All Important short questions MA Eng Part 1

All Important short questions MA Eng P1
#PAPER_II__CLASSICAL_DRAMA__PART_01
#Most_Important_TOPICS_and_QUESTIONS(UOS)

#SOPHOCLES- "Oedipus Rex"
1_ Concept of Fate & Free Will/Character & Fate
2_ Oedipus as a Greek Tragic Hero
3_ Character is Destiny
4_ Plot Construction in Oedipus Rex
5_ Hamartia & Hubris
6_ Irony in Oedipus Rex
7_ Role of Chorus

#SHAKESPEARE- "Othello"
1_ Character Sketch of Othello
2_ Character Sketch of Desdemona
3_ Character Sketch of Iago.
4_ Character Sketch of Casio
5_ Othello as a Social Tragedy
6_ Racism in Othello
7_ Role of Chance and Misunderstanding
8_ Significance of the Handkerchief Scene
9_ Who is Responsible of the Tragic/Destructive End of Othello

#CHRISTOPHER_MARLOWE- "Jew of Malta"
1_ Jew of Malta a Typical Morlovian Tragedy
2_ Character Sketch of Ferneze
3_ Character Sketch of Barabas The Jew
4_ Character Sketch of Abigail
5_ Themes in Jew of Malta
6_ "If there is No Marlowe then No Shakespeare"

#SHAKESPEARE- "The Tempest"
1_ Character Sketch of Prospero
2_ Character Sketch of Miranda
3_ Compare & Contrast between the Characters of Aerial & Caliban
4_ Themes in The Tempest
5_ Role of Supernatural Machinery/Elements in The Tempest

#OSCAR_WILD- "Importance of Being Earnest"
1_ Title Significance of Importance of Being Earnest(IBE)
2_ Importance of Being Earnest as a Comdey of Manners
3_ Importance of Being Earnest as a Farcical Play
4_ Importance of Being Earnest as a Trivial Comedy
5_ Importance of Being Earnest as a Social Satire
6_ Character Sketches of Algernon Monicrieff & Jack Worthing
7_ Character Sketches of Lady Augusta Bracknell & Cecily Cardew
8_ Use of Wit & Paradoxical Statements in IBE

: #PAPER_01__CLASSICSL_POETRY__PART_01
#Most_Important_TOPICS_and_QUESTIONS(UOS)

#GEOFFERY_CHAUCER- "The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales"
1_ Chaucer's Humour/Satire/Irony
2_ Chaucer's Art of Characterization
3_ Chaucer as a Modern Poet
4_ Chaucer Representative of 14th Century
5_ Chaucer's Ecclesiastical Characters(Hypocrisy, Comparison and Contrast between the Characters)
6_ Chaucer's Female Characters
7_ Chaucer as a Father of English Poetry/Literature
8_ Chaucer's Realism

#EDMUND_SPENSER- "Faerie Queene"
1_ Faerie Queene as an Allegory
2_ Faerie Queene A Great Epic Poem
3_ Spenser A Poets' Poet
4_ Spenser's contributions to the English literature and language

#WILLIAM_SHAKESPEARE- "Sonnets"
1_ Shakespeare as A Sonnet Writer
2_ Shakespeare's Contributions to the English Sonnet Writing
3_ Different Themes of the Selected(Syllabus) Sonnets

#JOHN_DONNE- "Selection from Love & Divine Poems"
1_ Donne as a Metaphysical Poet
2_ Characteristics of Metaphysical Poetry
3_ Donne as a Divine Poet
4_ Three Modes of Love in Donne's Poetry
5_ Donne as a Love Poet

#JOHN_MILTON- "Paradise Lost"
1_ Milton's Grand Style
2_ Portrayal of Satan(character) in Paradise Lost
3_ Who is the Hero of Paradise Lost, Satan or Adam?
4_ Character Sketch of Adam
5_ Character Sketch of Eve

#ALEXANDER_POPE- "Rape of the Lock"
1_ Rape of the Lock as a Social Satire
2_ Rape of the Lock as a Comic Epic/Mock Epic
3_ Use of Machinery(Supernatural Elements) in Rape of the Lock
4_ Pope's Attitude Towards Women(Belinda's Character, Social Satire)
5_ Moral of the Rape of the Lock

#PART_01__PAPER_IV__PROSE
#MOST_IMPORTANT_QUESTIONS(UOS/PU)

#SIR_FRANCIS_BACON(Essays)
1_ Bacon's Prose Style
2_ Bacon As a Moralist
3_ Bacon As a Philosopher
4_ Bacon's Worldly Wisdom
5_ Renaissance Elements in Bacon
6_ Bacon As An Essayist

