Assignment Code: BEGC-133 /TMA/2022-23

Course Code: BEGC-133

Assignment Name: British Literature

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Max. Marks: 100

Answer all questions in this assignment.

Section A

I Explain the following passages with reference to the context. 10x4=40

1. “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.

By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;

But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman; and to be king stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence

You owe this strange intelligence? Or why

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting.”

Ans) The above lines are taken from ‘Imperfect speakers’ by Macbeth.

Macbeth now does what Banquo did and talks directly to the witches. He calls them "imperfect speakers" because the prophecies they give are half-baked and incomplete. Before the middle of the 16th century, "imperfect" also meant something that wasn't properly formed, was sinful and immoral, and showed a broken picture of society. Macbeth wants to know more about the prophecies. He says "Tell me more" when he wants more information. He admits the first truth: "by Sinel's death" comes from the Holinshed Chronicles, where Sinel is Macbeth's father and his title "Glamis" is an inherited title that goes against the idea of tanistry, just as Malcolm will be Duncan's heir. His response to the second greeting is respectful and humble, but it is also full of dramatic irony. He calls the current thane of Cawdor a "prosperous gentleman," but Macbeth doesn't know that Cawdor is a coward.

Both prophecies surprise people and don't seem like they could be true. Even though they got his attention, he decides not to believe them. The conditional adjectives keep him from being too interested: it's "strange intelligence" on a "blasted heath." The fact that he calls the prophecies "strange" shows that he is trying to distance himself from the witches' "otherness," but his repeated questions show that he is still sceptical and interested in what they say. Again, this excerpt ends with an imperative: "Speak, I command you." This time, though, it feels more assertive, even aggressive: Whether or not Macbeth knows the witches have power, he doesn't seem to be afraid of them, and he even thinks he can control them and tell them what to do.

2. “Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: -

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but

A dagger of the mind? A false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”

Ans) The above lines are taken from ‘Is This A Dagger Which I See Before Me’ from Macbeth written by Shakespeare.

Before he decides to kill the King and take the crown for himself, Macbeth gives this famous speech. Macbeth starts to wonder if he is strong enough to kill Duncan. Macbeth "sees" the dagger in front of him, with the handle pointing toward him. So, he starts with, "Is this a dagger I see in front of me?" He starts to see things that aren't there, which pushes him over the edge into madness. Macbeth decides to kill Duncan because he wants to be king, because the Witches told him to, and because his wife keeps pushing him to do it. Still, he begins to wonder if the dagger he sees is a "fatal vision" or just a dream.

Macbeth wonders if this dagger is caused by his "heat-oppressed" or "fevered" brain, which is another way of saying that he is becoming more and more crazy. Since the soliloquy is part of the great tragedy, there are hints about how to act it out. As Macbeth talks, he puts his hand on his belt and pulls out a real dagger. (The one he will use to kill Duncan a few scenes after this one). In the lines "...art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, coming from the heat-pressed brain?" Macbeth knows that he killed Duncan because he was crazy and because he wanted to.

3. “How strange it is to be talked to in such a way! You know, I’ve always gone on like that. I mean the noble attitude and the thrilling voice. I did it when I was a tiny child to my nurse. She believed in it. I do it before my parents. They believe in it.”

Ans) The above lines are taken from ‘Arms and the Man’ by W.B. Yeats'.

Raina is mad at Bluntschli because he told his friend about his stay in her room. His friend then told Sergius and Major Petkoff about it. She also says that they don't know that she is the woman in question and that Bluntschli stayed in her room. She's sure that if Sergius finds out, he'll challenge Bluntschli to a fight and kill him if Bluntschli accepts. At this point, Bluntschli, in his usual good-natured way, tells her that she shouldn't tell Sergius the whole storey.

Raina tells him to take the matter seriously and to understand that it hurts her a lot to lie to Sergius or keep something from him, because she has a beautiful and noble relationship with him. She says she has only lied twice in her life, and both times were to help Bluntschli. Bluntschli knows she is lying, so he tells her, "I admire you when you put on that noble face and speak in that thrilling voice, but I can't believe a word you say."

