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MEG-02British Drama

ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2013-2014)Disclaimer / Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions

given in the Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Tutor for the help of the studentto get an idea of how he/she can answer the questions of the Assignments. Sample answers may be Seen asthe Guide/Reference Book/assignment Guide. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every carehas been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/Solutions. Please consult you Teacher / Tutor beforeyou prepare a Particular Answer.

Answer the following questions in 300 words each.Q. 1. Discuss the plot of Dr. Faustus.Ans. Some critics have criticised Doctor Faustus, regarding its structure. According to

them, the play has both a beginning and an end, but no middle. It means that there are manyinsignificant incidents between the beginning and the end of this play.

The learned Doctor Faustus makes his decision to sell his soul to the devil, very early inthe play. At the end, the devil comes to take away his soul. The intervening events are justsignificant. The consequences of Faustuss bargain are quite inevitable. So the incidents areof little meaning since they are ineffective in altering the consequences. The comedy andfarce only cater to the taste of the audience.

The middle of the play means that part of the play in which Faustus presented as a differentcharacter. A few scenes reveal Faustuss inner conflict and personal self-retrospection. In thatsense, the play has a sufficient middle. Faustus constantly reaffirms his original rash surrenderof his soul to Lucifer. His deep suffering is not meaningless because it leads to knowledge.Finding himself truly damned, he feels generally terrified.

Doctor Faustus is a play about knowledge. Faustus is dissatisfied and disgusted with thestudy of ethics, divinity and metaphysics. His imagination is captured by magic which bringshim immense power and ensures a world of profit, delight and honour. He gained a novelknowledge against the knowledge of a more ultimate kind as soon as he has signed thecontract with the devil. His first question to Mephistophilis is Where is the place that men callhell ? The devil defines hell as not a region, but the state of mind. Faustus does not believethis information. He already used to consider the stories of hell as merely old wives tales.His new knowledge proves unsatisfactory. Mephistophilis gives him a book containing all theinformation about the stars and planets, plants and herbs etc. Faustus accuses the devil ofdepriving him of heavenly joys and ideas of repentance. Though the devil manager to diverthim from ideas of repentance yet Faustus desires to know about stars and planets and theMaker of the world. Faustus is not contented with the mere workings of the machinery of theuniverse, but is inwardly urged to know about ultimate purposes. He knows it well that theknowledge of means cannot be isolated from the knowledge of ends. His new knowledge isquite akin to his former knowledge. He has failed in proving worthy of the supernatural powers

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that he had acquired. He would no longer wall Germany with brass, make Rhine circle roundWittenberg, or chase the Prince of Perna from Germany. Instead he stages magical showsfor the Emperor. He summons the spirits of Alexander the Great and his paramour. He alsoplays tricks on the Pope. His basic motivation is not the public welfare, but the desire for self-aggrandisement.

If we assume that Faustus is doomed by virtue of his signing the contract with the devil.Then he is crippled to perform any further significant action and the dramatic quality will paleinto insignificance. Then the action of signing the contract alone assumes importance. Hiscase is no doubt hopeless. The devils pinpoint it time and again that he must abide by thecontract or his flesh will be torn to pieces. A few allusions reveal that he was not the prisonersolely of this fatal act. To mould his mind, the Good Angel urges him to repent, but the EvilAngel dissuades him. Inspite of that, there arises an internal conflict in his mind time andagain. Both the Angels try their best to bully and threaten him. Mephistophilis deems it hisdevilish duty to detract his mind from his depressing thoughts. It shows that the bond is notsolely responsible for ensuring Faustuss damnation. Once Lucifer ensures Faustus that hisescape is out of question. In a state of despair, Faustus gets ready to commit suicide with thedagger offered by Mephistophilis. The Old Man dissuades him from pursuing such a course.He also ensures him that the Good Angel is willing to pour a vital fall of precious grace into hissoul. Faustus declares that hell doesnt loosen its grip on him.

Mephistophilis calls him a rebel against Lucifer and threatens to tear his flesh piece-meal. The threat works wonders. He no longer calls the Old Man my sweet friend. He ratheraddresses the devil as my sweet Mephistophilis and requests him to inflict on him the greatesthellish torments. In his moral deterioration he thinks of hell as our hell. He again considershimself as the member of the devil party. He seeks greater distraction than before. Instead ofcalling up the vision of Helen, he aspires to possess her. The transcendent power of beautyset alight a hell-fire and started burning Faustus.

