA UGC-NET June 2015 P-III)
(a) ambition (b) apathy
(c) cruelty (d) sympathy
The right combination according to the code is __________ .
(A) (a) and (b) (B) (a) and (d)
(C) (a) and (c) (D) (b) and (c)
Ans. : (C)
Ambition is a characteristic feature in Marlowe’s portrait of Tamburlaine. Tamburlaine is a workaholic. He enjoys no
rest. He is voraciously greedy for glory. He tests himself in furious, fanatic and bloody deeds, and dreams of his own
empire. The main theme is the cruelty of Tamburlaine with no sympathy.
Ques. : Christopher Marlowe was one of the first major writers to affirm what can be identified as a clearly
homosexual sensibility. Which drama of him deals with it ? (NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2015 P-II)
(1) Edward II (2) The Jew of Malta
(3) Doctor Faustus (4) Dido, Queen of Carthage
Ans. : (1)
Marlowe is often described today as homosexual, although the evidence for this is inconclusive. Much like other
aspects of Marlowe's biography, speculation on his sex-life abounds while evidence is nowhere to be found.
Elizabethan Theatre
Elizabethan drama was the dominant art form that flourished during and a little after the reign of Elizabeth I,
who was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. She was a powerful, resolute monarch who returned England to
Protestantism, quelled a great deal of internal turmoil, and unified the nation. She was also an avid supporter of the
arts which sparked a surge of activity in the theater. During her reign, some playwrights were able to make a
comfortable living by receiving royal patronage. There was a great deal of theatrical activity at Court, and many public
theaters were also built on the outskirts of London. Some of the most important playwrights come from the Elizabethan
era, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe. These playwrights wrote plays that were
patterned on numerous previous sources, including Greek tragedy, Seneca's plays, Attic drama, English miracle plays,
morality plays, and interludes. Elizabethan tragedy dealt with heroic themes, usually centering on a great personality
who is destroyed by his own passion and ambition. The comedies often satirized the fops and gallants of society.
Elizabethan theatre derived from several medieval theatrical traditions, such as the mystery plays, based on biblical
themes that were a part of the religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, the
morality plays that evolved out of the mysteries; and the plays by University Wits that attempted to recreate the Greek
tragedy. The Italian tradition of Commedia Dell'arte (artistic comedy) as well as the elaborate masques
frequently presented before the court also helped in the shaping of public theatre. But the Elizabethan theatre
was different from the medieval age dramas as the theatre came out of the purview of the church to become secular
and dealt with themes which are not typically religious as that of the medieval age. Shakespeare and the playwrights
of his time, took stories from English and European history, and from other poems and plays. In the sixteenth century,
plays were first performed in the yards of inns (hotels) with a stage set up against a wall. Groups of actors used to
travel around the country performing plays in inns and in the houses of the rich. In 1576, three theatres were set up
in London. One was at Blackfriars and the other two, "The Theatre" and "The Curtain", were erected in
Shoreditch fields. The City of London authorities, primarily Puritans, were generally hostile to public performances,
but its hostility was overmatched by the Queen's taste for plays. Theatres sprang up in suburbs, accessible across
the Thames River to city dwellers, but beyond the authority's control.
All the theatres of London during the Elizabethan era had individual differences; yet their common function necessitated
a similar general plan. The public theatres were three stories high and built around an open space at the center. Usually
polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, the three levels of inward-facing galleries overlooked the open
center, into which jutted the stage — essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience, only the rear
being restricted for the entry and exit of the actors and seating for the musicians. The upper level behind the stage
was used as a balcony. Since Elizabethan theatre did not make use of lavish scenery, instead left the stage largely bare,
with a few key props, the main visual appeal on stage was in the costumes. Costumes were often bright in colour
and visually entrancing. Costumes were expensive and so the actors usually wore contemporary clothing regardless
of the time period of the play. Occasionally, a lead character would wear a conventionalized version of the more
historically accurate garb, but secondary characters would nonetheless remain in contemporary clothing. Moreover,
the Elizabethans did not have elaborate props for stage. Stage was primarily bare and the backdrop of the play was
left for the audience to imagine. Mostly a placard was hung on the stage door to suggest where the scene is set. A
flag was unfurled to suggest that the play has started. After some music, an actor through the prologue would give
the gist of the setting of the play to make the audience understand the backdrop in which the play is about to be
performed. If the play lacked a prologue, then in the opening scene(s) the backdrop of the play is referred to make
the audience know where the play is set. If the Royalists promoted literature and theatre, then there was a faction in
England called Puritans who had a strong dislike for theatre, as theatre was seen as an immoral place. Though Queen
Elizabeth herself was a great admirer and promoter of theatre, still women were not allowed to act in plays in the
Elizabethan era. The women characters were mostly played by boys who used to cross-dress as females. Margaret
Hughes (1645 – 1 October 1719), also Peg Hughes or Margaret Hewes, is often credited as the first professional
actress on the English stage. Hughes certainly played Desdemona in the performance of Othello seen by Samuel
Pepys on 6 February 1669.
Ques. : The commedia dell'arte originated in Italy in the sixteenth century. Which of the following descriptions are
the most appropriate ? (NTA UGC-NET June 2015 P-III)
(a) Tears alternating with crude laughter
(b) Comedy of the guild or by the professionals in the "art"
(c) Plautine comedy alternating with ritualistic manoeuvres
(d) Improvised comedy that follows a scenario rather than written dialogue
The right combination according to the code is :
(A) (a) and (b) (B) (b) and (d)
(C) (a) and (c) (D) (b) and (c)
Ans. : (B)
The Commedia dell’arte (comedy of the guild or by the professionals in the “art”) is improvised comedy that follows
a scenario rather than written dialogue. Improvised comedy of the commedia dell’arte developed and spread throughout
Europe.
LEARN A FACT!!!
From the start of Elizabeth's reign, it was expected that she would marry, and
the question arose to whom. Although she received many offers for her hand,
she never married and was childless.
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time and occupies a unique position in world
of literature. The prophecy of his contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare "was not of
an age, but for all time," has come true and probably will always be true.
The parish register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, shows that he was baptized there
on April 26, 1564; his birthday is conventionally celebrated on April 23. His father, John Shakespeare, was engaged
in various kinds of trade and appears to have suffered some fluctuations in prosperity. His mother, Mary Arden of
Wilmcote, Warwickshire, came from an ancient family and was the heiress to some land. Thus, Shakespeare belonged
to an affluent family, but not to a family who are close to art and literature.
Shakespeare studied in the Grammar School, Stratford where he acquired some knowledge of Latin and Greek. He
did not have the benefit of university education. His father had suffered losses in business, in order to help his family
Shakespeare had to give up his studies. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway of Stratford, and they had two
daughters – Susanna and Judith and one son, Hamnet.
How Shakespeare spent the next eight years or so, until his name began to appear in London theatre records, is not
known. There are many stories; some of them being - earning his living as a schoolmaster in the country; of going
to London and gaining entry to the world of theatre by minding the horses of theatre goers, etc. But these stories have
no strong proofs to assert their validity, and at the same time it is of no concern to us as we are more interested in
knowing about his dramatic works and his presence in the Elizabethan theatrical world.
The first reference to Shakespeare in the literary world of London was made in 1592, when a fellow dramatist,
Robert Greene, talked about him in a pamphlet. It is not clear how his career in the theatre began; but from about
1594 onward he was an important member of the company of players known as the Lord Chamberlain's Men (called
the King's Men after the accession of James I in 1603). By the end of that year, six of his plays had already been
performed. In 1599, Shakespeare and other members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men arranged finance for the building
of the Globe Theatre, and the Lord Admiral's Men continued to mount popular performances there, including many
of Shakespeare's plays. The Lord Admiral's Men became the foremost London company, performing at Court on 32
occasions between 1594 and 1603. After his ascension to the throne, James I granted the Lord Chamberlain's Men
a royal patent, and the company's name was changed to the King's Men. Shakespeare's talent as a playwright was
widely recognized. He became one of the wealthiest dramatists of his day and lived a comfortable life. He retired to
Stratford in 1610 and died on April 23, 1616. In 1623, actors Henry Condell and John Heminge published his plays
as a collection known as the First Folio. Shakespeare took to theatre full-time sharing in a cooperative enterprise and
was intimately concerned with the financial success of the plays he wrote. For twenty years Shakespeare dedicated
himself industriously to his art, writing thirty-seven plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets and two longer narrative
poems – Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece.
“When I read Shakespeare, I am struck with wonder that such trivial people
should muse and thunder in such lovely language.” – D H Lawrence
“If I say that Shakespeare is the greatest of intellects, I have said all concerning
him. But there is more in Shakespeare's intellect than we have yet seen. It is
what I call an unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it that he himself is
aware of.” – Thomas Carlyle
The Histories: For his English history plays, Shakespeare primarily drew upon Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles,
which appeared in 1587, and on Edward Hall's earlier account of The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre
Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (1548). From these and numerous secondary sources he inherited traditional themes:
the divine right of royal succession, the need for unity and order in the realm, the evil of dissension and treason, the
cruelty and hardship of war, the power of money to corrupt, the strength of family ties, the need for human
understanding and careful calculation, and the power of God's providence, which protected his followers, punished
evil, and led England toward the stability of Tudor rule. After the last group of English history plays, Shakespeare chose
to write about Julius Caesar, who held particular fascination for the Elizabethans. After six or seven years Shakespeare
returned to the Roman theme again in, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus.