This comment leads to one of the most important parts of the play. Raina starts to take off her romantic mask and her "noble" pose at this point. She shows Bluntschli who she really is, and this helps them get to know each other better. Raina tells Bluntschli that she has had "the noble attitude and thrilling voice" since she was a child and that is how she got everyone to believe her. She has always tried to act like a noble person to make people like her. This is how she tricked her nurse when she was a child. Her parents are fooled by the way she stands. Sergius is also fooled by her acts and pretences, and he believes what she says. At this point, Bluntschli says that Sergius himself strikes these poses, so it's not surprising that he believes her easily.

4. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfils himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?

I have lived my life, and that which I have done

May He within himself make pure!”

Ans) The above lines are taken from “Morte D'Arthur” by Lord Alfred Tennyson.

King Arthur was hurt while he was on a journey. Before he goes on the trip, he tells his loyal knight Sir Bediver that changes in order are necessary to keep the world going. It is a natural law that the old order always gives way to the new one. If nothing changes in the world, it will ruin the whole system. Even a good system may stop being useful if it stays the same for too long without the changes it needs. God also approves of these kinds of changes, and everyone should welcome the truth with open arms. King Arthur told the Bedivers that the good old days were over and that they should move on. Stop thinking about the past and start making plans for the future. King Arthur hurt himself. He was about to leave with his three queens on their mysterious journey. He talks to his loyal knight Sir Bedivers and tells him that the good old days are over. The king says that he has lived and done many things in his life. He tells Bedivers that he hopes they will have a better life.

Section B

II. Write short notes on the following: 5x4=20

a. Thomas Hardy and the fictional region of Wessex.

Ans) Wessex is a made-up place that Thomas Hardy wrote about in some of his books. Wessex, with its moods and plans, has been a part of the lives of the people he has written about. Hardy was born in Upper Brockhampton, Dorset, and lived there for most of his adult life. He knew a lot about the people and places in this part of England, which he wrote about in his books and poems. Wessex, a made-up place, is in the southern part of England. Hardy's in-depth research and accurate portrayal of 19th-century rural life in Dorset creates a microcosm of human life that he used to make a point about the way people live everywhere.

Far From the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles are all set in Wessex. Hardy gives a lot of details about the natural world, which makes it more important than just a background for the storey. Hardy creates a relationship between environment and character that goes both ways. This interaction shows how people have changed since Darwin's time in the Victorian era. In Hardy's storey, the natural world is described in the same way that people are, and vice versa.

This method takes away people's sense of power, making them part of the natural world instead of rulers over it. Hardy was influenced by Charles Darwin, whose book The Origin of Species said that the human species as it is now the result of natural selection, which is a random process with no purpose. Because of this, different species have been able to change into humus ponies. Evolution is the process by which organisms change by adapting to their environment, which is the main idea behind evolution.

This idea went against the common Christian belief that God made the world. Hardy's focus on the environment shows that he was influenced by Darwinian theory. The plot is based on fate and chance, which is similar to how evolutionary ideas put a lot of emphasis on chance, extinction, and survival. Hardy's stories show that Darwin was interested in how circumstances can change the results of natural selection. In the end, the unseen forces that seem to rule their immediate environment make human forces seem like nothing.

b. Hardy’s classification of his own novels.

Ans) The novels by Thomas Hardy are set in a place called "Wessex," which is mostly made up. The storey is set in the southwest of England, which includes Dorset and the counties around it. It is easy for the reader to picture the scenery and towns that are described. The way Hardy describes places in his stories is very important because it gives his characters a realistic, rural background against which to live out their lives and fight against their circumstances. Hardy spent a lot of time studying and writing about rural life in Dorset and the surrounding area in the 1800s.

This area, which he called "Wessex" in his novels, is a microcosm of human life, and Hardy wanted to say something about the way people live everywhere. This is a map of the places in Thomas Hardy's "Wessex" novels. But in Hardy's stories, the natural world is often described in great detail, which makes it more important than just a background for the storey. Hardy creates a relationship between environment and character that works both ways. This interaction shows how people have changed since Darwin's time in the Victorian era.

The way Hardy describes the natural world is the same way he describes the way different people look, and vice versa. This technique takes away people's sense of power, making them part of the natural world instead of ruling over it. Hardy himself put his books into three categories: "novels of character and environment" like Tess of the D'Urbervilles, "romances and fantasies" like The Trumpet Major, and "novels of ingenuity" like A Laodicean. Works like Tess and Jude the Obscure were criticised for being immoral because they were socially honest and almost too raw to handle.

