Jhumpa Lahiri

TOWER BRIDGE
WINDSOR'S CASTLE
White Cliffs
of Dover
ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT
DURDLE DOOR
 William
Shakespeare
Biography.com
Playwright,
Poet(c. 1564–
1616)
William Shakespeare (baptized on April 26, 1564 to April 23,
1616) was an English playwright, actor and poet also known
as the “Bard of Avon” and often called England’s national
poet. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, he was an
important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company
of theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. Written
records give little indication of the way in which
Shakespeare’s professional life molded his artistry. All that
can be deduced is that, in his 20 years as a playwright,
Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range
of human emotion and conflict.
 Wistan Hugh Auden
Playwright, Poet, Author(1907–1973)
“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common
denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: All of
them make me laugh.”
—W.H. Auden

W.H. Auden, also known as Wystan Hugh Auden, was a

poet, author and playwright born in York, England, on
February 21, 1907. Auden was a leading literary influencer
in the 20th century. Known for his chameleon-like ability to
write poems in almost every verse form, Auden's travels in
countries torn by political strife influenced his early works.
He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948.
 Phyllis Dorothy
James
Author(1920–2014)
 “I think that when one writes detective stories one is
imposing order, and a form of imperfect but human justice,
on chaos.”
—P.D. James

P.D. James was born in Oxford, England, on August 3, 1920.

She began working as a civil servant at age 16 through
marriage and motherhood, and began writing mystery
novels in her late 30s. By the time she retired to write full-
time, she had become famous as the creator of fictional
detective Adam Dalgliesh. James also wrote the novels
Children of Men and Death Comes to Pemberley. James died
on November 27, 2014 at the age of 94.
FAMOUS
POETS
 Afred Tennyson
Poet (1809-1892)
 Alfred, Lord Tennyson was the most renowned poet of the
Victorian era. His work includes "In Memoriam," "The
Charge of the Light Brigade" and 'Idylls of the King.'

Born in England in 1809, Alfred, Lord Tennyson began

writing poetry as a boy. He was first published in 1827, but it
was not until the 1840s that his work received regular public
acclaim. His "In Memoriam" (1850), which contains the line
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all," cemented his reputation. Tennyson was Queen
Victoria's poet laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892.
Christina Rossetti
Poet(1830–1894)
 Born Dec. 5, 1830, London, English poet Christina Rossetti was
the daughter of Gabriele Rossetti and the sister of Dante Gabriel
Rossetti. The collections Goblin Market (1862) and The Prince's
Progress (1866) contain most of her finest work. Her Sing-Song
(1872; enlarged 1893), a collection of nursery rhymes, is among
the most outstanding children's books of the 19th century.
 Seamus Heaney
Poet, Academic, Journalist,
Educator(1939–2013)
Born in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on April 13,
1939, Seamus Heaney published his first poetry book in
1966, Death of a Naturalist, creating vivid portraits of rural
life. Later work looked at his homeland's civil war, and he
won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature for his globally
acclaimed oeuvre, with its focus on love, nature and
memory. A professor and speaker, Heaney died on August
30, 2013.
 Queen
Elizabeth II
“I declare before you all that
my whole life whether it be
long or short shall be
devoted to your service and
the service of our great
imperial family to which we
all belong.”
—Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra
Mary on April 21, 1926, in London, to Prince Albert, Duke of
York (later known as King George VI), and Elizabeth
Bowes-Lyon. She married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of
Edinburgh, in 1947, became queen on February 6, 1952,
and was crowned on June 2, 1953. She is the mother of
Prince Charles, heir to the throne, as well as the
grandmother of princes William and Harry. As the longest-
serving monarch in British history, she has tried to make her
reign more modern and sensitive to a changing public while
maintaining traditions associated with the crown.
PRINCE
WILLIA
M
 Prince William is the eldest son of Princess Diana and Prince
Charles of Wales and is the next in line to the British throne after
his father. He was strongly affected by his parents' divorce in
1996 and his mother's tragic death in 1997 and expressed
discomfort at the growing attention he received as he reached
adulthood. William served in the Royal Air Force and supports
numerous charities. On April 29, 2011, he made international
headlines when he married his college sweetheart, Kate
Middleton, at Westminster Abbey. The couple's son Prince
George, third in line to the throne, was born on July 22, 2013.
Their second child, a daughter, was born on May 2, 2015.
 David
Cameron
Prime
Minister
 Born on October 9, 1966, in London, England, David Cameron, a
descendant of King William IV, received a quality education and
excelled in his studies at a young age. After he became head of
Britain's Conservative Party, Cameron sought to modernize it and
shed its right-wing image. Dazzling the party and the populace with
his bold eloquence, Cameron positioned his party well for the
general election of 2010, and when Gordon Brown resigned as
prime minister, Cameron replaced him. Cameron and his party won
the general elections of 2015, giving Conservatives a substantial
majority in the House of Commons. In 2016, Cameron announced
his resignation after the United Kingdom voted to leave the
European Union.
ENGLAND'S CONTRIBUTION
TO THE WORLD
1. The English language
2. Mechanical Inventions
3. Industrial Revolution
4. Machine Tools
5. Strengthened the foundation of
Science
French was the official language of England for about 300 years, from 1066 till 1362.
Public schools in England are in fact very exclusive and expensive (£13,500/year in
average) private schools. Ordinary schools (which are free), are called state schools.
The English class system is not determined by money, but by one's background
(family, education, manners, way of speaking...). Many nouveau-riches, like pop-stars
or football players, insist on their still belonging to the lower or middle class.
England is 74 times smaller than the USA, 59 times smaller than Australia and 3
times smaller than Japan. England is however 2.5 times more populous than
Australia, and 1.5 times more populous than California. With 2.5 times less
inhabitants than Japan, its density of population is slightly higher than the country of
the rising sun.
The highest temperature ever recorded in England was 38.5°C (101.3°F ) in
Brogdale, Kent, on 10 August 2003.
English people consume more tea per capita than anybody else in the world (2.5
times more than the Japanese and 22 times more than the Americans or the
French).
 The world's first modern Olympic Games were not held in Athens in 1896, but
in the small town of Much Wenlock (Shropshire) in 1850, which inspired
French Baron Pierre Coubertin to launch the Athens Olympics half a century
later.

