C.U. English Honours PART-II Question Paper 2012 [Fourth Paper]

2012

ENGLISH-HONOURS

Fourth Paper

Full Marks-100

The figures in the margin indicate full marks.

Candidates are required to give their answers in their own words as far as practicable.

Group-A

1.       Answer any one of the following questions: (within 600 words)    16x1                                                                                               

a)      Comment on Jane Austen’s treatment of the theme of the marriage in Pride and Prejudice.

b)       Elizabeth Bennet is the moving force in the novel Pride and Prejudice.

c)       Write a critical note on Scott’s treatment of history in Kenilworth.  

d)      Illustrate Scott’s art of characterization, focusing on any two characters in Kenilworth. 

Group-B

2. Answer any one of the following questions: (within 600 words)    16x1       

a)      Critically comment on the existence of the playful and serious elements in The Superannuated Man.

b)      Discuss the episode of shooting an elephant in George Orwell’s essay.

3. Explain with reference to the context. Any one of the following phrases: (within 300 words)  8x1

a)      But time partially reconciles us to anything, I gradually became content—doggedly content as wild animals in cages.

b)      “….for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much large…”

Group-C

4. Write note (in around 200 words each) on any two of the following literary terms.      5 x 2

a.       Gothic Novel

b.      Round Character

c.       Bildungsroman

d.      Irony

Group-D

5. Answer any two of the following questions: (each within 600 words)                                                16 X 2

a)      Examine the appropriateness of the title of the Joyce’s short story Araby.

b)      Comment on the use of the symbols in Bate’s story The Ox.

c)       Bring out the significance of the fly episode in Mansfield’s short story The Fly.

Group-E

5. Answer any one of the following questions: (within 700 words)                                          18 X 1

a)      Discuss the role of the narrator in The Secret Sharer.

d)      Comment on the theme of Conrad’s story The Secret Sharer.

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C.U. English Honours PART-II Question Paper 2012 [Third Paper]

2012

ENGLISH-HONOURS

Third Paper

Full Marks-100

The figures in the margin indicate full marks.

Candidates are required to give their answers in their own words as far as practicable.

Group-A

(Word Limit 600 words for Question No.1 and 2)

1. (a) Marlowe’s Edward II is a study of the ‘irony of kingship’. Do you agree? Give reasons.        16

Or

(b) Comment on Edward II as a history play.                     

2. (a)Analyse  A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a romantic comedy.                                                    16

Or

(b) Critically examine Shakespeare’s use of the ‘real world’ and ‘the dream world’ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream .

3. Explain any one of the following with reference to the context. (Word Limit 300 words)         8x1

a)      Things base and vile, holding no quantity

Love can transpose to form and dignity

 Or

b)      The lunatic, the lover and the poet

Are of imagination all compact.

Group-B

4. Write on any two of the following literary terms within 200 words each:          5x2

Catharsis, Soliloquy, Aside, Catastrophe.

Group-C

(Word Limit 600 words for Question No.5 and 6)

5. (a) Do you think that there is an uneasy mixture of satire and sentimentality in The Rivals? Justify your answer.     

Or                                                                                                                                               16

(b)Bring out the dramatic function of the Faulkland-Julia sub-plot in Sheridan’s The Rivals.   16

6. (a) Write a critical note on the Banquet Scene in the play Macbeth.                                        16

Or

(b) Examine the role of the witches in Macbeth. Do you think that they are the driving spirit behind Macbeth’s crime?                                                                                                                                                            16

7. Explain the following with reference to the context. (Word Limit 350 words)                      9x2

a)      Had I died an hour before this chance

I had lived a blessed time.

Or

b)      Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

Or

c)       O mercy!-I’m quite analysed for my part!...

Or

d)      Madam! A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree, of diabolical knowledge!...

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Minor Characters In Pride and Prejudice: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

This C.U. English Notes Would Be Helpful For Part-II Students.

In Jane Austen’s novels it is not only the protagonists that engross interest, the minor characters are as perfectly studied, in their due perspective.