The Great, or Middle Comedies: The comedies written between 1596 and 1602 have much in common. With the
exception of The Merry Wives of Windsor, all are set in some "imaginary" lands –Illyria, Messina, Venice and Belmont,
Athens, or the Forest of Arden. In these plays, the lovers are young and witty. The action involves wooing; and its
conclusion is marriage. Whether Shakespeare's source was an Italian novel (The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado
About Nothing), an English pastoral tale (As You Like It), an Italian comedy (the Malvolio story in Twelfth Night),
or something of his own invention (probably A Midsummer Night's Dream, and parts of each), he portrayed
remarkable mastery in theatre.
The Great Tragedies: Shakespeare's greatness is nowhere more visible than in his tragedies – Hamlet, Othello, King
Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus. The tragedies deal with divergent themes and
have distinctiveness of their own.
The Dark Comedies: Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure are known as dark
comedies for their distempered vision of the world. They are questioning, satiric, intense, and very dark in respect to
the comic essence.
The Late Plays: Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, and Henry VIII, written between 1608 and
1612, are commonly known as Shakespeare's "late plays," or his "last plays." One of the common characteristics of
these plays is that, although they portray tragic or pathetic emotions, events move toward a resolution of difficulties
in which reconciliations and reunions are prominent.
The four most famous Shakespeare tragedies are King Lear, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth.
Difference Between Private Theatres and Public Playhouses
Hamlet is about an emotionally scarred young man trying to avenge the murder of his father, the king. The
ghost of Hamlet's father appears to Hamlet, telling him that he was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who
has now become the king. Claudius has also married Gertrude, the old king's widow and Hamlet's mother.
Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and death, and seeks revenge. His uncle, fearing for his life, also
devises plots to kill Hamlet. The play ends with a duel, during which the King, Queen, Hamlet's opponent and
Hamlet himself are all killed.
"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in
form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in
apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of
animals!". – Hamlet (Act II, Scene II).
Othello, a Moor serving as a general in the military of Venice, is victimized as a result of his love for
Desdemona, the daughter of a Venetian statesman. The villain of the play is Iago, a career military man who
plots revenge against Othello, Desdemona, and Michael Cassio because Othello has promoted Cassio to
Lieutenant, a position to which Iago feels he is entitled. Iago is furious about being overlooked for promotion
and plots to take revenge against his General; Othello, the Moor of Venice. Iago manipulates Othello into
believing his wife Desdemona is unfaithful, stirring Othello's jealousy. Othello allows jealousy to consume
him, murders Desdemona, and then kills himself.
Macbeth is about a noble warrior who gets caught up in a struggle for power. Supernatural events and
Macbeth's ruthless wife play a major role in his downfall. Three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that
he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills
more people out of paranoia. Civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, resulting in more death.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand.
– Macbeth Act 2 Scene 1
“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour
upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Macbeth
King Lear is a tragic story of an old man's descent into madness as his world crumbles around him. It is
also a tale of Lear's pride and his blindness to the truth about his three daughters and others around him. A
subplot of the play involves another family (that of the Earl of Gloucester) torn apart by a scheming child
(Edmund plots against his half-brother, Edgar). Both fathers suffer a great deal for their inability to see the
truth about their children. Through the basic plot, King Lear divides his kingdom among the two daughters
who flatter him and banishes the third one who loves him. His eldest daughters both then reject him at their
homes, so Lear goes mad and wanders through a storm. His banished daughter returns with an army, but they
lose the battle and Lear, all his daughters and more, die.
Coriolanus: The tragedy of Coriolanus by William Shakespeare is a five act play based on the life of Gnaeus
Marcius Coriolanus, a legendary Roman hero of the late 6th and early 5th centuries BCE. He is shown as an
arrogant young nobleman in peacetime, as a bloodstained and valiant warrior against the city of Corioli, as a
modest victor, and as a reluctant candidate for consul. When he refuses to flatter the Roman citizens, for
whom he feels contempt, or to show them his wounds to win their vote, they turn on him and banish him.
The ancient Rome falls in war with neighboring Italian tribe, the Volscians, who are led by Martius' great rival,
Tullus Aufidius. The Volscians are defeated, and the Rome takes the Italian city of Corioles all owing to the
heroism of Martius. In recognition of his great deeds, he is granted the name Coriolanus.
Upon his return to Rome, Coriolanus is given a hero's welcome, and the Senate offers him to go out and plead
for the votes of the plebeians, a task that he undertakes reluctantly. At first, the common people agree to give
him their votes, but they later reverse their decision at the prodding of two clever tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius,
who consider Coriolanus an enemy of the people. This drives the proud Coriolanus into a fury, and he speaks
out intemperately against the very idea of popular rule; Brutus and Sicinius, seizing on his words, declare him
a traitor to the Roman state and drive him into exile.
Desiring revenge against Rome, Coriolanus goes to his Volscian enemy, Aufidius, in the city of Antium, and
makes peace with him. Aufidius is planning a new campaign against the Romans, and he welcomes Coriolanus'
assistance, although he soon feels himself to be falling into his new ally's shadow. Their army proceeds to
march on Rome, throwing the city into a panic. Rome's armies are helpless to stop the advance, and soon
Aufidius and Coriolanus are encamped outside the city walls. Two of his oldest friends come pleading for
mercy, but Coriolanus refuses to hear him. However, when his mother, Volumnia, to whom he is devoted, begs
him to make peace, he relents, and the Romans hail Volumnia the savior of the city. Meanwhile, Coriolanus
and the Volscians return to Antium, where the residents hail Coriolanus as a hero. Aufidius, feeling insulted,
declares that Coriolanus's failure to take Rome amounts to treachery; in the ensuing argument, some of
Aufidius' men assassinate Coriolanus.
Romeo and Juliet : It is an enduring tragic love story written by William Shakespeare about two young star-
crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. Shakespeare borrowed his plot from an
original Italian tale. It is believed Romeo and Juliette were based on actual characters from Verona.
An age-old political rivalry between two powerful families erupts into bloodshed. A group of masked Montagues
risk further conflict by entering without invitation a Capulet party. A young lovesick Romeo Montague falls
instantly in love with Juliet Capulet, who is due to marry her father's choice, the County Paris. With the help
of Juliet's nurse, the women arrange for the couple to marry the next day, but Romeo's attempt to halt a street
fight leads to the death of Juliet's own cousin, Tybalt, for which Romeo is banished. In a desperate attempt
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Drama
to be reunited with Romeo, Juliet follows the Friar's plot and fakes her own death. The message fails to reach
Romeo, and believing Juliet dead, he takes his life in her tomb. Juliet wakes to find Romeo's corpse beside
her and kills herself. The grieving family agree to end their feud.
"Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good
night till it be morrow." – Romeo and Juliet (Act II, Scene II).
Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. He was buried in the same church where he was baptized. On his tombstone,
the following lines are inscribed:
"Good Friend for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here;
Blest be the man who spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones."
All is Well That Ends Well: Helen heals the King of France, and the King grants her permission to marry
Bertram, the man she loves. Bertram rejects her and leaves a list of tasks that she must do to have him
acknowledge their marriage. She follows him to Italy, completes all the tasks, and Bertram accepts her as his
wife.
Measure For Measure: The Duke leaves Angelo in charge of Vienna, where he quickly condemns Claudio to
death for immoral behaviour. Angelo offers to pardon Claudio if his sister, Isabella, sleeps with him. Isabella
agrees but has Angelo's fiance switch places with her. The Duke returns to spare Claudio, punish Angelo, and
propose to Isabella.
Troilus and Cressida: Trojan prince Troilus falls in love with Cressida, as war rages around them. After
vowing to be faithful, Cressida is traded to the Greek camp, where she then agrees to see another man. Troilus
witnesses Cressida's unfaithfulness and vows to put more effort into the war. The play ends after further
deaths on both sides and with no resolution in sight.
Twelfth Night: Viola, separated from her twin Sebastian, dresses as a boy and works for the Duke Orsino,
whom she falls in love with. Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia and sends Viola to court her for him,
but Olivia falls for Viola instead. Sebastian arrives, causing a flood of mistaken identity, and marries Olivia.
Viola then reveals she is a girl and marries Orsino.
“Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust
upon them. – Twelfth Night Act 2 Scene 5
“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.”
– King Lear Act 1 Scene 4
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you
poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?".
– (Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Act III, scene I)
Love's Labour's Lost: After vowing to avoid women, the King and three of his friends have to host a princess
and her three ladies. The four men fall in love and decide to court the women. In the end, the women must
return to their kingdom for a year after which they will marry the king and his friends, providing they remain
true to them.
Two Gentlemen of Verona: Two best friends, Proteus and Valentine, travel to Milan where they both fall in
love with Silvia. Silvia loves Valentine, but Proteus pursues her despite the fact he has a girlfriend at home.
After an apology, Proteus and Valentine reconcile, Proteus loves his girlfriend again, and both couples marry.
The Winter's Tale: The jealous King Leontes falsely accuse his wife Hermione of infidelity with his best friend,
and she dies. Leontes exiles his newborn daughter Perdita, who is raised by shepherds for sixteen years and
falls in love with the son of Leontes' friend. When Perdita returns home, a statue of Hermione "comes to life",
and everyone is reconciled.
The Tempest: Prospero uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck, including
the King of Naples and Prospero's treacherous brother, Antonio. Prospero's slave, Caliban, plots to rid himself
of his master, but is thwarted by Prospero's spirit-servant Ariel. The King's young son Ferdinand, thought to
be dead, falls in love with Prospero's daughter Miranda. Their celebrations are cut short when Prospero
confronts his brother and reveals his identity as the usurped Duke of Milan. The families are reunited and all
conflict is resolved. Prospero grants Ariel his freedom and prepares to leave the island.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the
boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master
play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.
Ques. : Which of these Greek plays was a source for The Winter’s Tale ? (NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2015 P-III)
(1) Iphigeneia at Aulis (2) AIcestis
(3) Medea (4) Iphigenaia at Tauris
Ans. : (2)
The Statue Scene in Act V of “The Winter’s Tale” has been directly borrowed from Greek playwright Euripides’s play
– ‘Alcestis’.