Faustus is the victim of his own conceptions, misconceptions or preconceptions. He isensnared by his own legalism. Neither he, nor the devils know that the bond has effectively putFaustuss soul in their possession. Faustus himself believes in the God of justice. He saysthat his heart is hardened the extent that he cannot repent. His sense of legal obligation urgeshim to say that his last hour is approaching and Hell is calling him. Even at this moment anangel comes with a vial full of precious grace to save him. The devils were afraid that Faustuswould escape their grasp. Being dead sure that he cannot be saved, Faustus gets desperatedoesnt take any preventive action. However, the despair does not paralyse his imaginationaltogether. He is well aware of the happenings around him.

Therefore, we can say that there have occurred remarkable changes in Faustuss soulbetween the signing of the bond and his final damnation. They are potent enough to constitutea solid middle. Therefore, the critics remarks can be safely refuted.

Q. 2. How would you rate A Midsummer Nights Dream as a comedy?Ans. A Midsummer Nights Dream is the great play of Shakespeare. It exhibits a happy

blending of his poetic and dramatic power and it is in this play that his fight of humour also

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exhibits itself for the first time in a most masterly manner. In fact, the two most outstandingfeatures of the play are poetry and humour. It has enriched itself by coalescing with fancy. Thecomic here is no longer pure comic. It is a mingled web shot through with the beautiful. Themeeting of Bottom and Titania may be taken as a symbol signifying the union of the comicand the beautiful. The humour of the play reaches its peak in the scene when the Fairy QueenTitania whose very being is spun out of light and air and dew. Fondles the ass-headed bottomand sticks musk rose on his hairy head.Humours Both in Character and Situation

Humours in A Midsummer Nights Dream arises both from character and situation.The character of sweet bully. Bottom is a masterpiece in humorous creation. Bottom saysDowdon, is incomparably a finer efflorescence of the absurd than any preceding characterof Shakespeares invention. He is a genius, and in his presence his fellows look so small.And his fellows also appreciate him, He has simply the best wit of any handicraft man inAthens. And Bottom himself never suffers from inferiority complex. He can perform everyparteven the part of a lion, so that if once he roars as a lion, he will be asked to roar again.Without him the comedy cannot go forward. It is not possible, You have not a man in allAthens able to discharge Pyramus but he fostered by such hero-worship. Bottoms self-complacency develops to a point where his metamorphosis at the hands of Puck seem merelya fitting climax to a natural process of evolution. And even when he is thus translated; hedoes not lose his composure. The amorous advances Titania do not disturb his equanimity.He is quite at home with Pease blossom and Cobweb. He shows a sublime self-satisfactionin a situation where even the wisest intelligence would be nonplussed. But the real humour inthe character of Bottom lies in his making an ass of himself.Humour in the follies of Lovers

The follies of the lovers provide another very humours situation in the play. Just as Pucktranslates Bottom, so he translates Lysander and Demetrius by means of a magic flowerjuice. Both of them desert Hermia and pursue Helena and are ready to cross swords for thelove of Helena. Although the situation is brought about by an external agency, it has a symbolicalsignificance. Love sometimes drives man to absurd follies similar to those committed byLysander and Demetrius. This aspect of love is symbolised by the blindness of cupid. It isalso emphasised upon by Theseus, when he places lovers and madmen in the same category

Lovers and madmen have such seething brainsSuch shaping fantasies that apprehendMore than coal reason comprehends.

The mischievous Puck who is at the root of the whole trouble laughs at the follies of thelovers

Lord what fools these mortals beHumour in the interlude

The interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe provides the third humours episode in the play.The part played by Bottom in it, the interlude itself and the way in which it is presented, are full

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of humour and irony. The interlude in the play is a parody of romantic love, which is the centraltheme of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Pyramus hearing a voice through a chink in the walland dying, uttering high sounding nonsense.

Cut thread and thurmQuail, crash, conclude and quell.He is a funny caricature of a lover. So is Thisbe a parody of a romantic girl, who kisses

the walls hole instead of her lovers lips. Both the romantic lovers stab themselves recallingthe loveable qualities of each-other. Pyramus who stabs themselves, first says that Thisbewas the fairest lady who ever lived in this world, who ever fell in love, who had a liking for life,and who had a bright look. Thisbe, seeing the deed Pyramus, recalls mournfully that herlovers sweet eyes have been covered by death. His lips were as beautiful as lilies, his nosewas pretty like a cherry, his cheeks were beautiful like a yellow cowslips and his eyes weregreen like the plant which yields onions. She stabs herself with Pyramuss dagger. The wholeInterlude, with its wall and moonshine and lion, is all a delicious feast of fun, which is unique inits own kind. It is also a burlesque upon the drama of the day in which classical subjects werehandled with utter want of dignity and with incongruous extravagance of style, the jigglingmetres, mania for alliteration and the far-fetched and fantastic epithets. The meaninglessinvocations the wearisome repetition of epithetic words are all ridiculed by the youthfulShakespeare with humorous glee and fine dramatic instinct.

