MRS. RAMSAY

MRS. RAMSAY
BACKllllllll
Character Analysis
Mrs. Ramsay is about as close as Virginia Woolf ever got to Angelina Jolie: Mrs. Ramsay's beautiful, beloved, charitable, and the mother of many children. (Although, Mr. Ramsay is no Brad Pitt.) But that’s about as far as the similarities go. Mrs. Ramsay isn't a U.N. ambassador, and we very much doubt that she gave birth to, say, James Ramsay in Namibia, as Jolie did with Shiloh. But the point remains: Mrs. Ramsay is the lovely star at the center of the Ramsay family, and at the heart of the novel. Her unexpected death leaves the Ramsay family (and especially Mr. Ramsay) without its anchor.

Mrs. Ramsay is a complex character: she is invested in the importance of marriage between a man and a woman (and all men and all women should definitely be married, according to her), but she clearly sees the flaws in her own marriage. It becomes Mrs. Ramsay's duty to soften her husband's bullying and to support him in public. Even so, she's embarrassed by his constant quoting of poetry in a loud voice, and by his need for praise from the people around him.

In the midst of all of Mr. Ramsay's posturing and performing, he's actually insecure. And it falls to Mrs. Ramsay to soothe those insecurities, because that's what she perceives to be the job of the wife. (We get into this in more detail in the "Lighthouse" section of "Symbols, Imagery, Allegory.")

At the end of Part One, we see a clear division of labor between Mrs. Ramsay and Mr. Ramsay: "He found talking much easier than she did," but "she felt herself very beautiful" (1.19.17). He's the one who talks – he's the intellectual one. But she's the one who attracts people and who makes social interactions possible, at least in part because she's beautiful. These are the roles they're each relatively comfortable playing: Mr. Ramsay gets to be the brains if Mrs. Ramsay gets to be the beauty.

The weird thing is, though, that neither of them are completely successful in their gender roles. Mrs. Ramsay loves the flattery of being checked out by the men around her, but she uses this admiration to influence Paul Rayley to marry Minta – a marriage that, Lily Briscoe reveals in the third chapter, is a disaster. Mrs. Ramsay's investment in her traditional gender role as a mother and matchmaker actually damages the people around her.

And Mr. Ramsay spends much of the first chapter secretly wondering why he can't complete the line of logical reasoning that would prove that he's really a genius. Those around him – William Bankes, Charles Tansley, and even Mrs. Ramsay – think to themselves that his last book was perhaps not his best book. The effort of trying to be the intellectual head of both his family (with the rebellious James) and of his social circle (with the ever-striving Charles Tansley) eats away at him inside.

The thing that's interesting about Mrs. Ramsay and her partnership with Mr. Ramsay is that Mr. Ramsay is obviously the oppressive patriarch. But Mrs. Ramsay's pretty darn oppressive, too, in a much subtler way. She's got this total love/hate thing going with Lily Briscoe, who adores Mrs. Ramsay but who also feels that, by being beautiful and completely stubborn, Mrs. Ramsay makes people do things that they wouldn't otherwise do (witness the terrible marriage between Paul and Minta):

But beauty was not everything. Beauty had this penalty — it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life — froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face unrecognisable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty. (3.5.19)

The criticism that Lily's offering here of Mrs. Ramsay is this: she was great at pulling together her family. But by doing so, she smoothed over all of the complexities and individual interests of her children and her friends in favor of a greater whole. Mr. Ramsay

WILLIAM BLAKE PAST PAPERS BY PU

 WILLIAM BLAKE PAST PAPERS BY PU

YEAR 2004

Attempt FOUR questions. Question No. 1 is compulsory. All questions carry equal marks. 

1. Refer THREE of the following passages to their context and explain these critically. 

"Without contrariness is no progression" said Blake. From your reading of his poems, describe how, as Blake move from Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience, :"the exquisitely tender vision of childhood is crossed and shadowed by the darker realities of life". 

 YEAR 2005

In the last analysis, should we view the songs of innocence and songs of experience as mere contrary states of the soul, or both as necessary in the cycle of being?