Ques. : Like Cordelia, the Fool in King Lear is __________ . (NTA UGC-NET June 2015 P-III)
(A) killed by Goneril's troops. (B) referred to by Lear as his child.
(C) disliked by Regan and Cornwall. (D) punished for not telling the truth.
Ans. : (B)
Fool in King Lear is referred to by Lear as his child. The Fool is essential to the narrative of the drama. One of the
most important reasons is because he is the only individual who can openly criticize King Lear. Since he is licensed,
the Fool is able to speak any truth about King Lear and not receive banishment or death for it. This enables him to
become a voice of reason and conscience, criticizing Lear when he is wrong.
Ques. : Match the phrase with character : (NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2015 P-II)
List-I List-II
(a) “motiveless malignity” (i) Macbeth
(b) “Reason In Madness” (ii) Hamlet
(c) “Supp’d full of horrors” (iii) Lear
(d) “To be, or not be” (iv) Iago
Codes :
(1) (a)-(i), (b)-(iii), (c)-(ii), (d)-(iv) (2) (a)-(iv), (b)-(ii), (c)-(iii), (d)-(i)
(3) (a)-(iv), (b)-(iii), (c)-(i), (d)-(ii) (4) (a)-(iiii), (b)-(i), (c)-(ii), (d)-(iv)
Ans. : (3)
Iago's characterization as being "motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity" helps to explain the fundamental
sense of bitterness and resentment that eats away at Iago. Coleridge uses the term to suggest that Iago
appropriates the world around him through a "motiveless malignity."
In King Lear, Shakespeare uses “reason in madness” throughout King Lear by using unexpected characters
to help with his overall theme of recognition and realization. However, reason in madness can also refer to
Shakespeare himself, because in all the chaos and tragedy throughout King Lear, he preaches to us a very real
and intended message.
Macbeth has physically taken in horrors as shows in the lines saying he supp'd full of horrors. He closes
this with a direct reference to his slaughterous thoughts.
"To be, or not to be..." is the opening phrase of a soliloquy in the "Nunnery Scene" of William Shakespeare's
play Hamlet.
Ben Jonson was another the leading dramatist of the age. He was born in 1572 in Westminster, near London. He
followed bricklayer trade in his youth as his stepfather was a master bricklayer. He also spent a brief time as a soldier,
returning to England and marrying sometime prior to 1592. Upon his return to England, Jonson became an actor and
by 1597 was working as a dramatist for the theatrical entrepreneur Philip Henslowe.
In the prologue to Everyman in his Humour he attacked the romantic conventions of contemporary theatre and
expounded his own theory of drama. Speaking of comedy, he observes:
But deeds and language such as men do use,
And persons such as comedy would choose
When she would show an image of the times
And sport with human follies, not with crimes.
The comedy which Ben Jonson created is known as the comedy of humour—humour not in its modern but medieval
sense. It was supposed that everyman had four 'humours' or fluids in his body— choler, bile, phlegm, and blood.
Choler made him choleric or irritable, bile melancholy or pessimistic, phlegm phlegmatic or slow and sluggish,
and blood sanguine or lively and optimistic. Humour thus came to mean an idiosyncrasy, eccentricity or oddity of
character. Ben Jonson seizes upon the characteristic 'humour' or eccentricity of a character and exaggerates it to the
point of absurdity. This conception of character is illustrated in Ben Jonson's first comedy Everyman in his Humour
which is the key to all his comic plays.
Though realism was the strong point of Ben Jonson, he was not without a delicate poetic vein as is evidenced by his
unfinished pastoral drama, The Sad Shepherd or A Tale of Robinhood. Besides, the large number of masques he wrote
contain delightful poetry. His song 'Drink to me only with thine eyes' is one of the most famous lyrics in the language.
His chief works include: Every man in his Humour (1596), Volpone (1605) Epicoene or The Silent Woman (1609),
The Alchemist (1610), Caroline (1611), The King's Men; Bartholomew Fair (1614). He is more a classicist than
romantic. Unlike Shakespeare, he deals with human life in section rather than as a whole: being content to satirize men
and women. In 1616, King James I made him poet laureate, the official poet of the Court. This position also came
with an annual pension, allowing Jonson to live out his life comfortably. Jonson suffered a severe stroke in 1628 and
died in Westminster on August 6, 1637.
Jonson's first play, co-written with Thomas Nashe in 1597, was The Isle of Dogs.
Every man in his Humour (1596) : He has first struck the anti-romantic note and sought to establish a
satirical comedy of manners framed in a definite plan. The word humour is meant for some characteristic
whim or quality of society. It aimed at ridiculing the humors of the society. The plot of the play is based on
two different stories. One is about a gentleman Knowell who is badly concerned for his son's moral development
and for this purpose he keeps an eye on his son by a servant Brainworm. In the subplot, a merchant named
Kitely suffers intense jealousy, fearing that his wife is cuckolding him with some of the good-for-nothing
characters brought to his home by his brother-in-law, Wellbred. The play works through a great humour when
the justice, Clement, hears and decides all of the characters' various grievances, exposing each of them as
based in humour, misperception, or deceit.
Cynthia's Revels or the Fountain of Self Love (1600) : The second satire, satirizes the humors of the court.
The play begins with three pages disputing over the black cloak usually worn by the actor who delivers the
prologue. They draw lots for the cloak, and one of the losers, Anaides, starts telling the audience what happens
in the play to come; the others try to suppress him, interrupting him and putting their hands over his mouth.
Soon they are fighting over the cloak and criticizing the author and the spectators as well.
The Poetaster (1601) : The third satire is seen as a result of his quarrel with his contemporaries. Enveloped
in the literary quarrels and rivalries, the play is a sharp satire on John Marston and Thomas Dekker.
Volpone (1605) : It is a keen and merciless analysis of a man governed by an overwhelming love of money
for its own sake. Volpone (the Fox) is a Venetian gentleman who pretends to be on his deathbed after a long
illness in order to dupe Voltore (the Vulture), Corbaccio (the Raven) and Corvino (the Crow), three men who
expect to inherit his wealth. Volpone, childless and rich, and his servant and parasite, Mosca (the Fly), are
playing a cunning and farcical game of deceit with three supposed friends who have each set their sights on
becoming Volpone's sole heir. Volpone, although healthy, feigns deathly illness to urge the three to shower him
with valuable gifts in hopes of gaining his favor, and soon his money. All characters are bad except Celia
(Corvino's wife) and Bonario.
The Alchemist (1610): The play is related to the turmoil of deception that begins when Lovewit leaves his
London house due to spread of plague, in the care of his scheming servant, Face. With the aid of a fraudulent
alchemist named Subtle and his companion, Dol Common, Face starts doing some immoral works at home.
These include many people like the knight Sir Epicure Mammon, the pretentious Puritans Ananias and Tribulation
Wholesome, the ambitious tobacconist Abel Drugger, the gamester law clerk Dapper, and the parvenu Kastril
with his widowed sister, Pliant. When Lovewit reappears without warning, Subtle and Dol flee the scene,
leaving Face to make peace by arranging the marriage of his master to the beautiful and wealthy Dame Pliant.
Ques. : Why does Lovewit in Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist leave his house, setting the stage for his servant Face,
alongwith Subtle, a fake alchemist to fleece people ? (NTA UGC-NET July 2016 P-III)
(1) To visit his father who left him long ago. (2) To find out new sources of minting money.
(3) Because of an epidemic of plague. (4) To make a pilgrimage.
Ans. : (3)
To find out new sources of minting money.
Ques. Identify the right chronological sequence : (NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2014 P-III)
(A) The Game of Chess – Volpone – The Duchess of Malfi – The City Madam
(B) The City Madam – The Duchess of Malfi – Volpone – A Game of Chess
(C) Volpone – The Duchess of Malfi – A Game of Chess – The City Madam
(D) The Duchess of Malfi – Volpone – A Game of Chess – The City Madam
Ans. : (C)
“Volpone” is a comedy play by English playwright Ben Jonson. It was first produced in 1605-06.
“Duchess of Malfi” by John Webster was written in 1612-13.
“A Game at Chess” was written by Thomas Middleton and staged by the King's Men in August 1624.
“The City Madam”, a comedy in five acts, by Philip Massinger, was licensed in 1632.
The Silent Woman (1609) : In the play, the leading character is called Morose, and his special whim or humor
is a horror of noise. His home is on a street so narrow at both ends that it will receive no coaches nor carts, nor
any of these common noises. He has mattresses on the stairs, and he dismisses the footman for wearing squeaking
shoes. For a long time, Morose does not marry, fearing the noise of a wife's tongue. Finally, he commissions his
nephew to find him a silent woman for a wife, and the author uses to good advantage the opportunity for comic
situations. Cutbeard, his barber, in league with Eugenie, finds such a woman in Epicoene. The marriage ceremony is
performed by a parson who can hardly speak because of a bad cold. When the parson coughs after the ceremony,
he is asked to give back five shillings of the fee paid to him. He saves it only by coughing more on Cutbeard's
instructions and is thrust out of the house. Immediately after the marriage the wife finds her tongue which she begins
to use vigorously by scolding the husband and counter-manding his orders. Morose tries his best to get divorce but
finally it is found that Epicoene is a boy which ends up the marriage readily. Dryden preferred The Silent Woman
to any of the other plays.
George Chapman : George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar whose
works show the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's sonnets by
William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets of the 17th century. Chapman's earliest drama, The
Blind Beggar of Alexandria, was produced in 1596, and he quickly gained a reputation as a talented playwright.