#JONATHAN_SWIFT(Gulliver's Travels)
1_ Swift's Prose Style
2_ Swift As a Satirist
3_ Swift As a Misanthrope
4_ Popularity of 'Gulliver's Travels'
5_ Elements of Utopia in 'Gulliver's Travels'
6_ First and Last Voyage of 'Gulliver's Travel'

#LYTTON_STRACHEY(Selection from Eminent Victorians)
1_ Strachey's Prose Style
2_ Strachey As a Biographer
3_ Strachey's Ironic Attitude
4_ The Psychological Milieu of Strachey
5_ Critical Appreciation of 'End of General Gordan'
6_ Critical Appreciation of 'Florence Nightingale'

#BERTRAND_RUSSELL(Selection of Essays)
1_ Russell's Prose Style
2_ Russell As a Philosopher
3_ Connection Between Philosophy and Politics
4_ The Future of Mankind
5_ The Functions of a Teacher
6_ Ideas That Have Helped Mankind
7_ Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind

#EDWARD_W_SAID(Introduction to Culture & Imperialism)
1_ Edward Said's Prose Style
2_ Edward Said's Views on Culture
3_ Edward Said's Views on Imperialism
4_ Relationship Between Culture and Imperialism
5_ Classical English Novelists in 'Introduction to Culture and Imperialism'
6_ Influence of Post Colonialism on Edward Said

Important QUESTIONS #Novel Part 1 #UOS
A Tale of Two Cities
1. As a novel of love
2. Plot construction
3. Major Themes
4. Role of Dr Mannet
5. Character of Madame Defarge during French Revolution
6. Art of Characterization
7. Technique and Style of Dickens
Pride and Prejudice
1. Character sketch of Lydia
2. Title Significance
3. Character of Mrs Bennet
4. Character of Darcy
5. Relationship between Mr Bingley and Miss Jane
6. Relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth
7. Character sketch of Elizabeth
8. Jane Austen as a Nobelist.
Joseph Andrews
1. Character of Parson Adams
2. Comic Epic in Prose
3. As Parody of Pamela
4. Fielding as a Father of English Novel
5. As a Picaresque Novel
6. Character of Joseph Andrews
The Mill on Floss
1. Ending of the Mill on the Floss
2. Role and Significance of River Floss
3. Salient Features of George Eliot as Novelist
4. The Mill on the Floss as the most Truthful and touching depiction of child Psychology
5. Title Significance
6. As autobiographical Novel.
Tess of the D'urbervilles
1. Plot construction
2. Tess as Pure Woman
3. Is Angel Clare responsible for the Tragedy of Tess
4. Is Alec responsible for the Tragedy of Tess
5. Features and defects of Thomas Hardy as a Novelist
6. Hardy’s vision of Human Tragedy
[9/15, 21:55] Zahid Shabir: American Literature
Important Questions
MA English Annual System
University of Sargodha
Pakistan 🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰

Robert Frost
1. Salient Features of Frost Poetry
2. As a Poet of Nature
3. Themes

Most Important Critical Appreciation
1. Mending Walls
2. The Road Not Taken
3. After Apple Picking
4. Stopping by Woods

John Ashbery
1. As a Modern Poetry
2. Themes

Critical Appreciation
1. The Painter
2. Melodic Trains

Richard Wilbur
1. Characteristics of modern poetry in Richard Wilbur and John Ashbery
2. As a Modern Poet

Critical Appreciation
1. After The Last Bulletin
2. Still Citizen

Walt Whitman
1. Characteristics of Walt Whitman's Poetry
2. Themes

Critical Appreciation
1. O Captain! My Captain!
2. There was a Child went Forth
3. To a Stranger
4. These Carols.

Mourning Becomes Electra
1. Mother daughter relationship
2. Adam Brant as a True Villain
3. As Modern Tragedy
4. Art of Characterization
5. Psychoanalysis / psychological Drama of lust.

The Crucible

1. Significance of Title
2. Themes
3. Historical and Cultural Background
4. Theme of Witch Craft
5. Character of John Proctor

A Farewell to Arms

1. Significance of Title
2. Views on Love and War
3. Autobiographical Novel
4. Robert Jordan as a Typical Hemingway Hero
5. Catherine Barkley as a typical Hemingway Heroin.

Jazz

1. Significance of Title
2. Role of Women Characters
3. Depiction of Urban Life
4. Thematic and Symbolic Importance of Music
5. Identity and Memory in Jazz
6. Violet as a Representative of Black Woman.