 YEAR 2006

Blake figures prominently among the poets who brought the Romantic Revival. Discuss

 YEAR 2007

Attempt FOUR questions. Question No. 1 is compulsory. All questions carry equal marks.
1. Refer THREE of the following passages to their context and explain these critically.

(i) Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What Immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Q.Are Blake's poems symbolic? Illustrate with examples.

 YEAR 2008

Explain with reference to their context THREE of the following extracts:
(i) For where'er the sun does shine,
And where'er the rain does fall,
Babe can never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall,

2. Blake is often anthologized in collection designed for children. Comment on the capacity of Blake's verse to delight such a wide audience.

 YEAR 2009

Explain with reference to their context 

The human dress is forged iron,
The human form, a fiery forge,
The human face, a furnace sealed
The human heart, its hungry gorge,

Compare and contrast "Holy Thursday 1" and "Holy Thursday 2". (BLAKE)

YEAR 2009 (Supplementary)

1.         Explain with reference to the context any THREE of the following extracts:
(i) I wander through each dirty street
Near where the dirty Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness marks of woe.

2.         With reference to the poetry of William Blake interpret innocence and experience.

YEAR 2010

'London' is a 'Sick Rose'. How far does Blake's poetry bear out the truth of this statement.

YEAR 2010 (Supplementary)

To see a World in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,
And Eternity in an hour.

 YEAR 2011

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountain green?

In what ways do 'Songs of Innocence' compare with 'Songs of Experience' in Blake?

 YEAR 2011 (Supplementary)

Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright
In the forest of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry.

 Discuss 'Holy Thursday I and II' with reference to other poems of Blake's that you have read.

 YEAR 2012

Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done;

Show how Blake sensitizes the reader to the inter-relatedness of man and other life forms. (William Blake)

YEAR 2012 (Supplementary)

 How the chimney-sweeper's cry
Every blackening church appals,
And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls

Analyze Blake's social consciousness with detailed reference to his poetry. (W. Blake)

YEAR 2013

What a multitude they seem'd, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.

 Blake said that without contraries there is no progression: How is this brought out by Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience?

 YEAR 2014

xplain any FOUR of the following with reference to the context.
(i) Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done;

With close reference to Blake's 'Songs of Experience' describe the moral structure he desires in the English society.

YEAR 2015

Attempt any FOUR of the following with reference to the context.
(i) Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor.
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

In what ways do Blake's SONGS OF EXPERIENCE form a companion body to his SONGS OF INNOCENCE?

2015 supply

Q; how are the perceptions of the child and the adult presented in songs of Innocence and experience.
2016 annual

Q: What value does Blake attach to experience in his songs of experience?
2016 supply

Q: How is the title songs of experience capable of more than 1 interpretation?
2017 annual

.Q. Examine the presentation of contraries in the poetry of Blake ?

2018Examine the presentation of contraries in the poetry of Blake ?

2018

Q.Comment the image employed in songs of innocence? 2019

Topic: " Difference Between Syntax & Semantics"

Topic: " Difference Between Syntax & Semantics"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Definition: Syntax: A sub-discipline of linguistic
that studies the structure of a sentence.
(1) What is Syntax
Syntax is a sub-discipline of linguistics
that studies the structure of a
sentence. It studies the set of rules,
principles, and processes that rule the
structure of sentences in any language.
Here, the term structure of sentence
refers to the word order. The meaning
of a sentence can depend on the word
order.
For example, look at the two
examples below.
.
Example 1
Because banana he is ate a
hungry.
.
Example 2
He ate a banana because he is
hungry.
The first example doesn’t make any
sense, but if you look carefully, it
contains the same words as the second
example. The only difference exists in
the word order. Therefore, the word
order is a key element in the syntax.
However, this does not mean that
syntax is about meaning. A sentence
can be syntactically correct, yet have
no meaning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
《Colorless, green ideas sleep
furiously》
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Though the above sentence does not
make any sense, it is syntactically
correct. In this sentence, you can notice
that adjectives , adverbs are placed in
the correct order and, subject and verb
are in accordance with each other.
In terms of syntactical categories, most
sentences in any language can be
divided as subject and predicate .
Syntax usually studies sentences that
have a clear inner division into subject
and predicate. There are three types of
sentences with this structure; simple
sentence, compound sentence, and
complex sentence.
In addition, words and phrases in a
language can be categorized according
to their function in a sentence.
Syntactical classes of words are called
parts of speech.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Definition: Semantics: A sub-discipline of linguistic
that studies the meaning of words and
sentences.
(2) What is Semantics
Semantics is a branch of linguistics
that focuses on the study of meaning. It
studies the meaning of words and
language. Semantics study ways in
which the meanings of words can be
related to each other (synonyms,
homophony, etc.), ways in which the
meanings of sentences can be related
to each other, and ambiguity. Ambiguity
is one way of studying the meaning of
language. A sentence is said to be
ambiguous when it has more than one
meaning.
For example,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I saw the girl with binoculars.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This sentence has two meanings. One
meaning is that I saw a girl while I was
looking through the binoculars. The
other is that I saw a girl who was using
binoculars.

