Porter Scene In Macbeth: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

Porter Scene In Macbeth

Conservative critics object to the idea of inserting a comic scene within a tragedy and consider it as a stylist as well as an aesthetic defect. But the comic scenes are useful and serve certain purposes. It can act as a break in the tragic momentum and prepare the audience for a richer store of tragic action. It can also reflect a more realistic appraisal of the life by bending comic and tragic elements. On the other hand, as Act II and III of Macbeth shows, it may not be comic at all; it can be used to intensify the tragic effect. Act II Sc II of Macbeth is usually referred as the porter scene, though the porter remains on the stage only for a small part of the scene.

The scene opens with the repeated knocking at the gates of the Macbeth’s castle, which links up with the preceding scene (Murder Scene). The knock that send Macbeth and his wife scurrying to bed after Duncan’s murder, awakens the porter. In his opening words the porter is identifying himself with the traditional figures of the Morality plays- the porter of the hell-gate, who was expected to make jest, but who was more than a jester. He fancies himself admitting the sinners through the gate of the hell, and at every knock he tries to describe what sort of a sinner is seeking admission. The first one, he thinks is farmer whose greedy ambition is not fulfilled and as such, he has committed suicide. The greedy farmer had hoarded up the corn on the expectation of scarcity. He expected the price to rise and fetch him a huge profit. But a good harvest frustrates his hopes, and he by committing suicide, has come to hell for his sin.

The second sinner, according to the porter, is a Jesuit who is a believer and practitioner of equivocation and swearing glibly with an easy conscience. The third sinner who wants admission is an English tailor who has for years stolen clothes in the cutting out of an ampler garment of his customers and tries to trick one too often in the making of French hose, as the fashion changed, became so tight fitting that any loss of cloth would be instantly detected. This implies that the farmer, the equivocator and the tailor go to the hell not only for their sins but they were “caught out by over-reaching themselves.” 

The gates of the Macbeth’s castle are flung at last and the knockers- Macduff and Lenox admitted. They have come to take the king back. Macduff enter Duncan’s bed chamber and discovers the devastating truth. Macbeth then rushes to the spot and kills the chamberlains smeared in blood to wipe out the evidences of his crime. Lady Macbeth comes to the stage and pretends to swoon in order to take away the attention of people from Macbeth’s rashness of action to herself. Duncan’s son, Malcolm and Donalbain suspect that the murder was committed not by the guards but by the body-guards of Duncan but by someone who is feigning to be innocent, and they leave for Scotland. The scene ends with Malcolm’s decision to retire to England and Donalbain desire to escape to Ireland.

A number of critics including Coleridge had doubted the genuineness of the scene probably because of an offend in the nineteenth century tastes. Most modern critics, however, not only asserts its genuineness, but find it dramatically significant. This scene is theatrically necessary because the actor who plays the role of Macbeth is about to change his costume and wash his hands, and it is necessary to give him some time “for the discharge these actions” (Capell). So there must be some scene between the exit of Macbeth and the entrance of Macduff. But the scene of the drunkard porter is introduced, the critics think, to provide comic relief, though it does not seem to be the real reason. Bradley rightly remarks, “The porter does not make me smile; the moment is too terrific”.  The porter does not really take away the present horror from the scene rather he intensifies it with his grotesque tinge of irony.

The porter thinks himself to be the keeper of the hell-gate as Macbeth’s castle has already become a hell. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have transformed their castle into a hell because Macbeth has called on the stars to hide their fire and Lady Macbeth has called on the murdering ministers. The reference to treason in the porter’s looks back to the executed Thane of Cawdor , on whom Duncan had built an absolute trust; and looks forward to the dialogue between Lady Macbeth and his son and to the long testing of the Macduff by Malcolm—which shows distrust and suspicion that grows from equivocation and hypocrisy. Equivocation links its up with the main themes of the play. Similarly, the unnaturalness of the avaricious farmer is contrasted with the natural growth and harvest, which are scattered through the play. Even the tailor has his place in the scheme of the play because of the clothing imagery which is so abundant in Macbeth.

The style of the scene is not un-Shakespearean. The porter had answered to the Macduff’s question: “What sinner things does drink especially provoke?” Drink “provokes desire, but it takes away the performance”; and the contrast between the “desire” and “act” is repeated several time in the course of the play. The porter’s words on lechery have significance. They are written in an antithetical form and are tune with the general see-saw movement of the play.

Thus the porter scene is not alien to the root of the play, it possess the antithetical characteristics of the verse suitably “transposed” for semi comic purposes. The whole scene is closely linked to the rest of the play in content as well as in style. In fact, it is an integral part of the play, not barbarous interpolation of the characters as Coleridge suggested.  De Quency knew better and let us conclude with the often quoted but brilliant remarks on the scene: “When the deed is done, when the work of the darkness is perfect, there……..the knocking of the gate is heard and its mate known audibly that the reaction has commenced; the human hath made its reflex upon the fiendish, the pulses of life are beginning to beat again, and the reestablishment of the going on of the world in which we live, first makes us profoundly sensible of the awful parenthesis that has suspended them. ”

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William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey Theme: C.U. English Honours Notes

Write note on the theme of loss and recompense in Wordworth’s Tintern Abbey.