Q. 3. Comment on the indecisive bent of mind of Hamlet.Ans. Some critics are of the view that Hamlet has really gone mad. They have their own

reasons behind their thought. Hamlets father has died and his mother has married within twomonths of her beloved husbands death. He is still in mourning and is still wearing blackclothes. The sad look on his face is the evidence of his grief. He is shocked and hurt that hismother could marry a mean, cunning and sly person after being so much in love and happywith the old King his father. His uncle and his mother are enjoying voluptuous, incestuous andnuptial pleasure while he is still in mourning. This sign of weakness and unmanliness is an-other name for madness because only peasants keep mourning so long. Denmark is un-happy to see his sad face. He does not wipe the frown off his face and cheer up. He does noteven attend to the country and its people. He feels bitter when somebody tries to move him.There are all signs of madness. It is good to mourn the dead , but to keep mourning for thedeath of ones near and dear after two months have passed is nothing, but insanity.

After his meeting with the Ghost, all Hamlets thoughts centred around plans of revenge.The grief of his fathers death and the cause behind it made him behave strangely and madly.In order to allay his uncles suspicions that he knew the details of his fathers death, Hamletdecides to pretend he is mad. Polonius declares that Hamlets madness (wildness) is causedby Ophelias coldness towards him. The King and Queen felt relieved that Hamlets madnesswas not attributed to them, but was attributed to his rejection in love by Ophelia. As such,Ophelia was called to the castle so that they might see how Hamlet conducts himself with herOphelia says to Hamlet in a loving tone, I believed you when you said you loved me. Hamletresponds in a humiliating tone, You should have believed me. Go and shut yourself in a

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nunnery. You should not marry and have sinful children. If you do marry, marry a fool becausewise men know what monsters women make of men. On hearing his words, Ophelia startssobbing and says, Oh, he has really gone mad ! Woe is me, that I loved to see this day!

Hamlet remains unmoved on hearing Ophelia sobbing. Even a heart of stone shouldhave melted on the sight of tears flowing from ones beloveds eyes. The audience also thinkhim mad. Even a mad man would have consoled and clasped her. Ophelias description ofHamlets odd behaviour and disorderly clothes support her view.

Polonius begins a conversation with Hamlet and asks him, Do you recognize me ? Hamletsays that he does and calls Polonius, fishmongers. Hamlet says to Polonius, If you have adaughter, let her not walk in the sun, conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter mayconceiveFriend, look to it. When Polonius asks him what he has been reading, the princereplies, Ive been reading slanders by the satirical author who says, Old men have greenbeard, their faces are wrinkled and they have a plentiful of wit, together with most weak hams,etc. These replies to Polonius questions and Hamlets other remarks convince Polonius thatHamlet is mad and there is method in his madness.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were Hamlets schoolfellows but are now Claudiusscourtiers. Claudius uses them as his tools to find out the reason behind Hamlets madness.After exchanging pleasantries with them, Hamlet tells them that of late he has lost all his mirthand charm in life. Even the beautiful world seems to him foul and repellent. Man, the mostexquisite work of divine creation too appears to be nothing, but dust to him. Neither man norwoman delights him. These were his brainless views. At the same time he gets normal andsays that the players whom they have engaged to entertain him would be welcome. Again hesays, The King and Queen are deceived about me. Im but mad north-north-west : When thewind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-hawk. This scholarly phrase is both apt andmeaningful. It means that certain mishaps most often make the people lose their sense but heis still sensible enough to outwit persons like them who come to spy on him under the instructionof the King and Queen.

Hamlet behaves normally with the actors of the play. Polonius calls the players as the bestactors in the world. Hamlet calls Polonius as Jepthah, judge of Israel with treasure in hispossession. Hamlet explains that Jepthah loves his only daughter very much but he supposesthat Polonius did not love his only daughter that much. (This awkward remark was a direct hiton Polonius who had asked his daughter to act coldly towards him.) Then Hamlet welcomesthe actors. He makes Polonius to feed and lodge them properly. He asks an actor to arrangethe performance of the play called The Murder of Gonzago. Hamlet also inserts his ownspeech in the play in addition to other usual speeches in order to catch the conscience of theKing.