“From Milton: And Did Those Feet” : Critical Appraisal

“From Milton: And Did Those Feet” : Critical Appraisal

Of all the poets of eighteenth century, Blake is the most original and the most
spontaneous. He is the poet of inspiration. He follows no man’s lead and obeys no voice
except that which he hears in his own mystic soul, he is always looking behind the visible
frame of things, for the glories and terrors of the world of spirit. Blake’s mysticism is
based on the theology and philosophy of Swedenborg, Boehme, Kabbala and Christianity.
Kathleen Raine regards him as; “perhaps the greatest Christian prophet of the
modern world”.
Blake’s Song “And Did Those Feet” shows Blake’s eternal relation between the eternal
soul and eternal God, along with this, Blake seems deeply drunk in the passion of
patriotism. He expresses his intense desire to purge England from all the evils. According
to him, once England was a holy place where angles tread upon, where Jesus traversed
through. Once it was the chosen land. But at the time of Blake this land turned into an
evil den.
The scenario of society has been completely changed. England lived with an outward
appearance of prosperity. England was winning her wards, trade and winning respect in
foreign capitals. A wave of self-satisfied nationalism was sweeping the country. In Blake’s
time, religion itself was chipping in and the general tendencies of contemporary society
had been formal, utilitarian and material. Blake drew his religious wisdom from the same
sources as he drew his poetry and painting. This perennial source was human
imagination, which he called, the Bosom of God, the Saviour, the Divine Humanity and
Jesus.
England was, to Blake, a dreamland. He had a vision of the England that would have
been the chestiest land. The poet is of the opinion that he has zeal and zest to change
England.
“Bring me my bow of burning gold,
Bring me my arrows of desires,
Bring me my spear — O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!”
He has burning golden bow and sheaf full of arrows. He would throw the arrows and
destroy the evil everywhere from the society. He wants to equip himself with spear to
fight against the forces of evil. His chariot of fire has potential to carry away all dross
that has infected the body politic of England. The poet is ready on intellectual level to
root out evil from England means to give new orientation to English society.
Blake is a mystic and throughout his poetry he dwells upon the innocent passion of being
noble, chaste and loving. He wants England a place where only benevolence, kindness
and goodness can prevail. He feels great sorrow when he feels, that England miserably
failed to play its role. This crest-fallen England with evils, injustices and miseries taxed
upon Blake’s mind and forced by the circumstances, he decided to launch a ceaseless
fight against the agents to evil. His fight is like gods of classical mythology. He desires
from Almighty to assist him against evil.
His fight will be fought ceaselessly until Jerusalem is built upon the pastures of England.
“I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green and pleasant land”
This is a small poem but each and every line has fathomless depth. The poem is divided
into three stanzas. The first stanza has picturesque beauty that portrays the three
different situations and the ancient times England. The second is his desire to fight and
in third stanza he wants to reconstruct England on solid foundations.
The lyrics of poem have splendour and beauty. Every lyric is a window of imaginative
world; symbols are used for multiple meanings. Its vocabulary is simple and symbols are
universal. We can’t find the most complete exposition of Blake’s philosophy in this poem.




https://poemanalysis.com/and-did-those-feet-in-ancient-time-william-blake-analysis/

A Divine Image critical appreciation

Synopsis of A Divine Image
Cruelty, jealousy, terror and secrecy are abstract ideas but they have no reality apart from human beings. It is from the heart of human beings that cruelty comes. It is human beings who are jealous, who cause terror, who create secrecy. Humanity is, therefore, not soft and tender. It is strong like iron. It is as powerful and as full of potentially destructive, as well as constructive, energy as a forge or a furnace. The human heart is not soft and tender but a consuming mouth, like that of a beast.

