The play within the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  MEG – 02: BRITISH DRAMA

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

1. Discuss the play within the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Answer.: The Play-within-the Play: This play within a play is therefore used by Shakespeare to make a subtle point about theatre, namely the fact that it is only acting. The Mechanicals like to perform a play at Theseus’ wedding. Theseus is an enlightened ruler, notable for his wise judgement but there is a limit to his abilities: the problem Egeus gives him seems incapable of solution, so he tries to buy time and work on Egeus and Demetrius. But there seems little hope that the “harsh Athenian law” will produce a solution acceptable to all parties.

In this play the apparently anarchic tendencies of the young lovers, of the mechanicals-as-actors, and of Puck are restrained by the “Sharp Athenian Law” and the law of the Palace Wood, by Theseus and Oberon, and their respective consorts. This tension within the world of the play is matched in its construction: in performance it can at times seem riotous and out of control, and yet the structure of the play shows a clear interest in symmetry and patterning. 

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Pre- Raphaelites & critical appreciation of this age/movement and the characteristics of the movement

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

5. Who were the Pre- Raphaelites? Critically appreciate any one poem of this age/movement and highlight the characteristics of the movement

Answer.: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member "Brotherhood" modelled in part on the Nazarene movement. The Brotherhood was only ever a loose association and their principles were shared by other artists of the time, including Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes and Marie Spartali Stillman. Later followers of the principles of the Brotherhood included Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and John William Waterhouse..

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Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience as precursors of the Romantic Age

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

4. Critically examine Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience as precursors of the Romantic Age.

Answer.: Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Blake was also a painter before the creation of Songs of Innocence and Experience and had painted such subjects as Oberon, Titania, and Puck dancing with fairies.

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Poem by Donne or Herbert or Marvel as an example of metaphysical poetry

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

3. Examine any one poem by Donne or Herbert or Marvel as an example of metaphysical poetry

Answer.: The term metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. These poets were not formally affiliated and few were highly regarded until 20th century attention established their importance. Given the lack of coherence as a movement, and the diversity of style between poets, it has been suggested that calling them Baroque poets after their era might be more useful. Once the Metaphysical style was established, however, it was occasionally adopted by other and especially younger poets to fit appropriate circumstances.

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Spenser’s Prothalamion as an example of both renaissance writing as well as a nuptial song

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

2. What do you understand by the term renaissance? Examine Spenser’s Prothalamion as an example of both renaissance writing as well as a nuptial song.

Answer.: The was a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to Modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It occurred after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages and was associated with great social change. In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a long Renaissance put its beginning in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century. The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages.

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Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales within his vast writing career, as a social commentary of the age.

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

1. Locate Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales within his vast writing career, as a social commentary of the age. 

Answer.: The age of Chaucer covers the period from 1340 to 1400. Chaucer is the true representative of his age as Pope is of the eighteenth century and Tennyson is of the Victorian era. His works breathe the political, social, economic and religious tendencies of his time. The middle of the fourteenth century was the transitional period in which Chaucer was born. The elements of Renaissance were breeding. “He stands on the threshold of the new age, but still hedged in a backward gazing world.” The fourteenth century in England was the most important of the mediaeval centuries. It covered the period of the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt, the Hundred Years War with France and the great economic and social changes which we associate with the decay of villeinage.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes call or WhatsApp me : +91 99 471 471 85)