Chapman wrote approximately twenty-one plays between 1596 and 1613, but his output was very less. Chapman
experienced financial troubles throughout his life and spent some time in debtor's prison. His fortune changed for a
brief time in 1603, when he was given a position in the household of the young Prince Henry.
Translations by Chapman
Chapman's most successful bid for noble patronage began with his first
translations of Homer in 1598: his Seven Books of the Iliad, translations in
fourteeners of books 1, 2, and 7-11; and Achilles Shield, a partial translation of
book 18 of the Iliad in decasyllabic couplets. Both were dedicated to the
brilliant Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex.
Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homers Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia
(Battle of Frogs and Mice). His earliest published works were the obscure philosophical poems The Shadow of Night
(1594) and Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595). The latter has been taken as a response to the erotic poems of the age
such as Philip Sydney's Astrophel and Stella and Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. Chapmans life was troubled by
debt and his inability to find a patron whose fortunes did not decline.
Comedies by Chapman
By the end of the 1590s, Chapman had become a successful playwright, working for Philip Henslowe and later for
the Children of the Chapel. Among his comedies are The Blind Beggar of Alexandria (1596; printed 1598), An
Humorous Days Mirth (1597; printed 1599), All Fools (printed 1605), Monsieur Dolive (1605; printed 1606), The
Gentleman Usher (printed 1606) May Day (printed 1611) and The Widows Tears (printed 1612). His plays show a
willingness to experiment with dramatic form: A Humorous Days Mirth was one of the first plays to be written in
the style of humours comedy which Ben Jonson later used in Every Man in his Humour and Every Man Out of his
Humour. With 'the Widows Tears' he was also one of the first writers to blend comedy with more serious themes,
creating the tragicomedy later made famous by Beaumont and Fletcher. He also wrote one noteworthy play in
collaboration, Eastward Ho (1605), written with Jonson and John Marston, contained satirical references to the
Scots which landed Chapman and Jonson in jail.
Tragedies by Chapman
His greatest tragedies took their subject matter from recent French history, the French ambassador taking offence on
at least one occasion. These include Bussy D'ambois (1607), The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron
(1608), The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois (1613) and The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France (published 1639).
His only work of classical tragedy, Caesar and Pompey (ca. 1613) is generally regarded as his most modest
achievement in the genre.
Chapman also translated the Homeric Hymns, the Georgics of Virgil, The Works of Hesiod (1618, dedicated to
Francis Bacon), the Hero and Leander of Musaeus (1618), and the Fifth Satire of Juvenal (1624).
John Webster (1580-1625) John Webster was probably born in London in 1578. He was the son of a coach-maker
and a member of the Merchant Taylors Company. It is believed that Webster studied at the Merchant Taylors School.
He later married Sara Peniall. Webster was employed as a playwright in the theatre company of Phillip Henslowe. His
literary career began with collaborative works with writers such as Dekker, Rowley, Ford and Heywood. Between 1602
and 1605, he collaborated on 5 plays, including Caesar's Fall, Lady Jane, Westward Ho! and Northward Ho!
Webster's first individually written play was The Devils Law Case, a tragicomedy. This was followed by his two most
famous plays, The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, that were derived from Italian stories and are among the
finest of all Jacobean tragedies. Both of them are revenge tragedies. Webster died sometime around November 1634.
Elizabethan theatre rapidly declined after his death.
The White Devil (1612): The tragedy is founded on Italian history and is centered on Vittoria Corombona and
the Duke of Brachiano, who are in an adulterous relationship. The Duke murders Vittoria's husband and his
own wife. After the murders, both of them get married. However, justice is restored at the end with both the
Duke and Vittoria getting killed at the hands of Isabella's (Dukes slain wife) avengers.
The Duchess of Malfi (1614): The play was first performed at the Globe Theatre in London in 1614 and
published in 1623. It revolves around a widowed Duchess, who marries her steward, Antonio Bologna secretly
without her brother's knowledge. The duchess becomes the mother of three children after marriage. The two
brothers of Duchess, Cardinal and Ferdinand appointed Bosola to keep an eye on her and finally become aware
of her secret marriage. When the couple was ready to flee and save themselves, the Duchess with one child
is captured and is subjected to prolonged mental tortures. She is even shown the artificial dead bodies of
Antonio and two children. In all these miseries she is strangled to death. Ferdinand seeing her dead body
exclaims,
"Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: She died young."
However, here too justice prevails with the death and downfall of the evil characters at the end of the play
and Antonio with his children becomes the ruler of Malfi.
Ques. : Which of the following characters in The White Devil describes the glory of great men as : “Glories, like
glow worms a far off shine bright / But looked to near have neither heat nor light".
(NTA UGC-NET Dec. 2015 P-III)
(1) Vittoria (2) Lodovico
(3) Flamineo (4) Cornelia
Ans. : (3)
Flamineo (The White Devil – Act – V, Scence I)
General Paper-1
Model Solved Paper-7
4. A teacher is introducing a new subject when meeting the class for the first time it would be best to
(A) Being the first lesson without delay
(B) Give a class, a board outline of the subject
(C) Being at once with the review of the relevant material of the previous grade
(D) Concrete on identifying potential trouble - makers and leaders of the classroom mischief.
5. A teacher gives lot of positive and negative example of support his/her presentations in the classroom. This will be
related to which level of teaching?
(A) Autonomous development level (B) Memory level
(C) Understanding level (D) Reflective level
8. Software program designed for computer-assisted qualitative and mixed methods data, text and multimedia analysis
in academic, scientific, and business institutions.
(A) SPASS Text analysis (B) MAXQDA
(C) SAS (Statistical Analysis Software) (D) GraphPad Prism
9. The process of establishing a relationship of mutual trust between the researcher and the participants is known as:
(A) Intimacy (B) Informality
(C) Rapport (D) Nexus
Direction (11-15) : Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow :
Talent is a force not a tool, Talent is neither good nor bad. Being multi-talented is a very mixed blessing. For some
people, it is a curse. Ability or performance is the result of complex interaction between various parts of the mind /
body system. Some parts of the ability are due to "nurture". The most important of these environmental factors is
knowledge in one form or another. Nature is the basis of talent.
We all know, understand and operate on more levels than just the conscious. Talents or Aptitudes are unleaded abilities-
gut-level and non-conscious ways of operating. Some people call them knacks. Aptitudes have major impact not just
on performance, but on our individual and unique states of being. They are a big part of the reason "One man's meat
is another man's poison".
Most people know for more than they realize about knacks and talents. People usually know if they are mechanical,
have a sequence of direction, pickup language enjoy puzzles or are good with their hands. Anyone who has managed
or trained people has seen the clear impact of learned abilities. In any area, some folks take to it like ducks to water.
Once trained they stay ahead of the crowd. Others sweat to keep up or fail miserably. Strong talents do not equal high
performance. Having the right knacks or talents provides a head start and on-going advantage. They are not useful
without knowledge and motivation. Aptitudes have to be trained in order to be used well. Peak performance occurs
when one has the right combination of talents, knowledge, motivation, opportunity, courage, luck, tools and X factors.
11. A child always opening the "crossword puzzles page in a newspaper" is an analogy for
(A) Some folks take to it like ducks to water (B) One man's meat is another man's poison
(C) Both (A) and (B) (D) None of the above
12. "One man's meat is another man's poison". In this statement we are referring to :
(A) The food habits of a person (B) The likes and dislikes of a person
(C) The relative importance of people's talents (D) None of the above
14. Peak performance occurs when one has the right combination of
(i) Talents (ii) Knowledge
(iii) Opportunity (iv) Motivation
Of the above the aspects that are nurtured are
(A) (i) and (ii) (B) (ii) and (iii)
(C) (ii) and (iv) (D) (i) and (iii)
15. Out of the four alternatives choose the one which best expresses the meaning of the given word
Knack
(A) Ineptitude (B) Inability
(C) Ingenuity (D) Incapacity
17. Includes processes such as Knowledge, attention, Memory and working memory, Judgment and evaluation reasoning,
Problem solving and Decision Making, Comprehension and production of language is also known as?
(A) Internal Communication (B) External Communication
(C) Mass Communication (D) Cognitive Communication
19. Which of the following elements a good classroom communication should adopt?
(i) Concreteness (ii) Courtesy
(iii) Filibustering (iv) Fictionalization
(v) Coherence
Choose the answer from the options given below :
(A) (i), (ii) and (iv) (B) (ii), (iv) and (v)
(C) (i), (ii) and (v) (D) (i), (iii) and (iv)
20. Firmware is
(A) The particular hardware that it runs on and usually has processing and memory constraints
(B) Helps to manage, maintain and control computer resources.
(C) Software can be written in almost any programming language
(D) Used for software created for a specific purpose or task
Direction (21-25) : The bar graph shows the production (in thousand tones) of Wheat, Rice and Maize in different
states.
45
40
35
35 32.5
30 30
30
25
25 Wheat
20 Rice
15
15 Maize
10
0
UP MP Bihar Odisha Haryana Punjab
The bar-graph shows the percentage of agricultural land in the given six states.
Productivity = Total production / Area of agricultural land
Total agricultural land = 2 lakh square km
23. The production of wheat in Punjab is what percent more than the production of Maize in Odisha ?
(A) 350% (B) 250%
(C) 300% (D) 200%
24. What is the ratio of the production of Rice in Bihar to the production of Wheat in Haryana ?
(A) 2 : 3 (B) 3 : 2
(C) 2 : 1 (D) 1 : 1
25. If MP exports 40% of Rice at the rate of Rs. 30 per kg and UP exports 30% of Rice at the rate of Rs. 32 per kg,
then what is the ratio of the incomes from the exports ?