“Tintern Abbey” is generally regarded as William Wordsworth’s partial account of the balance-sheet of maturity, whose every fabric is a remembered perception given way to reflection. He charts the course of the developing sensibilities much as he did in “Ode on the limitations of immortality”, recollected in childhood, though in a much greater detail. The elemental freshness of child’s awareness gives way to the passionate feeling of youth which again gives way to more sober vision of the man, mediated by the love of nature. The poet’s perception in a strange world takes on a meaning, which, as he grows up, family emerges as the recognition of profound human significance in nature.

Tintern Abbey is based on Wordsworth’s sense of loss and recompense. In this poem, he speaks of that intense absorption of the animal pleasures of the boyhood leading to the joys and raptures of ‘thoughtless youth’. The poet has the abundant recompense, the vision of an integral harmony. But there is a note of difference between the two losses, one in Tintern Abbey and the other in the Immortality Ode. De Quincy in Reminiscences of the English Lake Poets has observed—‘Wordsworth, like his companions, haunted the hills and vales for the sake of angling, snaring birds, swimming and sometimes of the hunting.” It was in the course of those pursuits by an indirect effect growing gradually upon him that Wordsworth became a passionate lover of nature, at the time when the growth of his intellectual faculties made it possible that he should combine those thoughtful passions with his experience of the eye and ear.   

It was in the course of those pursuits by an indirect effect growing gradually upon him that Wordsworth became a passionate lover of nature, at the time when the growth of his intellectual faculties made it possible that he should combine those thoughtful passions with his experience of the eye and ear.

In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth is actually trying to differentiate his two attitudes to the nature- one is “the coarser pleasures of his boyhood days” and his pleasure of maturity. In fact, Wordsworth begins to describe the various stages of his attitude to nature. This he does with reference to his experience of his second visit Tintern Abbey in the year 1978. Wordsworth revisits Tintern Abbey after an absence of five years. These five years seem to have bottled out his mind, it was ever fresh and familiar to him. Wordsworth indicates the changes that came over in his attitude to Nature in the years of his maturity. In the first stage, Wordsworth had childish pleasures by running over the mountain and by the side of the river. But in the course of time he lost those animal pleasures of his childhood, and he grew up to be a young man, when the animal pleasures of his boyhood were replaced by the passions of youth.

Having made his declaration, Wordsworth gives his first intimation of doubt as to the efficacy of Nature’s presences:

“And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thoughts,

With  many recognitions dim and faint,

And somewhat of a sad perplexity;

The picture of the mind revives again.”

The “sad perplexity” concerns the future and the enigma of the imagination when transposed from past to future time. In this moment of renewed covenant with a remembered and beloved landscape, is-there indeed life and food for the future years.

The process of change is what troubles Wordsworth. He speaks of the third stage of development which is already accomplished and fears of a fourth. The “glad animal movements” of his boyish days preceded any awareness of nature. Then came the time when his perception of natural objects brought an immense joy so that he speaks of the simultaneity of his vision and emotion as “An appetite, a feeling and a love”. That time is past and Wordsworth has lost its aching ‘aching joys’ and ‘dizzy raptures’. He has entered into a third stage and other gifts have recomposed him for such loss. Wordsworth speaks of this stage marked by ‘abundant recompose’. In this nature stage he looks on nature and hears “the still, sad music of humanity”.

The dialectic sensations of the language are important in Wordsworth. The young child has an organic sense that combines seeing and hearing. The older child awakening to the phenomenal world sees a gleam of it, which the mature man cannot see again. But the man gains an intimation of immortality, of his renewed conscience with the young child by hearing a still, sad music of perplexity as he sees the sober colouring in nature. He hears evidence not only of man’s mortality but of man’s inseparable bond with Nature. His greatest recompense is the perception of

“something for more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air.”

This is the perception that there is someone in nature as well as in the physical world.

Thus Tintern Abbey turns into Wordsworth’s spiritual autobiography, though in a miniature form. In the renewed presence of a remembered scene in Wordsworth composes to pull under his poetic self. All that Wordsworth learns about the loss and gain is ‘a principle of reciprocity’ between the external world and his own mind, and the story of reciprocity becomes the central story of Wordsworth’s best poetry. 

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C.U. English Honours PART-II Question Paper 2013 [Fourth Paper]

2013

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)      In Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen uses irony as an instrument of social criticism. Discuss.

b)       Examine Jane Austen’s delineation of comic characters in Pride and Prejudice.

c)       Comment on Scott’s narrative art in Kenilworth.  

d)      Critically analyse the major conflicts in Kenilworth. 

Group-B

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

a)      Comment on Bacon’s style in the essay Of Studies.

b)       Bring out the element of humour and pathos in Lamb’s The Superannuated Man.

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

a)      And my whole life, every white man’s life in East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.

b)      “I was in the condition of prisoner in the old Bastile, suddenly let loose after a forty years’ of confinement”.