Hardy said that Tess had to be "mutilated" so that it could be published in serial form. After Jude, he stopped writing fiction and turned to poetry, which he thought was better than literature. His poems, especially the ones he wrote to his late wife, are touching, well-written, and have had a huge impact. He is also a great nature writer. The way Hardy grouped his stories shows how important he thought it was for people to interact with their immediate surroundings and for the environment to have an effect on how people lived.

c. The ‘Porter Scene’ in Macbeth.

Ans) The Porter Scene is a complicated storey that has been told in different ways on and off stage for a long time. Some people see (or act out) it as a genuinely funny moment of light relief (complete with a knock-knock joke) in an otherwise dark play, while others see its humour as purposely bad or grimly ironic, which only serves to show how sad Macbeth is. Scholars have pointed out that the scene is about the trial of Henry Garnet, the Jesuit equivocator, and that it is a parody of "the Harrowing of Hell," a scene from the mediaeval Towneley Cycle, a series of biblical dramas or "mystery plays" in which Christ asks to enter hell and is kept waiting by Rybald, the porter, who is told what to do by Belzabub. People have also compared the scene's dark humour to the funny but evil "vice" characters in mediaeval morality plays.

A porter goes to answer the door, joking to himself that he is the doorkeeper at the mouth of hell and making fun of whoever might be knocking to get into hell. Macduff and Lennox are at the door. Macduff asks in a funny way what's taking so long. The porter says that the man was drunk and makes a bunch of jokes about how alcohol affects men. Macbeth enters, pretending to have just woken up. Macduff asks if the King has woken up yet. Early that morning, Duncan had asked to see Macduff. Duncan is sleeping, so Macbeth shows Macduff where he is, and Macduff goes to wake him up. Lennox talks about the terrible storm that raged the night before and sounded like "strange screams of death" while they wait for Macduff to come back (line 52).

Macduff screams in fear and runs onto the stage. After asking what happened, Macbeth and Lennox run to Duncan's room. Banquo, Malcolm, and Donalbain wake. Lady Macbeth comes in and acts like she doesn't know what happened. When Macduff tells her what happened, she is shocked. Macbeth comes back, and he wishes he had died instead of having to see something like this. When Malcolm and Donalbain walk in, they ask what's going on. Lennox tells them that Duncan was killed by the drunk people who worked for him.

Macbeth says out loud that he wishes he hadn't killed the staff. When Macduff asks Macbeth why he killed the servants, Macbeth says that he couldn't stop himself because the servants killed Duncan. Lady Macbeth has a seizure. The thanes agree to talk about what's going on in the hall. Malcolm and Donalbain do not go with them. They know that one of the thanes is probably the killer and are afraid that they will be next. Malcolm goes to England, and Donalbain goes to Ireland.

d. Tennyson as a representative poet of Victorian England.

Ans) People think of Alfred Lord Tennyson as the best Victorian poet and a true example of the Victorian Age. In "In Memoriam," Tennyson talks about how sad it is that he lost a close friend. This tragic loss forces him to deal with the conflict between religion and science in Victorian times. Traditional beliefs in God and immortality were in conflict with the modern theory of evolution, which explained evolution in terms of natural selection. The new theory said that the process of evolution took place when the physical and behavioural traits of living organisms changed over time.

Tennyson's poems showed this conflict, but he let the reader decide how to feel about it. Some of his most famous poems were written during this time, including "The Two Voices," "Ulysses," "St. Simeon Stylites," and probably the first draught of "Morte D'Arthur." The poem "Ulysses" is a good example of Tennyson's question about what art is for. Before him, the Romantics used art as a way to show how they felt and what they thought. In other words, art was made just for the sake of art. This means that art doesn't need a reason, and it doesn't have to be political or teach a lesson.

"Morte d' Arthur," one of the poems in "Idylls of the King," is the poem you have to read for your class. Tennyson's poem about King Arthur was based on Book 21 of Le Morte d' Arthur, an epic written by Thomas Malory in the 1400s. Malory was an English author who wrote this classic account of the Arthurian legend in English. The poem was inspired by Tennyson's grief over the untimely death of his friend Hallam. The author searches for the meaning of life and death and tries to deal with his sense of loss.