(A) 65 : 48 (B) 31 : 42
(C) 43 : 54 (D) 57 : 62
26. E-mail is one of the most popular and important services provided by the Internet. What are the main advantages
of E-mail?
(A) Saves paper and allows users to edit a message easily
(B) Transmits messages faster than other conventional forms of communication, such as postal service
(C) Sends messages according to the sender's convenience
(D) All of these
32. A woman Introduces a man as the son of the brother of her mother. How is the man related to the women?
(A) Nephew (B) Son
(C) Cousin (D) Uncle
33. In the series 7, 14, 28, …, what will be the 10th term ?
(A) 1792 (B) 2456
(C) 3584 (D) 4096
34. If a man stands facing the North, at the time of sunrise his shadow will be
(A) Towards his left and at the time of sunset it will be towards his right.
(B) Towards his right and at the time of sunset it will be towards his left
(C) Towards his Centre and at the time of sunset it will be towards his right.
(D) None of these
35. Ratio between three numbers is 2 : 3 : 4 and sum of their squares is 1044, then find the first number.
(A) 10 (B) 12
(C) 11 (D) 14
40. Following statement is not true in reference Mood, Figure and Dilemma
(A) Figure: 'figure' of a syllogism is determined by 'middle term'.
(B) Mood: 'mood' of a syllogism is determined by the 'quantity' and 'quality' of the two propositions.
(C) Dilemma: A dilemma in logic means an argument that presents an antagonist with a choice of two or more
alternatives, each of which appears to contradict the original contention and is inconclusive. The dilemma is a powerful
instrument of persuasion and a devastating weapon in controversy.
(D) None of these
42. One of the anthropogenic sources of gaseous pollutants chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in air is
(A) Cement industry (B) Fertiliser industry
(C) Foam industry (D) Pesticide industry
43. The Disaster Risk Management Act was implemented in year ___________.
(A) 2005 (B) 2006
(C) 2007 (D) 2002
44. Which Mission derives its mandate from Sustainable Agriculture Mission which is one of the eight Missions
outlined under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).
(A) National Mission for a Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
(B) National Water mission (NWM)
(C) National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC)
(D) National Mission for Green India (NMGI)
45. Which article of constitution shall be duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment
including forests, lakes, rivers and wild- life and to have compassion for living creatures
(A) Article 48 (B) Article 48 -A
(C) Article 51-A (g) (D) Article 47
49. Which commission or committee recommended fulfilling compulsory education for all children up to age of 14
as stipulated by the constitute of India.
(A) Kothari (B) Acharaya Rammurti
(C) Yash Pal (D) k. Kasturirnagan
50. Which committee under prepare a Draft New education policy, 2019
(A) Kothari (B) Acharaya Rammurti
(C) Yash Pal (D) k. Kasturirnagan
Answer Key
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
B B C B C D A B C D
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
A C A C C A D D C C
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
B D C D A D D A C B
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
B C C A B D D C D B
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
C C A A C C B A A D
Solutions
1. (B) Planning Commission is an Advisory Body which Indicate the factors which are tending to retard economic
development, and determine the conditions which, in view of the current social and political situation, should be
established for the successful execution of the Plan.
4. (B) A teacher is introducing a new subject when meeting the class for the first time it would be best to give a class,
a board outline of the subject
5. (C) A teacher gives lot of positive and negative example of support his/her presentations in the classroom. This will
be related to understanding level of teaching
7. (A) http://go.turnitin.com
8. (B) MAXQDA (software program designed for computer-assisted qualitative and mixed methods data, text and
multimedia analysis in academic, scientific, and business institutions.)
9. (C) Rapport is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each
other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly.
10. (D) The synopsis of research is called Blueprint of Research, Mapping of Problem, Base of Problem of research.
11. (A) A child always opening the "crossword puzzle page in a newspaper" is an analogy for some folks take to it
like ducks to water.
12. (C) "One man's meat is another man's poison". In this statement we are referring to the relative importance of
people's talents.
14. (C)
Knowledge
Motivation
16. (A) Effective Cross-Cultural Communication Minimize Problem Stemming from Misinterpretation.
17. (D) Includes processes such as Knowledge, attention, Memory and working memory, Judgment and evaluation
reasoning, Problem solving and Decision Making, Comprehension and production of language is also known as
Cognitive Communication
18. (D) Principle of effective communication (7Cs) does not include compile.
20. (C) Firmware is similar to software in that it can be written in almost any programming language. However,
firmware is stored on a medium that is usually internal to a processor but can also be stored on an external medium
such as a FLASH, EPROM, or EEPROM chip.
24. (D) The ratio of production of Rice in Bihar to the production of Wheat in Haryana
= 25000 tones: 25000 tones = 1 : 1
25. (A) Income of MP from export of 40% of Rice at the rate of Rs. 30 per kg
= 32500 × (40/100) × 1000 × 30 = Rs.39 Crore
Income of UP from export of 30% of Rice at the rate of Rs. 32 per kg
= 30000 × 1000 × (30/100) × 32 = Rs.28.8 Crore
So, required ratio
= 39 : 28.8 = 390 : 288 = 65 : 48
28. (A) For writing successful E-mail messages, precautions should be taken. There should be use of correct E-mail
address.
29. (C) Time Sharing Operating System type of OS provides on-line communication between the user and the system,
the user gives his instructions directly and receives intermediate response, and therefore it called interactive system.
30. (B) Data Scrubbing is also known as data cleaning. It is the process of amending or removing data in a database
that is incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted, or duplicated. Data editors, data mining tools, data linking tools as
well as version control, workflow and project management systems are included among software types that help
organization's attain better data quality.
32. (C) Here the woman's relation with man is expressed in elaborate manner. So, it is better to step by step.
Mother's brother means uncle in Hindi we call him as Mama, but there is no such word in English. So, mother's brother
son means uncle's son and Uncle's son means cousin.
34. (A) If a man stands facing the North, at the time of sunrise his shadow will be towards his left and at the time
of sunset it will be towards his right.
37. (D) The predicate class is excluded from part of the subject.
40. (B) Mood is determined by the 'Quantity' and 'quality' of three proposition (Two premises and one conclusion)
41. (C) Chemical contaminants are chemicals toxic to plants and animals in waterways. The phrase 'chemical contamination'
is used to indicate situation. The qualifier "natural" eliminates such exclusively manmade phenomena as war, pollution,
and chemical contamination.
42. (C) Foam industry one of the anthropogenic sources of gaseous pollutants chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) in air.
43. (A) The Disaster Management Act, 2005, was passed on 23 December 2005 by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house
of the Parliament of India on 28 November, and by the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament, on 12 December
2005.
44. (A) National Mission for a Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) derives its mandate from Sustainable Agriculture
Mission which is one of the eight Missions outlined under National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).
45. (C) Article 51-A (g) says that "It shall be duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural
environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild- life and to have compassion for living creatures."
46. (C) It compensates for social and economic handicaps of certain sections of the population.
47. (B) Gyan Vani is FM based radio service airing programs related to higher and technical education.
48. (A) Conventional or Customary Education is called Traditional Education. In conventional education the student
learns about custom and traditions of the society. The main object of conventional education is to pass the values,
manners skill and the social practice to the next generation which is necessary to the survival.
49. (A) Based on the Report and recommendation of the kothari Commission the Govt. announced the First National
Policy on Education in 1968 which is called for a "Radical Restructuring" and equalise educational opportunities. The
policy called for fulfilling compulsory education for all children up to age of 14 as stipulated by the constitute of India.
50. (D) The Govt. appointed a new committee under k. Kasturirnagan to prepare a Draft for the new National Education
Policy in 2017. It is third National Education Policy. The draft National Education Policy was submitted on the govt.
in 31 May 2019.
English
Model Solved Paper-7
1. In which poem does W.H. Auden say “For poetry makes nothing happen”?
(A) Musee des Beaux Arts (B) 1 September 1939
(C) In Memory of W. B. Yeats (D) The Shield of Achilles
2. Which Greek God appears in the guise of a swan in Yeats’s poem, ‘’Leda and the Swan’’?
(A) Apollo (B) Dionysius
(C) Poseidon (D) Zeus
4. ’Tis that from change to change their being rolls’ is a line composed by :
(A) Wordsworth (B) Coleridge
(C) Mathew Arnold (D) Thomas Hardy
6. In which poem is modern humanity described as “stuffed men” with “headpiece filled with straw”?
(A) ‘The Hollow Men’ (B) ‘Ash Wednesday’
(C) ‘East Coker’ (D) ‘Little Gidding’
7. Which of the following poets named one of his poems as Ars Poetica?
(A) Philip Larkin (B) William Wordsworth
(C) T S Eliot (D) Archibald Macleish
10. The dedication of which poem begins with the following lines
Bob Southey! You are a poet, poet laureate
And representative of all the age.
(A) Don Juan (B) Revolt of Islam
(C) Lamia (D) Childe Harold Pilgrimage
11. Name the painting referred to in the poem by W H Auden which begins with the following lines: About suffering
they were never wrong, The old masters _______.
(A) The Crucifixion of St Peter (B) The fall of Phaeton
(C) The Fall of Europa (D) The Fall of Icarus
13. Who said? “Willy was a salesman ...riding on a smile and a shoeshine ... Nobody blame this man. A salesman
is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory”.
(A) Biff (B) Happy
(C) Charley, a friend (D) Howard Wagner
14. Here is a list of partition novels which have violence on the woman’s body as a significant theme. Pick the odd
one out :
(A) The Pakistani Bride (B) What the Body Remembers
(C) Train to Pakistan (D) The Ice-Candy Man
15. _______ is the story of a nameless man who struggles to reconcile himself with the reality of post-independence
Ghana written by Ayi Kwei Armah.