Mother Shipton's Cave near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, is England's

oldest recorded tourist attraction. Its owner, Charles Slingsby, fenced off the
site in 1630 and started charging visitors to gape at this so-called petrifying
well. The mineral-rich water from this uncanny spring has the ability to give
objects a stone-like appearance after a prolonged exposure.

English people have the highest obesity rate in the European Union (22.3% of
men and 23% of women). They also have the highest percentage of
overweight women (33.6%) and the 6th highest for men (43.9%).
 “For surely it is a
magical thing for a
handful of words,
artfully arranged, to
stop time. To
conjure a place, a
person, a situation,
in all its specificity
and dimensions. To
affect us and alter
us, as profoundly
as real people and
things do.”
—
Born on July 11, 1967, in London, England, to
Bengali parentage, author Jhumpa Lahiri published
her debut in 1999, Interpreter of Maladies, winning
the Pulitzer Prize. She followed up in 2003 with her
first novel, The Namesake, and returned to short
stories with the No. 1 New York Times best-seller
Unaccustomed Earth. Lahiri's 2013 novel, The
Lowland, was partially inspired by real-world political
events.
 PLOT OVERVIEW
The Das family is in India on vacation, and Mr. Das has hired Mr. Kapasi to drive them to visit the Sun Temple. The family sits in the
car, which is stopped near a tea stall. Mr. and Mrs. Das are arguing about who should take their daughter, Tina, to the bathroom, and
Mrs. Das ultimately takes her. Ronny, their son, darts out of the car to look at a goat. Mr. Das, who closely resembles Ronny,
reprimands him but does nothing to stop him, even when he says he wants to give the goat a piece of gum. Mr. Das tells Bobby, the
younger of their two sons, to go look after Ronny. When Bobby refuses, Mr. Das does nothing to enforce his order.

Mr. Das tells Mr. Kapasi that both he and his wife were born and raised in the United States. Mr. Das also reveals that their parents
now live in India and that the Das family visits them every few years. Tina comes back to the car, clutching a doll with shorn hair. Mr.
Das asks Tina where her mother is, using Mrs. Das’s first name, Mina. Mr. Kapasi notices that Mr. Das uses his wife’s first name,
and he thinks it is an unusual way to speak to a child. While Mrs. Das buys some puffed rice from a nearby vendor, Mr. Das tells Mr.
Kapasi that he is a middle-school teacher in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Mr. Kapasi reveals that he has been a tour guide for five
years.