Commentary

This is an additional poem, added to the collection around 1804, after its first publication. It is useful to read this poem alongside The Divine Image, The Human Abstract and The Tyger, because they all deal with the same range of ideas.

Blake believed that a complete vision of life, of God and of people could only be obtained if contraries are held together. The world encompasses the tenderness of the lamb and the ferocity of the tiger. There is fierce energy at the heart of the world as well as beauty and gentleness. A true divine image must reflect this truth. If we say that human beings are the image of God, then these ideas must be related to God, too.

This poem, however, reflects the standpoint of experience. It looks at human beings when they have been corrupted by the ‘mind-forg'd manacles' discussed in London or are dominated by the growth in the human brain illustrated by The Human Abstract. This produces a distorted and incomplete vision of human beings, in which all their power and energy is interpreted and expressed in ways which are life-denying and destructive.

Language and tone
The extensive use of repetition produces an emphatic, fierce tone, heralded by the harsh opening consonants of ‘Cruelty'. The repeated H and F alliteration tightly links each line of the poem to its neighbours. This is increased by the assonance linking ‘forged', ‘forge' and ‘gorge' and the similarity between ‘form' and ‘forge'. Gorge implies something bestial and devouring, intensifying the sense of destructiveness created by the fiery forge and furnace. It can encourage the reader to overlook the fact that forges and furnaces are, in fact, aspects of a creative process.

Structure and versification

The poem has a regular rhythm with four stresses to each line. The regular iambic metre is disrupted by the inversion of the first foot in l.1 and 3, throwing emphasis onto the harsh realities of ‘Cruelty' and ‘Terror'.

The poem is patterned to begin and end with the human heart, as this is the source of everything. Hence, stanza one moves from heart to face, to form, to dress. Stanza two moves in the opposite direction, from dress, to form, to face, to heart. The sibilance of l.4 suits the implied whispering of ‘Secrecy'.

Imagery and symbolism
Human heart – Blake's readers would recognise this poem as echoing the New Testament teaching of Jesus, that evil should not just be blamed on external forces:

21 For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile you. TNIV Mark 7:21-23

Divine –
Blake's perspective on God. The idea that a human was also ‘Divine' tallied with Blake's rejection of a transcendent God. Instead, ‘God' was to be found within humanity, ‘dressed' in human form.

Forge – The image of the ‘fiery forge' is probably an allusion to the forge of Hephaestus, the Greek blacksmith god of fire who built Pandemonium, the dwelling-place of all the demons. His symbols are a hammer and anvil. This links human beings with a powerful force within creation which is perceived as demonic.

The image was probably also inspired by the great industrial change witnessed in the second half of the eighteenth century, when mills and foundries were beginning to be established and the processes of mechanization were a source of national pride.

Investigating imagery and symbolism

• There is a link between the symbolism used in A Divine Image and that of The Tyger

Themes

How the human mind sees the nature of the world and its creator:

According to Blake, ‘contraries' are facts about the world and about the nature of the creative force behind it. For example, ferocious power and energy exist alongside what is fragile and tender. Humans falsify their understanding of the creator and of the human beings made ‘in his image' when one of these dimensions is excluded from the picture. This creates unnecessary questions and produces unhealthy splits between what are understood as forces of good and forces of evil.

According to the Bible, Heaven and Hell impinge on human experience. Thus, the powerful energies within the world and the energies and instincts within human beings are necessary and beautiful. They become destructive when they are either denied or seen as the sole factor in life and experience. Blake's sub-theme is that vision based wholly on experience is as incomplete as the inadequacy of ignorant innocence.

The idea that the divine qualities
Are in Man as well as in God
Is the message "The Divine Image" conveys

God as a form of goodness
through the imagination of man
"All deities reside in the human breast"
- William Blake