(A) Beautiful Ones are not yet Born (B) Why are we so Best
(C) Fragments (D) The Healers
18. Who among the following American writers is known for antagonizing traditional minded Jews?
(A) John Updike (B) John Barth
(C) Philip Roth (D) Ralph Ellison
19. Choose the novel among the ones given below which wrote in reaction to the New Poor Law of 1834.
(A) Oliver Twist (B) David Copperfield
(C) Hard Times (D) Nicholas Nickleby
20. Which of the following novels deals with the aboriginal Stolen Generation?
(A) Cloudstreet (B) The Tree of Man
(C) Benang (D) For the Term of his Natural Life
22. This Australian novel was published in 1901. The author at 16 tells a life story expressing an intense desire to
be a writer. Suddenly life is transformed, one could choose between the dreams and a conventional life. Which novel
is this?
(A) Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career (B) Sally Morgans My Place
(C) Mudrooroo’s Wild Cat Falling (D) Kevin Gilbert’s The Cherry Pickers
23. Death of a Salesman is called “time bomb expertly placed under the edifice of Americanism” because of
(A) general sociological and psychological fear of failure
(B) fear of Russia subverting American freedom
(C) In Willy Loman people discovered their own collapse of enterprise
(D) it strikes at the base of capitalist economic system
24. What is there in common between these novels – Thackeray’s Henry Esmond, George Eliot’s Romola, Thomas
Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon and Chaman Nahal’s Azadi.
(A) They are all historical novels
(B) They are all psychological novels
(C) They are all novels about romance and adventure
(D) They are all bildungsromans
Direction (26-30) : Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below it :
There is a pleasure in painting which none but painters know.’ In writing, you have to contend with the world; in
painting, you have only to carry on a friendly strife with Nature. You sit down to your task, and are happy. From the
moment that you take up the pencil, and look Nature in the face, you are at peace with your own heart. No angry
passions rise to disturb the silent progress of the work, to shake the hand, or dim the brow: no irritable humours are
set afloat: you have no absurd opinions to combat, no point to strain, no adversary to crush, no fool to annoy—you
are actuated by fear or favour to no man. There is ‘no juggling here,’ no sophistry, no intrigue, no tampering with the
evidence, no attempt to make black white, or white black: but you resign yourself into the hands of a greater power,
that of Nature, with the simplicity of a child, and the devotion of an enthusiast—’study with joy her manner, and with
rapture taste her style.’ The mind is calm, and full at the same time. The hand and eye are equally employed. In tracing
the commonest object, a plant or the stump of a tree, you learn something every moment. You perceive unexpected
differences, and discover likenesses where you looked for no such thing. You try to set down what you see—find out
your error, and correct it. You need not play tricks, or purposely mistake: with all your pains, you are still far short
of the mark. Patience grows out of the endless pursuit, and turns it into a luxury. A streak in a flower, a wrinkle in
a leaf, a tinge in a cloud, a stain in an old wall or ruin grey, are seized with avidity as the ‘spolia opima’ of this sort
of mental warfare, and furnish out labour for another half-day. The hours pass away untold, without chagrin, and
without weariness; nor would you ever wish to pass them otherwise. Innocence is joined with industry, pleasure with
business; and the mind is satisfied, though it is not engaged in thinking or in doing any mischief.
26. What is the main theme of the passage?
(A) The Pleasure of Painting (B) Painting and its lacunas
(C) Painters and their lost art (D) None of the above
30. In which act pleasure is joined with business according to the author?
(A) in Watching nature (B) in Writing
(C) in Painting (D) None of the above
31. The structuralist method of language teaching was influenced by the ideas of:
(A) Ferdinand de Saussare (B) Edwin Sapin
(C) Noam Chomsky (D) Zellig Harris
35. _______ said, “Language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from
the simultaneous presence of the others ……”
(A) F. R. Leavis (B) C. P. Snow
(C) Saussure (D) R. S. Crane
36. Which of the following poets are in the correct chronological order?
(A) Philip Larkin – Ted Hughes – Seamus Heaney (B) Philip Larkin – Seamus Heaney – Ted Hughes
(C) Ted Hughes – Seamus Heney – Philip Larkin (D) None of the above
40. Given below is the transcription of an English word. Select the word from the option :
41. Specs, gym, maths, fax are some of the examples of word formation in Morphology, chiefly recognized as
(A) Acronym formation (B) Blending
(C) Clipping (D) Backformation
43. Who among the following wrote the Foreword to Mulk Raj Aanand’s Untouchables?
(A) E M Forster (B) Graham Greene
(C) W B Yeats (D) T S Eliot
44. Name one of the following novels translated into English which deals with the problem of dalit entry into the
temple in Karanataka.
(A) Samskara (B) The Wild Bapu of Garambi
(C) Bharatipura (D) The Village Had No Walls
45. In a play by Girish Karnad, there are two friends - one is Brahmin and the other is an ironsmith. Name the novel.
(A) Hayavadana (B) Yayati
(C) The Fire and the Rain (D) Nagmandala
46. Aurobindo’s following book deals with the mythological theme in the epic form :
(A) Karmayogin (B) The Renaissance
(C) Savitri (D) Collected poems of Aurobindo Ghosh
Direction (47-51) : Read the following Passage carefully and pick out the most appropriate answers.
PORTIA : Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut’st more
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.
GRATIANO : A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
PORTIA : Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture.
SHYLOCK : Give me my principal, and let me go.
BASSANIO : I have it ready for thee; here it is.
PORTIA : He hath refused it in the open court:
He shall have merely justice and his bond.
53. Which of the following scholars is famous for his translation of Mahabharata ?
(A) D D Kosambi (B) Ganesh N Devi
(C) Meenakshi Mukherjee (D) P Lal
56. V S Naipaul’s essay Indian Autobiographies is taken from the anthology entitled:
(A) India a Wounded Civilization (B) Literary Occasions
(C) An Area of Darkness (D) The Mimic Men
57. Who has written the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers?
(A) James Weldon Johnson (B) Carl Sandburg
(C) Langston Hughes (D) Claude McKay
58. Name the modern Marxist philosopher who coined the term ‘Ideological State Apparatus’.
(A) Edward Said (B) Terry Eagleton
(C) Listening and Speaking (D) Louis Althusser
59. Edward E Said’s Culture and Imperialism deals with one of the following themes:
(A) The development of novel as a vehicle of
(B) The colonizer’s civilizing mission
(C) imperialism The image of the Oriental in Literature
(D) The theory of Colonialism
63. Identify from the following a novel that deals with the Jazz Age.
(A) The Farewell to Arms (B) The Sound and the Fury
(C) The Great Gatsby (D) Mainstreet
65. Which Caribbean poet of 20th century makes folk music a major part of his poetry in which he presents drumming,
work songs and blues?
(A) Kamau Brathwaite (B) Linton Kwesi Johnson
(C) Derek Walcott (D) Cynthia James
66. The idea of negritude as the cultural response of the native to the onslaught by colonialism’s culture was
propagated by
(A) Ayi Kwei Armah (B) Aime Cesaire
(C) Franz Fanon (D) Arjun Appadurai
68. For Aristotle, tragedy is an imitation of action which is serious, complete in itself and having a certain _______.
(A) Length (B) Magnitude
(C) Intension (D) Attitude
69. The most common method wherein the details of a reference are included within the text of the paper/ book in
brackets.
(A) Parentheses (B) Footnotes
(C) Endnotes (D) None of them
71. Who has defined drama as ‘a just and lively image of human nature’?
(A) Aristotle (B) Dr Johnson
(C) John Dryden (D) Longinus
Direction (72-76) : Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below it :
All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One
day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her
mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh,
why can’t you remain like this forever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy
knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end. Of course they
lived at 14 [their house number on their street], and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely
lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within
the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet
mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-
hand corner.
The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered
simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a
cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew
about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture
him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.
72. This passage best demonstrates which narrative technique ?
(A) Denouement (B) Characterization
(C) Foreshadowing (D) Pathos
73. The author’s description of Mrs. Darling’s “sweet mocking mouth” implies :
(A) While pretty, Mrs. Darling frequently chides others.
(B) Although subject to slight disfigurement, Mrs. Darling’s mouth is still pleasant in appearance.
(C) The description implicitly likens Mrs. Darling to a mockingbird, which sings a sweet song yet is a trickster.
(D) Mrs. Darling is a loving woman, yet she does not wholly give her love away.
74. Overall, from this passage you can infer that Mrs. Darling :
(A) Is a dominant, complex woman. (B) Accidentally denies those around her.
(C) Is artistic and absent-minded. (D) Has a troubled marriage.
75. “Oh, why can’t you remain like this forever!” The statement implies :
(A) Cheerful appreciation (B) love for flowers
(C) expression of forgiveness (D) regret at the immaturity
77. “Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.” Who said it?
(A) T S Eliot (B) I A Richards
(C) Northrop Frye (D) W B Yeats
80. Who among the following was not the member of the Bloomsbury Circle?
(A) D H Lawrence (B) Virginia Woolf
(C) Leonard Woolf (D) Cleve Bell
83. Which of the following fictional works by David Herbert Lawrence are in the correct chronological order?
(A) Kangaroo – The White Peacock – The Rainbow –The Plumed Serpent
(B) The Rainbow – The White Peacock –Kangaroo – The Plumed Serpent
(C) The Plumed Serpent - The White Peacock – The Rainbow – Kangaroo
(D) The White Peacock – The Rainbow – Kangaroo – The Plumed Serpent
87. In this mode, the data is collected through new experiment, survey, group-discussion, questionnaires, etc.
(A) Primary data collection (B) Secondary data collection
(C) Random sampling (D) All of the above
88. Which two poets belonging to the group known as the ‘Movement’ were also novelists?
(A) John Wain and Kingsley Amis (B) Donald Davie and Kingsley Amis
(C) Elizabeth Jennings and Kingsley Amis (D) D J Enright and Kingsley Amis
89. Which among of the following novels of Jane Austen has been studied by Edward Said to explore the links
between domestic prosperity and overseas plantation?