The group sets off. Tina plays with the locks in the back of the car, and Mrs. Das does not stop her. Mrs. Das sits in the car silently
and eats her snack without offering any to anyone else. Along the road, they see monkeys, which Mr. Kapasi says are common in
the area. Mr. Das has him stop the car so he can take a picture of a starving peasant. Mr. and Mrs. Das quarrel because Mr. Das
has not gotten them a tour guide whose car has air-conditioning. Mr. Kapasi observes that Mr. and Mrs. Das are more like siblings to
their children than parents.

Mr. Kapasi tells the Dases about his other job as an interpreter in a doctor’s office. Mrs. Das remarks that his job is romantic and
asks him to tell her about some of his patients. However, Mr. Kapasi views his job as a failure. At one time, he had been a scholar of
many languages, and now he remains fluent only in English. He took the interpreting job as a way to pay the medical bills when his
eldest son contracted typhoid and died at age seven. He kept the job because the pay was better than his previous teaching job, but
it reminds his wife of their son’s death. Mr. Kapasi’s marriage was arranged by his parents, and he and his wife have nothing in
common. Mr. Kapasi, seduced by Mrs. Das’s description of his job as “romantic,” begins fantasizing about Mrs. Das.
 When they stop for lunch, Mrs. Das insists that Mr. Kapasi sit with them. He does, and Mr. Das takes their picture together.
Mrs. Das gets Mr. Kapasi’s address so that she can send him a copy of the picture, and Mr. Kapasi begins to daydream about
how they will have a great correspondence that will, in a way, finally fulfill his dreams of being a diplomat between countries.
He imagines the witty things he will write to her and how she will reveal the unhappiness of her marriage.

At the temple, Mrs. Das talks with Mr. Kapasi as they stare at friezes of women in erotic poses. Mr. Kapasi admires her legs
and continues to dream about their letters. Dreading taking the Dases back to their hotel, he suggests that they go see a
nearby monastery, and they agree. When they arrive, the place is swarming with monkeys. Mr. Kapasi tells the children and
Mr. Das that the monkeys are not dangerous as long as they are not fed.

Mrs. Das stays in the car because her legs are tired. She sits in the front seat next to Mr. Kapasi and confesses to him that
her younger son, Bobby, is the product of an affair she had eight years ago. She slept with a friend of Mr. Das’s who came to
visit while she was a lonely housewife, and she has never told anyone about it. She tells Mr. Kapasi because he is an
interpreter of maladies and she believes he can help her. Mr. Kapasi’s crush on her begins to evaporate. Mrs. Das reveals
that she no longer loves her husband, whom she has known since she was a young child, and that she has destructive
impulses toward her children and life. She asks Mr. Kapasi to suggest some remedy for her pain. Mr. Kapasi, insulted, asks
her whether it isn’t really just guilt she feels. Mrs. Das gets out of the car and joins her family. As she walks, she drops a trail
of puffed rice.

Meanwhile, the children and Mr. Das have been playing with the monkeys. When Mrs. Das rejoins them, Bobby is missing.
They find him surrounded by monkeys that have become crazed from Mrs. Das’s puffed rice and are hitting Bobby on the
legs with a stick he had given them. Mr. Das accidentally takes a picture in his nervousness, and Mrs. Das screams for Mr.
Kapasi to do something. Mr. Kapasi chases off the monkeys and carries Bobby back to his family. Mrs. Das puts a bandage
on Bobby’s knee. Then she reaches into her handbag to get a hairbrush to straighten his hair, and the paper with Mr. Kapasi’s
address on it flutters away.
 MOTIF: SEEING
Each character in the story has a distorted way of seeing the others, as each views
others through some artificial means. Mr. Das views the world through his camera.
His camera is always around his neck, and he sees even harsh realities through its
lens. For example, he takes pictures of the starving peasant, even though doing so
blatantly ignores the peasant’s essential reality. Mrs. Das hides behind her
sunglasses, seeing the others through their tint and blocking others’ view of her eyes.
Additionally, her window does not roll down, so she cannot directly see the world
outside the taxi cab. Mr. Kapasi watches Mrs. Das through the rearview mirror, which
distorts his view of her and prevents him from looking at her directly. Each child is
wearing a visor, which suggests that their vision will one day be as distorted as their
parents’ is. Finally, Mr. Das and Ronny closely resemble each other, whereas Mr. Das
and Bobby have little in common. Mr. Kapasi simply observes this fact but draws no
inference from it, even though this simple fact hints at the deeper truth: that Mr. Das
is not Bobby’s father. Because Mr. Kapasi sees the Das family as a unit, he never
suspects this truth. His idea of family distorts the reality of the situation