To what extent does Hamlet correspond to classical or medieval notions of tragedy?

MEG – 02: BRITISH DRAMA

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

3. To what extent does Hamlet correspond to classical or medieval notions of tragedy? 

Ans. Hamlet as a Tragedy: Shakespeare's play Hamlet is a very dramatic play, involving many conniving people, murder,and an overall atmosphere of suspense. It is therefore referred to as a tragedy. There are many aspects in Hamlet that make it one of Shakespeare's best tragedies. There are numerous murders including the untimely death of the innocent and pure Ophelia,and the murder of two loving fathers: King Hamlet and Polonius. 

There are also numerous revenge plots including those of Laertes, Hamletand Fortinbras. As the play progresses, hatred becomes evident between many characters of the play. After a deeper study of the play however, it becomes evident that two characters are more responsible for it being a tragedy, Hamletand Claudius. Hence, Hamlet rises above the revenge play and answers to subtler demands of a great tragedy. In the end Hamlet turns out to be a great tragedy rather than a mere revenge play.

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

                                               MEG – 02: BRITISH DRAMA

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

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

 

Ans. 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.

exploring tensions between art and ordinary life and demonstrating how, through an imaginative alchemy, the raw materials of life can be formed into something enduring. In "Sailing to Byzantium," the speaker transforms himself into a work of art, and, in so doing, obscures the distinction between form and content and the artist and his work. "Sailing to Byzantium" is widely admired for its inventive, evocative imagery and masterfully interwoven phrases. Literary critic Frank Kermode calls the poem "a marvellously contrived emblem of what Yeats took the work of art to be.

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The opposition of art and life and youth and old age in 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

4. Comment on the opposition of art and life and youth and old age in 'Sailing to Byzantium'.

 

Ans. "Sailing to Byzantium, " first published in 1928 as part ofYeats's collection, The Tower, contains

only four stanzas and yet is considered to be one of the most effective expressions of Yeats's arcane poetic "system," exploring tensions between art and ordinary life and demonstrating how, through an imaginative alchemy, the raw materials of life can be formed into something enduring. In "Sailing to Byzantium," the speaker transforms himself into a work of art, and, in so doing, obscures the distinction between form and content and the artist and his work. "Sailing to Byzantium" is widely admired for its inventive, evocative imagery and masterfully interwoven phrases. Literary critic Frank Kermode calls the poem "a marvellously contrived emblem of what Yeats took the work of art to be.

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The themes of death and suicide in the poetry of Sylvia Plath.

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

5. Comment on the themes of death and suicide in the poetry of Sylvia Plath.

 

Ans. One thing which has been noticed about the confessional poets is that when these poets go on to speak about their personal failures and breakdowns they go more into sorrow and despair. And this feeling often gets extended to the sense of self-destruction. This makes the theme of suicide and death central to their poems. Many confessional poets, including Sylvia Plath were suicidal in their real life. In her poems like Lady Lazarus she goes on to expresses her suicidal tendency beyond any limitations.

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Herbert as a religious poet.

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

3. Consider Herbert as a religious poet.

Ans. Herbert's Distinguishing Traits

Certain features can be noted in Herbert's poetry which distinguishes his poetry from the other poets of his time.

His poems are simple and lucid which suggests of an excellent technical skill. Herbert was able to manipulate his

verses in order to reflect thematic patterns, a skill which can also be seen in Milton. His choice of words which appears to be simple, expand outwards in accordance with the given context of the poem. For example, let us consider his poem The Pulley. This poem talks about God bestowing al I the gifts to man except one. And that would be peace so that it acts like a pulley to draw man back to the divine grace.

 

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A critical note on Chancer's art of portraiture in The General Prologue.

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

2. Write a critical note on Chancer's art of portraiture in The General Prologue.

Ans. The Portraits: It is the General Prologue that serves to establish firmly the framework for the entire

story-collection: the pilgrimage that risks being turned into a tale-telling competition. The title "General Prologue" is a modern invention, although a few manuscripts call it prologues. There are very few major textual differences between the various manuscripts. The structure of the General Prologue is a simple one. After an elaborate introduction in lines 1-34, the narrator begins the series of portraits (limes 35-719). These are followed by a report of the Host's suggestion of a tale-telling contest and its acceptance (lines 720-821). On the following morning the pilgrims assemble and it is decided that the Knight shall tell the first tale (lines 822-858).