(A) Mansfield Park (B) Northanger Abbey
(C) Persuasion (D) Sense and Sensibility
90. The relationship between signifier and signified is one of the theoretical proposals of:
(A) Ferdinand de Saussure (B) Julia Kristeva
(C) Michel Foucault (D) Roland Barthes
91. Which of the following critics formulated the performative theory of gender?
(A) Elaine Showalter (B) Judith Wright
(C) Judith Butler (D) Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak
92. A well-written _______ attracts potential readers and facilitates the cataloguing of a research report in an electronic
database.
(A) title (B) summary
(C) abstract (D) synopsis
93. Which of the following is the most recent and dependable source of information on a broad scientific topic?
(A) Research paper (B) Bibliography
(C) Review article (D) New textbook
94. The _______ is the best indicator of the total importance of a journal to researchers.
(A) Garfield quotient (B) Impact factor
(C) Eigen factor (D) g-index
Direction (97-100): Read the following poem carefully and pick out the most appropriate answers.
Go, lovely Rose !
Tell her, that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Tell her that’s young
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired :
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blish so to be admired.
Then die ! that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee :
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair !
97. What does the rose symbolise?
(A) time (B) love
(C) valour (D) death
Answer Key
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
C D B C D A D A C A
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
D C C C A D B C A C
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
C A A A A A C A D C
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
A C D A C A B A C B
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
C D A C A C D B D B
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
A A D A A B C D A D
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
D A C A A B A B A A
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
C B D A A B B C B A
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
B D D A A C A D A A
91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
C A C C A C B A B D
Solution
1. (C) In Memory of W B Yeats, W H Auden seeks to immortalize W. B. Yeats by writing a poem about his memory
and its value. It was written in 1939, following the death of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats in January of that year. He
celebrates the immortality of Yeats’s great poetry instead of mourning the man’s demise. The poem is divided into three
parts and possesses the elegiac note.
2. (D) “Leda and the Swan” was published in Yeats’s 1928 collection The Tower in which other great poems like
“Among Schoolchildren” and “Sailing to Byzantium are also included.” The poem is a retelling of a story from Greek
mythology, the rape of the girl Leda by the god Zeus, who had assumed the form of a swan.
3. (B) The American modernist poet William Carlos Williams wrote the poem The Red Wheelbarrow which was
published in his 1923 book
4. (C) “The Scholar Gipsy” (1853) is a poem by Matthew Arnold, based on a 17th-century Oxford story found in
Joseph Glanvill’s The Vanity of Dogmatizing.
5. (D) Stream of Consciousness: It is a literary style in which a character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions are
depicted in a continuous flow by objective description or conventional dialogue. James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and
Marcel Proust are among its notable early exponents. It is commonly credited to William James who used it in 1890
in his The Principles of Psychology. In 1918, the novelist May Sinclair (1863–1946) first applied the term stream of
consciousness, in a literary context, when discussing Dorothy Richardson’s (1873–1957) novels. Sometimes this
device is also called “internal monologue”.
Anxiety of Influence : Anxiety of Influence is a type of literary criticism established by Harold Bloom in 1973, in
his book, The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. It refers to the psychological struggle of aspiring authors to
overcome the anxiety posed by the influence of their literary antecedents.
Suspension of Disbelief: This term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 with the publication of
his Biographia literaria or biographical sketches of my literary life and opinions. Suspension of disbelief is especially
important when reading in genres like Magical Realism, Gothic Literature, Science Fiction, or Fantasy, where
some weird stuff is bound to go down.
Dissociation of Sensibility: The phrase with Unification of sensibility was first used by Eliot in his essay on the
Metaphysical Poets of the early 17th century. By unification of sensibility, T. S. Eliot means “a fusion of thought and
feeling”, “a recreation of thought into feeling”, “a direct sensuous apprehension of thought”. Such fusion of thought
and feeling is essential for good poetry. Eliot finds such unification of sensibility in the Metaphysical poets, and
regrets that a dissociation of sensibility set in the late 17th century; there was a split between thought and feeling and
we have not yet recovered from this dissociation. The influence of Dryden and Milton has been particularly harmful
in this respect.
6. (A) The Hollow Men” (1925) is a poem by T. S. Eliot. The poem is divided into five parts and consists of 98 lines.
We are the hollow men, We are the stuffed men
Leaning together, Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!”
7. (D) “Ars Poetica” (Latin for “The Art of Poetry”) is a lyric poem of twenty-four lines. It describes the qualities
a poem should have if it is to stand as a work of art. MacLeish wrote it in 1925 and published it in 1926.
8. (A) Edward Albee, the American playwright published his first one act play,The Zoo Story . It was written in 1958
and completed in just three weeks. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, social disparity and dehumanization
in a materialistic world.
9. (C) The Vision of Piers Plowman is a Middle English alliterative poem by William Langland. The poem takes
the form of a series of dream visions dealing with the social and spiritual predicament of late 14th-century England.
10. (A) Don Juan is a satiric poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan portraying Juan not as a
womaniser but as someone easily seduced by women. Byron completed 16 cantos, leaving an unfinished 17th canto
before his death in 1824. Towards the end of the III canto, Byron insults his contemporaries Robert Southey who was
the Poet Laureate of England when Byron was writing Don Juan.
11. (D) “Musée des Beaux Arts” (French for “Museum of Fine Arts”) is a poem written by W. H. Auden and published
in 1939. Auden begins the lyric by praising the painters of old, like Brueghel, who understood the nature of suffering
and humanity’s indifference to it.
12. (C) Written during late 1914, Rupert Brooke introduced the group of five war sonnets titled Nineteen Fourteen.
These sonnets express the hopeful idealism and enthusiasm with which Britain entered the war
13. (C) Charley is Willy Loman’s neighbor and only friend in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. He and Willy have
a friendly relationship that is depicted in one scene when they are playing cards.
15. (A) Ayi Kwei Armah’s first novel, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, was published in 1968, and tells the
story of a nameless man who struggles to reconcile himself with the reality of post-independence Ghana.
16. (D) The third novel of Charles Dickens was Nicholas Nickleby; or, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas
Nickleby. It was originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839. The novel centres on the life and adventures of
Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies.
18. (C) hilip Milton Roth (1933 – 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. In his 1959 novella, Goodby
Columbus, Philip Roth used the term.
19. (A) The second novel by Charles Dickens is Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy’s Progress which was first published
as a serial from 1837 to 1839. The story centres on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship
with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the “Artful Dodger”, a member of a gang
of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.
In Oliver Twist, Dickens mixes grim realism with merciless satire to describe the effects of industrialism on 19th-
century England and to criticise the harsh new Poor Laws.
20. (C) Benang is Indigenous Australian Kim Scott’s second novel which is about forced assimilation and finding how
one can return to one’s own culture. The novel presents how difficult it is to form a working history of a population
who had been historically uprooted from its past. Benang follows Harley, a young man who has gone through the
process of “breeding out the colour”, as he pieces together his family history through documentation, such as photograph
and his grandfather’s notes, as well as memories and experiences. Harley and his family have undergone a process
of colonial scientific experimentation called “breeding of the colour”, which separated individuals from their indigenous
families and origins.
21. (C) Gulliver’s Travels is a prose satire of 1726 by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift. The novel is
divided into four parts :
Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput.
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag.
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan.
Part IV: A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms.
22. (A) My Brilliant Career is a 1901 debut novel which was written while the athor was still a teenager, as a romance
to amuse her friends.
23. (A) Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. It won the 1949
Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
24. (A) Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past.
25. (A) French writer Gustave Flaubert’ debut novel Madame Bovary was published in 1856. Madame Bovary tells
the bleak story of a marriage of Emma and Charles Bovary that ends in a tragedy. In the final part of the book, Emma,
in despair, swallows arsenic and dies an agonizing death.
26. (A) The above passage is taken from William Hazlitt’s essay “On the Pleasure of Painting” and so is its theme.
31. (A) The origins of the structuralist approach of linguistics come from Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), a
Swiss language scholar. The structuralist theory of language and linguistics says that the components of language are
interrelated to one another and get their meaning from that relationship.
32. (C) The rising tone is used in ‘yes or no type of questions’ whereas the wh-questions are used with falling tone.
33. (D) Computer-assisted language Learning (CALL) is an approach to teaching and learning in which the computer
and computer-based resources such as the Internet are used to present, reinforce and assess material to be learned.
34. (A) Humanistic language teaching is an approach based on the principle that the whole being, emotional and
social, needs to be engaged in learning, not just the mind. Humanistic teaching approaches include the Silent Way,
Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response and Suggestopedia.
35. (C) The statement was used by Ferdinand de Saussure in his book Course in General Linguistics.
36. (A) New poets starting their careers in the 1950s and 1960s include Philip Larkin (1922–1985) (The Whitsun
Weddings, 1964), Ted Hughes (1930–1998) (The Hawk in the Rain, 1957) and Irishman (born Northern Ireland) Seamus
Heaney (1939–2013) (Death of a Naturalist, 1966).
37. (B) Code switching refers to the use of two languages within a sentence or discourse. It is a natural conflation
that often occurs between multilingual speakers who have two or more languages in common.
39. (C) The History of English Language Teaching by Anthony P R Howatt was published in 1984. This book traces
the history of English language teaching right up to the origins of the communicative approach, ending with a
discussion of the impact of applied linguistics on language teaching in both America and Britain.
41. (C) Clipping: Shortening of a polysyllabic word to create a new word where the clipped word is used more.