Tennyson was aware of the divide between the Romantic emphasis on emotion, its worship of Nature and beauty, and its subjectivity and the Victorian emphasis on objectivity, as well as the constant dialogue with the intellectual and critical thoughts of the time. In "Morte D'Arthur," Tennyson writes about Arthur's last battle from a modern point of view. The use of sensory elements was one of the most important and obvious things about Victorian poetry. Most Victorian poets, including Tennyson, used imagery and the senses to show how Religion and Science were at odds with each other. This helped readers understand the Victorian conflict. In most of his works, Alfred Tennyson lives up to this expected trait.

III. Write short essays on the following: 10x2=20

a. Justify the title of Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man.

Ans) Arms and the Man gets its name from the first lines of Virgil's Aeneid, as translated by Dryden:

"Arms and the Man I sing, who forced by fate,

And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate."

Arms and the Man has a good title, and the choices made by the playwright make sense. It's a funny twist on what Virgil was trying to say. In his famous epic, The Aeneid, Virgil tells the storey of Aeneid's battles and adventures. But Shaw doesn't see war the same way that Virgil did. He didn't write this play to talk about how great war is. He shows that heroism and being completely stupid are not that far apart. Through his characters, he shows us that we can't have any romantic ideas about war, and that the only way to be successful is to act like a realist.

The Latin epic Aeneid is about war, military feats, and adventures. In it, war is made to look good, and people are shown to be able to do heroic things. In his play "Arms and the Man," Bernard Shaw gives Virgil's lines a funny twist. Shaw does not make war, or the life of a soldier look good. In the play, he says that fighting wars to get glory and honour is pointless. Shaw shows through the character Bluntschli that most soldiers don't see war and weapons as ways to become famous, but as ways to make a living. Bluntschli is a paid soldier who is willing to fight anywhere for money. He would rather not fight and would rather take a safe position on the battlefield to save his life. He says that on the battlefield, chocolates are more important than cartridges because they give you quick food.

Bluntschli's background and experience in the military make him question the unprofessional way in which Sergius led the Bulgarians in their attack on the Serbs. He says that only a beginner would lead a cavalry charge against a battery of machine guns without thinking about how dangerous the situation is. If the Serbs had the right ammunition and the guns had gone off, Sergius and his regiment would have been killed outright. So, we get a realistic view of war that doesn't try to make it look cool or see it as a way to get honour and fame. Shaw thought that a soldier should try to save his life rather than try to die in a heroic way on the battlefield. The storey is about war, and it's about men and their weapons, but not in the same way as Virgil's lines. Arms and the Man is a good name for the play because of this.

Through his title, George Bernard Shaw has done what he set out to do. It makes you think, is interesting, and is funny. It also lets Shaw show how funny he is and how seriously he thinks about important social and moral issues. So, Arms and the Man is a good name for a play in which war drives most of the actions and thoughts. There's no doubt that it's about love, but the main idea is that war has a false glory. The play shows that people are stronger than weapons. It shows how man can control situations and get past problems, showing that he is better than weapons. Because of this, the title fits well.

b. Explain the significance of the symbols employed in ‘Morte d’Arthur’.

Ans) The storey of King Arthur is mostly about lies, trust, betrayal, and love. The storey of King Arthur is also linked to some symbols, like the search for the Holy Grail and the Round Table. In Arthur's legend, the Holy Grail became a symbol not only of spiritual perfection but also of human perfection, which Arthur thought was the most important thing about being human. So, a journey or quest is the most common theme in the Arthurian legend. The best and bravest people in Arthur's kingdom, the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table, have a strong desire to seek adventure, do good deeds, and find glory even when things are hard.

The Round Table, which Arthur and his knights gather around, is another important part of the Arthurian legend. As the name suggests, it doesn't have a head. This means that everyone who sits on it is on the same level. Arthur, who is sitting with his twelve best knights, thinks of himself as the best among equals. The idea of the Round Table is the best example of the beginnings of an ideal democratic monarchy. Arthur made the Round Table so that his barons wouldn't fight with each other. None of them would take a lower seat than the others because only the best and bravest knights were allowed to sit at the Round Table, so they didn't want anyone to take a higher seat.

Over time, the Round Table came to represent the code of chivalry, which inspired people from all over the world to follow it. The chivalric order had a lot of the same symbols as Arthur's court and the Knights of the Round Table. Since then, the word "chivalry" has come to mean the courage and honour that these Knights were expected to show.