 Austenian social comedy is patterned in a calculated mixture of serious and comic characters. The leading figures like Elizabeth and Darcy are serious and some of the supporting characters like Jane, Bingley and Charlotte. But minor characters are there to provide the amusement and hearty laughter and on them the popularity of the Pride and Prejudice depends considerably. It should also be noted that these comic characters are not all comic in the same way, they are individualized and belongs to certain type.

The most famous and dramatically significant among these comic figures is Mr. Collins. Some critics like J.B. Preistley have called him the greatest humorous character in English fiction. He comes to life the moment we meet him or rather even before we meet him; the letter which Mr. Bennet reads out in Chapter Thirteen. His pompousness of style mingles with his insensibility to rational human feelings makes him an object of laughter. His apologising for ‘being next in the entail’ is ridiculous. He does not exist simply for the sake of the story but exists in his own right and compels his creator to indulge him all over the place.

Most probably Jane Austen intended Mr. Collins to be a satirical portrait. All the intelligent characters in Pride and Prejudice are either bored or annoyed by him; but for readers it is a rare treat to hear him talk. To call him simply a flatterer is to make a gross mistake; his speeches about Lady Catherine have devotional fervour. Jane Austen was no friend of romance, yet the fact remains that ridiculous Mr. Collins of her’s is a child of romance with all his oddities. He is ecstatic to introduce himself to Darcy at a party. Collin’s proposal to Elizabeth is the best comic proposal in literature. Mr. Collins being obsessed with the thought of his patroness has not sufficient interest and imagination to become a lover. His remark that being an heir to Mr. Bennet’s estate, he felt it almost his duty to choose one of his cousins. This is extraordinarily tactless, for no girl wishes to be pitied or condescended to. And Elizabeth hardly has relished it. Being refused he acts like a small boy imitating the elder and hints that refusal is a mere show of coyness.

The second comic character is Collin’s patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh. There is a lot of satire mixed with humour in Jane Austen’s portrait of this dowager. She appears only twice in the story, but her name recurs infinitely in Collin’s speeches and letters. In the first she is seen seated on her throne as it were like a goddess at Rosings. Elizabeth is intelligent and self possessed girl, to her-she is an object of amusement rather than of respectful awe. She talks loudly almost non-stop to exert her personality but actually she has no personality and is vulgar in her tastes. She interferes into everybody’d affairs, poke her nose into their secrets and offers uncalled-for advice. She esquires of Elizabeth in details about her family, age, activities and education of her sister’s in an objectionable manner. But Elizabeth stands her ground without feeling ashamed or afraid and plainly refuses to answer some of her crass questions. She becomes an object of laughter by her unabashed praise of herself and shameless habit of listening to her flatterers like Collins and Sir Williams. Lady Catherine is a foolish, headstrong woman who lacks both tact and manners like when she tries to intimidate Elizabeth to give up the plan of marrying Darcy.

Mrs. Bennet is another comic character who lacks education, intelligence, tact and manners. She cannot understand her husband nor other characters like Darcy and Lady Catherine. Her tastes are shallow and her mind is silly and immature like Lydia. She is childishly fond of rich people and fashionable dress and adores Bingley’s sisters for their elegant dresses and calls Lady Catherine ‘prodigiously civil’. It is Mrs. Bennet’s passion for talking about the marriage of her daughter and habit of proclaiming her joy loudly that costs Jane’s happiness. The over zealousness about marrying her daughter makes Mrs. Bennet to compel Elizabeth in listening to Collin’s proposal. We are repeatedly shown how Mrs. Bennet makes herself an object of laughter by sometimes admiring her spoilt child Lydia and even sharing her immature enthusiasm. 

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Social World

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List Of Important Questions From PAPER-II of C.U. English Honours

Students should understand that most of the books prescribed by the Calcutta University (C.U.) for all the three years of English Honours course had been in circulations for a really long time. After each decade some of these books are changed but not all of it. The University of Calcutta had recently revised its syllabus in 2010. And no new questions are formed at all. If there is a new question in the exam, then it is just same question which is being 'asked in a different manner'. Then why they do it?

To test your knowledge and 'question interpretation skills'.

Most of the C.U. English Honours books have just three to five major questions which are repeated after a gap of two years.

Take for example 'Rape of the Lock'.