Examples: bro (brother), pro (professional), prof (professor), math (mathematics), fridge (refrigerator)
42. (D) ‘Two Virgins’ published in 1973 is a sensitive coming of age story of two young sisters that portrays a struggle
between the Eastern and Western values.
43. (A) Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand was published in 1935. The later editions of the novel carry a foreword
written by E M Forster.
44. (C) U R Ananthmurthy’s Bharatipura was published in 1973 in Kannada. Jagannatha, the England returned
Brahmin, fights for the rights of the Harijan i.e. dalits in Manjunatha Shiva temple.
45. (A) Hayavadana is a 1972 published play by Girish Karnad that records the story of three characters, Kapila, an
ironsmith ; Devdatta, a Brahmin and Padmini, a beautiful girl that causes a love triangle complexity for both the male
characters.
46. (C) Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol is an epic poem in blank verse by Sri Aurobindo which approached merely
to 24000 lines as it remained unfinished due to Aurobindo’s death. The masterpiece is based on the theology from
the Mahabharata published in two parts in 1950 and 1951.
47. (D) It is the Court scene in The play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare where Shylock has brought
Antonio to court as he hasn’t been able to pay the three thousand ducats on time.
48. (B) Shylock has attempted to take the life of a Venetian citizen
51. (A) He is being forced to ask for mercy from the Duke
52. (A) The first novel by R K Narayan in his trilogy- Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English
Teacher. His first novel, Swami and Friends (1935), is an episodic narrative recounting the adventures of a group of
schoolboys.
53. (D) Purushottama Lal is best known as the translator into English of the entire Indian epic poem Mahabharata.
He also translated modern writers such as Premchand (from the Hindi) and Tagore (from the Bengali).
54. (A) Published in 2001 the book discusses several perspectives of global and local concerns, among them one
being the abuse of nuclear bomb display.
55. (A) Annihilation of Caste is an undelivered speech written in 1936 by B. R. Ambedkar who fought against the
country’s practice of untouchability.
56. (B) The eleven articles in the book include Naipaul’s boyhood experiences of reading books and his first youthful
efforts at writing them. It was published in 2003.
57. (C) The Negro Speaks of Rivers is a poem by American writer Langston Hughes under the influence of American
poet, Carl Sandburg.
58. (D) Louis Althusser, a structuralist Marxist wrote the essay ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’ in
French in 1970. Marxist sociologist Louis Althusser suggests that the bourgeoisie maintain power by using both
repressive state apparatus (coercive power like the police and the army) and ideological state apparatus: institutions
that spread bourgeois ideology and ensure that the proletariat is in a state of false class consciousness. Schools and
educational institutions are, for Althusser, part of the ideological state apparatus: they prepare working-class pupils to
accept a life of exploitation.
59. (A) Edward Said wrote a collection of essays in 1993 entitled Culture and Imperialism which introduces a
connection between imperialism and culture and how it influenced the English and French novels.
60. (D) The slave narrative is a type of literary genre involving the (written) autobiographical accounts of
enslaved Africans in Great Britain and its colonies, including the later United States, Canada, and Caribbean nations.
61. (D) The Prison House of Language is a critical account of structuralism and Russian formalism.
62. (A) Italian feminist and film theorist Teresa de Lauretis coined the term queer theory for a conference she
organized at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1990.
63. (C) The Jazz Age’ was a term coined by Fitzgerald himself to describe the 1920s, in his work Echoes of the Jazz
Age (1931).
64. (A) The 1965 novel by Kenyan Writer Ngugi Wa Thiongo tells the story about the struggle of a young leader,
Waiyaki, to unite the two villages of Kameno and Makuyu through sacrifice and pain.
65. (A) Edward Kamau Brathwaite (born 1930) is a Barbadian poet and academic who is known as major figure
in the Caribbean literary canon. Brathwaite is noted for his studies of Black cultural life both in Africa and throughout
the African diasporas of the world in works such as Folk Culture of the Slaves in Jamaica (1970); The Development
of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820 (1971); Contradictory Omens (1974); Afternoon of the Status Crow (1982);
and History of the Voice (1984).
66. (B) Aime Ceisure, a French author and politician, was one of the founders of negritude movement in Francophone
literature.
67. (A) Dryden’s mature thoughts of literary criticism on ancient, modern and English Literature, especially on Drama,
are presented in dialogue forms in An Essay on Dramatic Poesy. In An Essay on Dramatic Poesy there are four
speakers. Each one argues strongly as to which one is better, “Ancient or Modern, and French or English?” Neander
supports the views of Dryden reflecting the importance of English drama.
68. (B) In the Poetics by Aristotle, he insists about the plot of tragedy, “It is an imitation of an action that is complete,
and whole and of a certain magnitude.”
69. (A) Parentheses is the most commonly followed method as it is that of parenthetical referencing wherein the details
of a reference are included within the text of the paper/ book in brackets
70. (A) In ‘The Republic’ Book X: Plato says that poetry does not lead to, but drives us away from the realization
of the ultimate reality - the Truth. Philosophy is better than poetry because Philosophy deals with idea and poetry is
twice removed from original idea. He looked at poets as breeders of falsehood and poetry as mother of lies.
71. (C) In his ‘Essay on Dramatic Poesy’ Dryden defined Poetry as “just and lively image of human nature, representing
its passions and humours, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind.”
73. (D) Mrs Darling is a loving woman, yet she does not wholly give her love away.
77. (B) T.S.Eliot’s “Tradition and Individual Talent” was published in 1919 in The Egoist - the Times Literary
supplement. The essay was then published in The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. The essay is divided
into three main sections:
The first gives us Eliot’s concept of tradition;
The second exemplifies his theory of depersonalization and poetry. And
The third part he concludes the debate by saying that the poet’s sense of tradition and the impersonality of poetry
are complementary things.
78. (C) Matthew Arnold stated the statement in his 1865 critical book ‘The Function of Criticism at the Present Time’.
79. (B) Horace’s Ars Poetica is an epistle presented as an informal letter to members of the Piso family. Originally
written in dactylic hexameter, the piece is typically translated into prose.
80. (A) A group of English writers, artists and intellectuals who held informal artistic and philosophical discussions
in Bloomsbury district of London, from around 1907 to the early 1930s. At various times, the circle included Virginia
Woolf, E. M. Forster, Clive Bell, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes.
81. (B) In Practical Criticism (1929) I. A. Richards distinguishes four different meanings in a poem: (a) the sense
- what is actually said; (b) feeling - the writer’s emotional attitude towards it; (c) tone - the writer’s attitude towards
his reader; (d) intention - the writer’s purpose, the effect he is aiming at.
82. (D) Peter Barry points out three phases in postcolonial literature: adopt, adapt, adept.
83. (D) The White Peacock – The Rainbow – Kangaroo – The Plumed Serpent
David Herbert Lawrence (1885 – 1930) was an English writer and poet. His collected works represent an extended
reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation with an exploration of sexuality, emotional
health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.
The White Peacock (1911)
The Trespasser (1912)
Sons and Lovers (1913)
The Rainbow (1915)
Women in Love (1920)
The Lost Girl (1920)
Aaron’s Rod (1922)
Kangaroo (1923)
The Boy in the Bush (1924)
The Plumed Serpent (1926)
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)
84. (A) An imagined community is a concept developed by Benedict Anderson in his 1983 book Imagined Communities,
to analyze nationalism.
85. (A) The book Mythologies (1957) is divided into two sections. In the first section— from which all of the pieces
that follow have been taken, Barthes analyses a variety of cultural objects or practices, ranging from “Soap Powders
and Detergents” to “The Brain of Einstein” to “Oriental Crockery”. In the second part, titled “Myth Today”, Barthes
discusses the theoretical basis of his analysis.
86. (C) Raymond Williams in his book Culture and Society (1958) embarked on a radical theoretical construction-
‘culture’ as “a whole way of life.”
87. (A) In research, Primary data collection is the process of gathering data through surveys, interviews or experiments.
88. (D) Dennis Joseph Enright (1920 – 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic. He authored Academic
Year (1955), Memoirs Of A Mendicant Professor (1969) and many other popular works.
Sir Kingsley William Amis (1922 –1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. Amis’s famous first
novel Lucky Jim (1954) satirises the high-brow academic set of an unnamed university, through the eyes of its
protagonist, Jim Dixon, a struggling young lecturer of history. It was widely perceived as part of the Angry Young
Men movement of the 1950s.
89. (A) Edward Said’s analysis of Jane Austen’s narrative in her 3rd novel ‘Mansfield Park’ (1814) is based on his
own studies of ‘orientalism’. This term is defined by Said as a variety of false assumptions /depictions of Eastern
people within Western attitudes.
90. (A) In Saussure’s view, words are not symbols which ‘refers’ to things, but are ‘signs’ which are made up of two
parts : a sound pattern (either written or spoken) called a ‘signifier’, and a concept called a ‘signified’
91. (C) The term “gender performativity” was first coined in American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler’s
1990 book Gender Trouble.
92. (A) The title is the part of a paper that is read the most, and it is usually read first. The title summarizes the main
idea or ideas of your study. A good title contains the fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents and/
or purpose of your research paper.
93. (C) A review article surveys and summarizes previously published studies, rather than reporting new facts or
analysis. Review articles are sometimes also called survey articles or, in news publishing, overview articles.
94. (C) Eigenfactor and impact factor are two widely used measures of a journal’s value. The Eigenfactor (EF) is an
overall rating of the importance of a scientific journal whereby all articles published in a journal during a year are
taken in to consideration when making the calculation. What counts in the Eigenfactor is the size of the journal, or
how many articles a journal publishes.
96. (C) An encyclopedia is a reference work designed to cover all branches and topics of knowledge.