One seat was left empty at that table to represent Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus. Here, too, there is a parallel to King Arthur's betrayal by Lancelot, who was one of the twelve Knights of the Round Table and the best of them. He broke Arthur's trust by having a relationship with Guinevere, who was King Arthur's wife. Lancelot's love for Guinevere and his betrayal are shown along with other Knights of the Round Table who also had unholy affairs. Lancelot's betrayal of the king and Mordred, the son of one of the twelve Knights, taking over his kingdom nearly killed Arthur and caused the Round Table to fall apart. During the battle with Mordred, King Arthur dies.

Betrayal wasn't the only thing that led to King Arthur's downfall. Trust was also broken. Guinevere and Lancelot, the two people in whom King Arthur had the most faith, betrayed him. Lancelot's lie was a big reason why the values of honour, bravery, and chivalry that the Round Table had stood for were destroyed. One more thing that the legend is about is love. This is shown first in the relationship between King Arthur and Guinevere before she had an affair with Lancelot, and then again between Lancelot and Guinevere. So, Tennyson's Idylls of the King are based on Malory's Morte d' Arthur, which is about loyalty and how it is shown through chivalry.

Section C

IV Discuss Hardy’s approach to the natural world, as expressed in Far from the Madding Crowd. 20

Ans) Even though Wessex and its beautiful countryside don't exist, the simple, happy, rural characters bring it to life by carrying on old traditions. Hardy says that he looked at early English history to learn about the myths and beliefs of the countryside and the traditions of farming. He then put these ideas into the 19th century, when Queen Victoria was in charge. He said that Hardy's goal was to find a link between the past and the present. Hardy's Wessex is a place where society and nature are in harmony, and the countryside still has the same peace and quiet from long ago. In this book, the industrial revolution hasn't changed the way people live in the countryside of Wessex. Both nature and people still live close to each other.

Nature is not a still thing; it is alive, and Gabriel Oak is a perfect example of its pristine purity, generous spirit, and energy. Bathsheba is the same, but she goes in a different direction because of what she does on the spot. She is also a woman with deep roots in the countryside who is self-assured, lively, and beautiful. However, unlike Nature, she is impulsive and capricious, which makes her restless and agitated. Gabriel Oak is always willing to help her calm down.

In the first part of the book, David's disciplined and self-assured way of life shows the best of nature. He stays away from love, passion, jealousy, and vengeful rage. However, Bathsheba's playful and thoughtless note expressing her interest in him, which isn't true but is just a prank, changes him. In the last part of the book, he gives in to passionate jealousy and kills Troy for getting in the way of He goes against his nature and loses touch with Nature, which is the personification of selfless generosity and giving a lot without expecting anything in return.

The Wessex Tales is the name for all of Hardy's books. Wessex is a place in Thomas Hardy's books that inspired the stories. So much so that Wessex, with its moods and plans, became a part of his characters. Thomas Hardy was born in Upper Brockhampton, Dorset, and lived there for most of his life as an adult. He knew a lot about the people and places in this part of England, and this comes through in both his novels and his poetry. They are an important part of what he writes. Hardy made up a name for this part of southern England. He called it Wessex.

"Hardy's in-depth study and accurate portrayal of rural life in Dorset in the nineteenth century...presents a microcosm of human life through which he wanted to say something about the universal condition of human life." Far From the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles are all set in Wessex.

"...in Hardy's stories, the natural world is often described in great detail, making it more than just a background for the storey. Hardy creates a relationship between environment and character that works both ways. This interaction shows how people have changed since Darwin's time in the Victorian era. The way Hardy describes the natural world is the same way he describes the way different people look, and vice versa. This method takes away people's sense of being in charge and puts them in the natural world instead of on top of it.

Hardy was influenced by Charles Darwin, who wrote in Origin of Species that the human species as it is today the result of natural selection, which is a random choice made without any purpose. Situations have made it possible for different species to change into people. Evolution is the process by which organisms change by adapting to their environment. Natural selection is the main idea behind evolution. This idea went against the common Christian belief that God made the world.

The fact that Hardy focuses on the environment shows how Darwinian theory has affected him. The plot has a lot to do with fate and chance, which is similar to how evolutionary ideas put a lot of weight on chance, extinction, and survival. Hardy's stories show how Darwin's ideas about how circumstances can change the results of natural selection are true. In the end, the unseen forces that seem to run their immediate environment make it so that human forces don't matter.