 

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Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more, For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams and with new spangled ore, Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves.

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

(C) Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more, For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams and with new spangled ore, Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, Through the dear might of him that walk'd the waves.

Ans. 

Context: These lines are taken from Lycidas by John Milton.

Explanation: Milton concludes with praise for Lycidas, including the well-known phrase "Look homeward Angel." The speaker bids "woeful Shepherds weep no more," one of many phrases loaded with alliteration.

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Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

                                                  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2021 - 2022

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

(a) Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

Answer :

Explanation: Kubla Khan heard the voices of his ancestors, predicting that war would come. The shadow of Kubla Khan's pleasure palace was reflected by the waves, and you could hear the sound of the geyser mingling with that of the water rushing through the caves. This was truly a miraculous place: Khan's pleasure palace was both sunny and had icy caves. If could recreate with in myself the sound of her instrument and her song, it would bring me so much joy that I would build Kubla Khan's pleasure palace in the sky above me: that sun-filled dome, those caves full of ice!

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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. 

(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)

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.

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Anand’s use of imagery in his novel Untouchable.

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

2. Examine Anand’s use of imagery in his novel Untouchable. 

Answer.: Untouchable opens with a shot of the outcaste’s colony. Anand gives us a thick description of the home of Bulashah’s outcastes by describing not only the visual appearance of the colony, but also the types of people that live there and their living conditions. For example, besides the sweepers, the colony is also home to “the scavengers, the leather-workers, the washermen, the barbers,” etc. They live in “mud-walled” houses near a fetid, rank brook filled with the filth of the public latrines.

The smells of the colony are also described in explicit details. The air is polluted by “the odour of the hides and skins of dead carcasses left to dry,” the dung of various livestock “heaped up to be made into fuel cakes,” and human waste. As the reader reads on it's as if the “biting, choking, pungent fumes ooz[ing]” from the colony is constricting their breathing in addition to the characters'.

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Theme of ‘Dawn at Puri’

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

d) Theme of ‘Dawn at Puri’ 

Answer.: Dawn at Puri” is taken from the collection A Rain of Rites . The poem is set in Puri in Orissa which is the holy city of Lord Jagannath. A Rain of Rites is a collection of poems which Jayanta Mahapatra wrote in the middle phase of his poetic career and is shaped by the cultural heritage of Orissa in particular and India in general. The rain, as suggested by the title is the dominant metaphor in this volume of poetry. The rites and rituals here are concerned with priests and temples, widows, cremations, even the fate of Indian women is symbolized here through various images. Jayanta Mahapatra, like Arun Kolatkar in Jejuri, is disappointed with the hollowness of traditional practices and customs. Here in this poem Mahapatra depicts the holy city Puri which is famous as one of the most revered pilgrimage towns for Hindus.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

Narrative techniques in Gajar Halwa

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

c) Narrative techniques in Gajar Halwa 

Answer.: The story ‘gajar halwa’is taken from Gita Hariharan’s collection ‘The Art of Dying.’ It portrays the travails of a sixteen year old village girl. Perumayee , who arrives in Delhi in search of a livelihood. . As she getting accustomed to her life, she reminisces her past wistfully.

Perumayee’s mother who has been working as a construction laborer and providing for her family, suddenly finds herself with no means of living when the bridge construction is complete. Her father a drunkard abandons the family ..

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Bini Tara relationship

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

b) Bini Tara relationship 

Answer.: Bim and Tara are completely opposite in their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of the world, and each serves as a foil for the other’s lack of a critically reflexive self-image. The novel chronicles the sisters’ history of competition in a number of ways. Their childhood rivalry for adult attention is surpassed by each woman’s desire to earn Raja’s respect. For Tara, this means playing the role of a competent and gracious diplomat’s wife, wiping out the memory of an emotionally needy and naive child whose marriage conveniently unburdened her family.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)