Note: Try to learn all critical appreciation of all poems which are included in your syllabus.

TOPIC_QUESTIONS_ON_THE_RAPE_OF_THE_LOCK

#HERE_IS_ANSWER_TO_FOLLOWING_POSSIBLE
#TOPIC_QUESTIONS_ON_THE_RAPE_OF_THE_LOCK':

1. ‘The Rape of the Lock’ as a satire/social satire.
2. Belinda as a symbol of the moral degeneration of the contemporary life
3. Documentary value of ‘The Rape of the Lock’
4. Element of satire in ‘The Rape of the Lock’
5. Pope as a moralist in ‘The Rape of the Lock’
6. The Rape of the Lock as a satire on the contemporary beau monde.
7. Character of Belinda in ‘The Rape of the Lock’
8.     Pope as a critic of women/fashionable life
9.     Pope's attitude towards women
etc. etc.

Alexander Pope is undoubtedly one of the greatest ever satirists of all times (Walker, 1925). He is a poet of society (Griffin, 2015) the largest part of whose poetry is satirical and didactic (Warton & Rounce, 2004). His masterpiece The Rape of the Lock serves as a true embodiment of the Neo-classical values (Pope, 2016) and the protagonist, Belinda, the moral degradation of the contemporary English beau monde (Szwec, 2011). But, thanks to Pope’s poetic genius, the otherwise ordinary account of a family feud transcends the contemporary age and exposes universal evils of pride, vanity, hypocrisy, sentimentality, class-consciousness and indifference. Pope has painted a detailed picture of the following evils infecting these women.

1. Illicit relations

These women have illicit relations with the beaus, exposed by the poet through such sexual symbols as ‘melting maids’, ‘midnight masquerades’, ‘softening music’, ‘dancing fires’, etc. They indulge in these activities because they are dazzled by the charms by the fashionable life.

2. Inconsistency in love

Because of their illegitimate relations, they are inconsistent in love and are not contented with anyone:

“With varying vanities, from every part
They shift the moving toyshops of their heart.”

3. Ambivalent attitude

It is interesting to note that just before the cutting of Belinda’s lock, when Ariel searched ‘the close recesses’ of her heart, he found ‘an earthly lover (Baron) lurking at her heart”. It shows the ambivalent attitude and confused as well as mixed feelings of these women. It is difficult to guard the chastity of these women as they themselves do not desire so. Pope warns:

“Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Though stiff with hoops, and armed with ribs of whale;
Form a strong line about the silver bound,
And guard the wide circumference around.”

4. Slanderous Attitude

Their attitude is defamatory and libelous. When they sit together, they have nothing to do except to allure the beaus and slander other fashionable ladies who are their competitors:

  “A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At every word and reputation dies.”

5. Preferring social reputation to chastity

For them, social reputation (‘Honour’) is more important than chastity and they can sacrifice anything for it:

“Honour forbid! At whose unrivalled shrine
Ease, pleasure, virtue, all our sex resign.”

That’s why, Belinda, after the loss of the lock, complains:

“Oh hadst thou, cruel ! been content to seize
Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!”

So she is not shocked at the loss of chastity (‘Hairs less in sight’) but at the loss of her reputation (‘any hairs but these’, means the curls which were visible). The reason is that these curls enabled here to ensnare beaus.

6. Endless competition to hunt beaus

This is a type of society in which there is endless competition among the ladies to surpass each other in their ability to hunt the fashionable boys. That’s why, Belinda’s own friends are insincere. So we see her friend, Clarissa, providing the scissors to Baron to cut Belinda’s lock and another friend, Thalestris, trying to make her disgrace public:

“Belinda burns with more than mortal ire, 
And fierce Thalestris fans the rising fire.”

7. Never-ending obsession with the beau monde

Pope humorously tells us that these women are so obsessed with the fashionable life that even after their death, they turn into spirits and perpetuate their interest in the fashionable circles by supervising the living ladies:

“Think not, when woman’s transient breath is fled,
That all her vanities at once are dead:
Succeeding vanities she still regards,
And though she plays no more, o’erlooks the cards.”

8. Self-conceit

These aristocratic ladies suffer from self-conceit and each one of them considers herself some heavenly creature. The dream in which Belinda hears the address of a spirit, Ariel, is just a form of her self-praise and self-conceit. ‘Fairest of mortals’ is, in fact, an epithet which Belinda chooses for herself. But when reality is revealed to her, it is too late. Ultimately, the fashionable women who look down upon the whole world end up dying friendless, isolated and lonely.

Pope describes their pathetic condition in these ominous words:

“And she who scorns a man, must die a maid.”