Group-C

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

a.       Stream of Consciousness

b.      Folk Tale

c.       Flat character

d.      Epistolary Novel

Group-D

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

a)      Examine Joyce’s use of symbols in his short story Araby.

b)      Analyse the theme of pain and suffering in The Ox.

c)       Bring out the importance of the character of Woodifield in The Fly.

Group-E

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

a)      Discuss the appropriateness of the title of The Secret Sharer.

d)      Comment on the importance of the symbols in Conrad’s The Secret Sharer.

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C.U. English Honours PART-II Question Paper 2013 [Third Paper]

2013

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) Critically comment on the Death-Scene in Edward II.                                                                           16

Or

(b) Comment on Marlowe’s portrayal of Isabella and examine the significance of her role in Edward II.                     

2. (a) Examine the role of Puck in  A Midsummer Night’s Dream.                                                 16

Or

(b) Analyse the dramatic significance of the play-within-the-play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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

a)      But are the kings, when regiment is gone,

But perfect shadows in a sunshine day?

 Or

b)      Ay me! For aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history

The course of true love never did run smooth;

Group-B

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

Anagnorisis, Chorus, Conflict, Antagonist

Group-C

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

5. (a) Comment on the Sheridan’s presentation of women with reference to any two characters in The Rivals.                                                                                                                                                                                   16

Or                                                                                                            

(b)Is The Rival a comedy or a farce? Justify your answer.

6. (a) How far is Lady Macbeth instrumental in bringing about the tragic end of Macbeth ? Justify your answer.                                                                                                                                                       16

Or

(b) Comment on the significance of The Porter in Act II Scene ii of Macbeth.                             16

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

a)      ‘T is safer to be that which we destroy,

Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.

Or

b)      I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o’erleap’s itself.

And falls on the other!-

Or

c)       By heaven! I would fling all goods of fortune from me with a prodigal hand.

Or

d)      You thought, miss! I don’t know any business you have to think at all-thought does not become a young woman. But the point we would request of you, that you will promise- forget this fellow- to illiterate him….

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Edward II-The Role Of Isabella: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

Comment on the portrayal of Isabella and examine the significance of her role in Edward II

A general charge against Marlowe’s dramatic artistry is that his women are not dramatically living. In fact his earlier plays are rather deprived of substantial feminine characters. But in his play Edward II, he has presented a female character as an important link in the whole action. This is Isabella, the queen, who is much instrumental to the tragic fall of the weak king. In this respect alone, Edward II can be safely deemed as superior to his plays.

Isabella, as presented by Marlowe, has a change in her character with the advancement of the play. She changes, in the course of time, into a hypocritical, vengeful, ambitious and even cruel woman. Isabella, in the earlier scenes of the play, is rather an object of pity. She is the queen but neither has she had the queen-like personality nor does she enjoy the honour of a queen. Her husband is rather cold cruel to her. He slights her and exploits her only to serve his base passion for his favourite Gaveston. The king’s favourite proud Gaveston even insults her openly. She is, in fact, subjected to much torment and insult because of her unnatural husband. The queen, nevertheless, remains extremely submissive and loyal and is ready to do anything to get the favour of her husband. She prefers to bear her own sorrow silently to spare him from troubles and worries.

The queen is quite a different woman in the later scenes. Her husband’s follies and frivolities drive her to desperation. She grows into a strong, determined, shrewd and corrupt woman. She comes forward with the French army to avenge the wrong, done to her by her husband. She conspires with Mortimer and other lords against her own husband. She becomes a party to Mortimer’s cruel dealings with the king. She is in an adulterous relation with Mortimer, and does all that she can to foster her secret love for him. Gradually she turns into a power loving, unscrupulous and immoral woman from a timid, submissive woman of the earlier scenes.

Yet, a word of praise must be said in favour of Isabella. She loves her son sincerely and wishes him o be the safe king of England. Her words to younger Mortimer about her love for her son testify to her motherly love or affection—

“And therefore, so the prince my son be safe,

Whom I esteem as dear as these mine eyes.”

The mother in her is true and strong, though wife in her is wicked and wrong. Isabella’s punishment comes from the son for whom she has tried so much. Her punishment is the just retribution for the sin she has committed as a faithless wife and hypocritical queen. There is hardly any pity for her as she is thrown into the Tower of London as a prisoner. She must reap the bitter harvest for what evil she has sown.

The change in Isabella’s character is neither sudden nor abrupt. Marlowe has delineated this change from a psychological standpoint. The role of Isabella is distinctive in the action of the play. She is simply a helpless weal woman, desperately seeking her husband’s love. She has one important function which is to induce the barons to recall Gaveston. It is however this return of Gaveston that foments the civil war. In the rising of the lords against the king along with Mortimer, she plays a vital part in the pitiful fall of Edward II. She gives the royal leadership that is so much needed for the defeat and capacity of the king.

The character of Isabella also serves to heighten the tragic grandeur of Marlowe’s hero. She lights up, in the earlier scenes, the king’s failing as a husband. Again, in the later scenes, her conduct—her hypocrisy and conspiracy with Mortimer against the king—derives sympathy for the king and raises him to the dignity of a tragic hero. In short, Isabella’s fury as a wronged woman is definitely terrible as evident in Medea of Euripides.

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