There are few major important questions like :

• Rape of the Lock as mock-epic.
• Character of Belinda
• The Eighteenth Century Society
• Game of Ombre
• Toilette Scene
• Use Of Supernatural Machinery

So these questions are used repeatedly after a gap of few years. Just have a look on the last year's Question Paper and prepare for those which were not included in it.

Here are the lists of questions from C.U. English Honours Paper-II

Rape of the Lock [14 marks]

• Critically examine Pope’s “The Rape of The Lock” as a mock epic. [2012]
• Comment on the Pope’s treatment of Belinda in The Rape of The Lock. [2012]
• Show how Pope’s use of the ‘machinery’ of the sylphs in “The Rape of The Lock” heightens both the satire and the poetry. [2011]
• Belinda’s toilette mirrors the position and folly of eighteenth century high society.  [2011]
• Do you agree with the view that The Rape of the Lock is a balanced critique of eighteenth century society? Give reasons for your answer. [2010]
• Examine The Rape of the Lock as a mock epic poem. [2010]
• Do you think that the introduction of Ariel and the sylphs heightens the artistic effect of The Rape of the Lock? Give reasons for your answer. [2009]
• Consider Pope’s treatment of Belinda with critical reference to the toilet scene in The Rape of the Lock, Canto 1. [2009]
• Show how Pope ‘at once’ delights and lashes the age in The Rape of the Lock. [2008]
• How successful is Pope’s attempt at the hero-comical? Discuss with particular reference to the first three cantos of The Rape f the Lock. [2008]

Paradise Lost [14 marks]

•      In “Paradise Lost”, Book I Milton uses a number of epic conventions. Discuss. [2012]
•      What idea do you form of Satan from your reading of his speeches in “Paradise Lost”, Book I? ’ [2012]
•      Comment on the Invocation to “Paradise Lost”, Book I. [2011]
•       Show how Milton in “Paradise Lost”, Book I, never lets us forget that despite his heroic stature and grand rhetoric, Satan s essentially the ‘infernal serpent’ [2011]
•     Comment on the Milton’s description of Hell in Paradise Lost, Book 1. [2010]
•     Discuss Milton’s use of epic similes in Book 1 of Paradise Lost and sow how they are elated to this theme. [2010]
•     Is Satan I Paradise Lost, Book 1, a portrait of absolute evil, or a figure of human contradictions? [2009]
•     The greatness of Paradise Lost lies in Milton elevated style. Illustrate from Book 1. [2009]
•    Discuss with particular reference to Paradise Lost Book 1, Milton’s use of traditional epic devices in his poem. [2008]
•      Write a note on Milton’s presentation of Beelzebub and Belial in Paradise Lost Book  [2008]

List of Questions from Poems of C.U. English Honours Paper-II.

Good Morrow & To His Coy Mistress [14 marks]

• “John Donne’s The Good Morrow is an unconventional love poem”. Discuss? [2012]
• How does Marvell treat the ‘carpe diem’ theme in “To His Coy Mistress”? [2011]
• Consider Donne’s “The Good Morrow” as a metaphysical poem. [2010]
• Analyse the logical structure of Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.” [2010]
• Are there any contemporary references in Donne’s The Good Morrow? Cite an instance. [2010]

The Tyger & The Lamb [14 marks]

• Comment on the Blake use of symbols in “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”. [2012]
• “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” Explain this line with reference to “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”. [2011]
• How do Blake’s poems The Lamb and The Tyger show the “two contrary states of the human soul”? [2010]
• Examine Blake’s use of symbols in The Lamb and The Tyger. [2010]
• What qualities does Blake ascribe to the Lamb? [2010]

       Tintern Abbey [14 marks]

•          Wordsworth’s ”Tintern Abbey” is an autobiographical poem. Do you agree? Justify your answer. [2012]
•          ”Tintern Abbey” records different stages in Wordsworth’s appreciation of Nature. Discuss. [2011]

         Kubla Khan [14 marks]

•     Critically analyse Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” as a romantic poem. [2012]
•      Can “Kubla Khan” be described as an incoherent poem? Give reasons for your answer. [2011]

         Ode to the West Wind and Ode to a Nightingale [14 marks]

•       Show with reference to “Ode to the West Wind”, how Shelly uses objects of nature as vehicles of his own personality and thought. [2011]
•       Do you read “Ode to a Nightingale” as a poem of escape or a reflection of the human condition. Give reasons for your answer. [2011]

           To a Skylark and Ode To Autumn [14 marks]

• In ‘To a Skylark’ Shelly tells its reader that his skylark is much more than an ordinary bird. Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer. [2012]
• Write critical appreciation of John Keats’s ‘To Autumn’ [2012]

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Social world of Pride and Prejudice: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

This C.U. English Notes Would Be Helpful For Part-II Students.