Philip larkin past papers 2014-19 ma english literature punjab uni past papers

Philip Larkin past papers 2014-19

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1.Mr Bleaney

, Larkin poem moves from being descriptive to
being contemplative.Discuss(Sup.2010)

 descriptive


describing or classifying in an objective and non-judgemental way.

contemplative

the action of looking thoughtfully at something for a long time.

deep reflective thought.

2.Discuss "Church going and "MCMXIV" as poems about change(Sup.2011)

3.Larkin s poetry describes loss without hope of recovery.Discuss wit close reference to the poems you have read(Sup.2013).

Q.what does the speaker in 'Mr Bleaney ' share with the former tenant of the room.(2010annual)

Q.Discuss the role of doubt and contemplation in'Mr Bleaney'  and 'church Going '.(2011annual).

Q.Discuss the use of epiphany in Larkin's "Mr Bleaney" and "ambulances".(2012annual)

Q.larkin's poetry is about coming to terms with loss .comment (2014)

Q.Discuss the use of irony in the poems of Larkin prescribed in your syllabus. (2014 supply).

Q.Comment on Larkin's tone of ironic detachment with detailed reference to at least two of his poems.(2015)

Q.Discuss the role of irony in any two poems by Philip Larkin  (2016annual)

Q .Larkin's poems move from the particular to the general what impact does this have on the reader?answer with detail reference to any two of his poems .(2017 annual )

Q.How does Larkin's verse Express a detached observation.(2018 annual)

Q.comment on the use of language in Larkin's poetry.(2018supply)

Q.In what ways are church going and 1914 readings of the post war England .(2019 annual)

Q. With detailed reference to any two of Larkin's poems show how he presents interiors and to what end? 2019 supply

"A Dialogue of Self and Soul" by William Butler Yeats

"A Dialogue of Self and Soul" by William Butler Yeats

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Summary

William Butler Yeats was born into a middle-class Church of Ireland familythat is, he was a product of Protestant and English descent. His grandfather and great-grandfather were members of the clergy. His father, however, rebelled against the familys religious life, so Yeats was not reared in the traditional Christian faith, although Christian imagery and beliefs, especially moral, remained a continuing and powerful element in his poetry. For instance, his Crazy Jane poems thematically echo the conflicts between Christian morality and human desire which are the concerns of A Dialogue of Self and Soul. Too, Yeats used the form he used in A Dialogue of Self and Soul in the seventh section of Vacillation, although in the latter poem the debate is between the Soul and the Heart. Certainly, a knowledge of the story of the conception and birth of Christ, as well as of that births religious significance, is necessary for the reader of the antithetical images of Yeatss The Second Coming. However, Yeatss own religious life was a committed interest in, faith in, and even practice (largely synthetic) of various occult beliefs, from his early involvement with the Rosicrucian and Theosophy to his acceptance of aspects of Eastern religions. He was far from being a rationalistic unbeliever.
Yeats was also an Irish patriot and regarded Irish culture as his own; his earliest works are steeped in Irish myth. At the same time, however, he was intensely proud of his English ancestry (to the point of exaggerating its status) and felt himself a part of historical European high culture. He would never really leave Irish myth behind, but his commitment to the European tradition, based as it was on the Christian religion, was almost everywhere in his writings. Too, he made direct use of his own life, especially in his later worksa use that gives solidity, facts, and images to his poetry, making them more alive.
In A Dialogue of Self and Soul, Yeats employs the traditional Christian-based form of a dramatic poetic debate, or debate, between the Soul (or heart) and the Self (or body), reversing the usual Christian message of works in which the soul laments what the body has done. Sinning has condemned both body and soul to hell. Traditionally, sin originates with the body, since that body desires pleasurethe pleasures of the egoistic present and so not of the future in heaven in contemplation of God. Paradoxically, Yeatss poem chooses the body and lifewith all its failures, sins, and humiliationsover the morality of the soul.
Because Yeatss poem echoes and responds to this debate tradition, its place in that tradition is a necessary part of its meaning. For example, the fifteenth century French poet François Villons Le Débat du corps et du cur de Villon (1461; the debate of the body and the heart of Villon) is a concentrated and emotional series of short exchanges between body and heart, heart meaning here the soul. Villons heart speaks the truth and so wins the argument. Yeats, too, is concrete, his poem rich with imagery, although his poem lacks that quick interchange of argument and so is less dramatically presented. However, the argument that Yeats gives the Soul, although powerful emotionally in its imagery, is also more enigmatic in meaning than what he gives the Self.
A Dialogue of Self and Soul is also built upon traditional patterns: Most of the lines are iambic pentameter, although with great variants, plus rhyme, although not all the rhymes are perfect; the effect is to emphasize the chanting human voice. The rhymes are abbacddc , a modification of another traditional...

A_FAREWELL_TO_ARMS - Ernest Hemingway #Title_Significance_and_Justification

#A_FAREWELL_TO_ARMS - Ernest Hemingway
#Title_Significance_and_Justification
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A giant in the field of American literary modernism, Ernest Hemingway has long been called an important spokesman for the “lost generation” of disillusioned, war-torn young Americans. In ‘A Farewell to Arms’, Hemingway uses his characteristic unadorned prose, clipped dialogue, and understatement to convey an essentially cynical view of the world.

It is the title of the novel, A Farewell to Arms, itself that first catches the attention. Critics are basically in agreement that there are two straightforward interpretations of ‘A Farewell to Arms’, with a pun on the word 'Arms'. The hero, Fredrick Henry, bids farewell to 'arms', as in weapons, and also, when Catherine dies, to the loving 'arms' of a human being.

Hemingway consciously borrowed his title from the 16th century English poet George Peele. He did refer to the Peele’s poem intentionally to pay ironic homage to the war. Since Frederic deserts the army during the retreat, and then flees with Catherine to Switzerland, the title can refer specifically to Frederic’s good-bye to the weapons of war. A Farewell to Arms could also refer to the loss of the loving arms of Catherine, as Fredrick was compelled to say  “a farewell” to them by the inevitable fate: death. Thus, on one hand, the farewell voluntary and almost calculated step, while on the other hand, the farewell is not at all, an act of volition.
The title “A farewell to Arms” puts Henry’s disillusionment with the war and love.War is made odious in the very first chapter which discloses the death of seven thousand men. Catherine’s fiancé has already been blown ‘all to bits’ in the battle. Henry himself gets wounded by mortar-shell in the war. War has affected the spirits of Rinaldi and priest as well. The climax of the horror is reached in the account of Caporetto retreat. The scene of the Italian army’s retreat remains one of the most profound evocations of war in American literature:

“In the night, many peasants had joined the column of retreating multitude, and in the column there were carts, loaded with household goods… On some carts women sat huddled from the rain and others walked besides the carts keeping as close to them as they could."

The inhumanity reached its climax when Henry was arrested by the battle-police. Officers were being shot after a summary trial. Ironically Henry comments,

"The questioners had all the efficiency, coldness and command of themselves of Italians who are firing and are not being fired on."

Henry made for the river and the shots rang after him. He took a support of a timber and drifted along with it. Having immersed in the river he was purified of all the sins.

His “anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation."

He was already through with the patriotism. He had suffered from exhaustion, hunger and fatigue. All his bravery had been evaporated. He escaped from Italy with his beloved into a neutral country -Switzerland. He had got "a separate peace."

Escaping from the war, what he could do was to turn to Catherine to find his medication. Only from Catherine, Henry was able to find his spiritual prop. But the reality of Catherine's death destroyed Henry's fantasy. Upon that moment, Henry came to realization that such positive forces as love and courage cannot neutralize the grim reality of life.

Already simplistic throughout the novel, Hemingway is even more taciturn on the subject of death. Indeed, the protagonist is indifferent to death.  As a result of seeing a great number of comrades falling on the battlefield, Henry has come to a crude conclusion about death: only the living counts, and mourning the dead is utterly futile. Shortly after the death of Passini, Henry remains unmoved by his death.  Similarly, the death of Aymo in the latter part of the novel is dealt with the same coldness. Ultimately, it is such a crude perception of death that prevents Henry from mourning the death of Catherine or harbour any funereal feeling. He bids farewell to the dead Catherine as he puts it:

“It was like saying goodbye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”

The title of the novel is the masterstroke of irony and one must think in terms of offering an ironic interpretation of the novel as well.
Fredrick has always tried to run away from the obligations and responsibilities of life. He did not want to fall in love and yet he fell in love with Catherine. He deserted the army in the hope of leading a idyllic life , yet Catherine’s  death at the end of novel suggests that he cannot escape harsh reality of death and sign a ‘separate peace’. 

One may conclude that the subliminal messages that fill ‘A Farewell to Arms’ make it an exceptional piece of art. It is ironic that whereas Peele’s knight is rooted in the war which he fights, his “duty, faith and love are evergreen”, Hemingway’s hero, on the other hand, casts his doubt upon such romantic ideals as glory and honor. He is “always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice.” He is disgusted with the war, serves his time and does everything he can, to run away from the perils of war.