Would you agree with the view that the social world of Pride and Prejudice shows a concern with wealth, property and marriage? Give reasons for your answers.

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen was first published in 1813. No one before or even after her has so perfectly combined all the relevant elements and aspects of the social novel of manners to achieve such as effective end as Jane Austen. In her novels true wit and good manners serve to define the character’s worth in the world they inhabit. The elaborate description of dress and manners serves to record a particular social milieu. Austen uses ‘Social behaviour’ as the ‘external manifestations’ of a character’s internal moral and psychological conditions.

Pride and Prejudice presents a society in which mothers hunt after suitable young man for their marriageable daughters, and neighbourly jealously is assiduously cultivated. Mrs. Bennet cannot forgive Miss Lucas for being thr first partner of Bingley at the Maryton ball, and Miss Lucas cannot forget that it was Jane who danced twice with Mr. Bingley. Collins, Charlotte and Lady Lucas equally calculates how long Mr. Bennet will live, since at the event of the death, her daughter would be the mistress of the Longbourne Estate, entailed to the nearest male heir of Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet on hearing of Mr. Collins, feels disbelieve, then think Collins being ‘taken in’, thirdly trusts that they would never be happy. With all its amusing satire, it is a faithful picture of the rural society Jane Austen saw.

Elizabeth violates the social code by walking un-escorted from Longbourn to Bingley’s house to see indisposed Jane. Bingley’s sisters stamp her, as unmannerly and ridicule her ‘almost wild’ look have the list of accomplishments expected of an eighteenth century society lady. A thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages along with a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of the voice and the improvement of her mind by extensive reading. Despite exaggeration, it is based on actual rigorous standards set by eighteenth century thinkers.

One of the unforgettable scenes in the novel is that in which Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth. The solemn yet ludicrous way in which he proceeds systematically first to pay compliments to her beauty and virtues, then enumerates the points in favour of his marriage with her is superbly artistic in its careful elaboration. An old mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility, Mr. Collins is the product of imperfect bringing up and defective patronage in an undesirable social set up. Collins’s patroness Lady Catherine is blind in her pride of rank and wealth. In the contrast to Darcy, she is setting a bad example of manners to her parish and is more vulgar than Mrs. Bennet whose conduct often puts Elizabeth to shame. Lady Catherine was shocked on hearing that Bennet sisters were brought up without a governess. A governess is like a treasure, an essential ingredient to social prestige.

The only sensational incident is the Lydia’s elopement with Wikham. The silly fascination of teenagers like Lydia and Kitty for military officers is shown as a social problem, which peace loving guardians like Mr. Bennet cannot tackle. The elopement is a social scandal. The Bennets are almost shattered, Mr. Bennet is devastated. But the Gardiner’s prove a great help and consolation. Jane Austen uses the incident ironically as a blessing in disguise. It rouses the lover Darcy to prove in every way how much he care for Elizabeth and he family. In the process he becomes a better man and a true hero. Darcy would never have thought of marrying into such a family, and indeed, as soon as the event took place during Elizabeth’s stay near Pemberley, she thought that now it was all over with budding love-affair between Darcy and herself.

In a discussion of manners, minor characters also serve as remarkable illustrations. Sir William is a perfect snob and hypocrite. He is awestruck at the very sight of Rosings, though ‘St. James’ is always on his lips. The whole business of his life is to store his memory with anecdotes and noble names, so that he can pass them off at suitable opportunities for his personal acquaintances.

Jane Austen is often called superficial, enamored of the costumes of life. But her novel Pride and Prejudice is by no means a didactic novel. It is primarily a social novel of entertainment in the realistic background of rural life. Her constant and powerful irony gives an extra dimension to her record of social life.

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Minor Characters

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