The play The Murder of Gonzago begins. The Queen was shown clinging to the arm ofthe King, vowing her love for him. She says, I will never marry again, if you die, which I hopeis never. In a taunting way but in his full senses, Hamlet says, How do you like the play,mother ? Gertrude replies, I think she proclaims her love too much. She sounds false to me.This scene was a reminder of her false love and hollow assurance to her late husband and put

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her to shame. The next scene showed the King going to sleep and the nephew entering thegarden and pouring poison into his ears. This scene was the reminder of his own evil deedfor the throne and to win the love of the Queen. Claudius went pale with shame. He asksshakily, What sort of play is this? Hamlet says cheerfully, not madly, In this scene you haveseen how the nephew killed the King for his throne. In the next scene, youll see how he winsthe love of the Queen. Overfilled by the sense of his guilt, Claudius got up hurriedly and left thehall with Gertrude behind him. It convinced Hamlet of Claudiuss guilt.

Hamlets summoned by his mother. He castigates her for having proved false to her truehusband by having married a contemptible and unscrupulous villain. In plain words he says, Itis a shame that she, and elderly woman, should by her remarriage, have shown herself to bea slave to lustful desires. These sarcastic words aroused the Queens sleeping conscience.He calls her remarriage as a black deed committed by her. The Queen says that she isfeeling brokenhearted. Hamlets words are like daggers in her heart when Hamlet talks to theGhost, she thinks he has really gone mad. It confirms her conviction when Hamlet says to her,sit there and dont get up till I have finished with you. After killing Polonius, Hamlet feels sorrylike a man in senses for having murdered a wrong man. He tells her not to try to fool herselfthat he has gone mad and remind her of his guilty conscience that makes her frightened. Headvises her to repent at leisure because she has married in haste and to avoid the wretchedKing in future. Killing of Polonius may be called a rash act of madness.

He also acted like a mad man in jumping in Ophelias grave and claiming her right to beburied with her. He forgets the fact that he, himself was the sole cause behind Opheliasmadness and ultimate death. Even the Queen called him mad.Evidences to show that he is not really mad

Hamlet was shocked by the Ghosts revelation that his uncle had poured poison into hisears and his mother was a party to his murder. The Ghost had also instructed him not to sparehis uncle and not to harm his mother. His doubts were dispelled and he was filled with fury atthe sins of his uncle and mother. He told everything to Horatio about the Ghosts revelationsand directions. He made Horatio swear his word on the sword not to breathe a word toanyone before he tells her, I shall now put on act, and see if I can catch these villains, Oh,what a cruel fate that was born to revenge this evil act. Then his thoughts centred aroundplans of revenge and it made him behave strangely. This is an overwhelming evidence toshow that Hamlet is not really mad but he feigns to be mad. He puts on an antic dispositionto justify his eccentric manner. Polonius himself realised daring his conversation with Hamletthat there is method in Hamlets madness but he declares him mad by virtue of his pregnantreplies. Hamlets calls people like Polonius These tedious old fools. It means Hamlet wasintentionally talking to Polonius in riddles. Hamlets deliberately feigned eccentric mannercomes to the surface when he says to his schoolfellows, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I ammad but mad north-north-west : When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Being a shrewd man, Claudius never takes Hamlet as mad either for love or for any otherreason. He tells Polonius, Although Hamlets words lacked form, yet not even a bit (little),seemed madness. Even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not consider him mad. As soon

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as these two courtier visit Hamlet, he at once grows suspicions. He exchanges pleasantriesand asks them whether the King and the Queen have instructed them to call on him and thathe can judge why they have been sent for. He tells them about his loss of mirth and delight. Hespeaks a few words of welcome to them and tell them that the Queen and King are mistakenand deceived about him. He says, Ive sense enough to outwit persons like you who come tospy on me under the instructions of King and the Queen. Guildenstern describes Hamletscondition as a crafty madness or self-imposed madness.

Hamlet has confided everything to Horatio. His private talks with Horatio and his ownsoliloquies are avowedly sane utterances and show his genius. They are coherent, logicaland profound in thought. His generalization shows his deep wisdom. He says, Frailty, thyname is woman ! What is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep andfeed ? ; And that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain Hamlets soliloquy beginning Tobe or not to be that is the question is one of the most-quoted passages. It has a universalappeal. Hamlets soliloquies are replete with wisdom and are remarkable for their poeticeloquence and felicity of expression. They cannot be called as a mad mans speeches eventhough they reflect the agony of a sensitive soul. In one of his soliloquies, Hamlet makes aplan to catch the conscience of the King through the performance of a drama correspondingto the facts of his fathers death as revealed by the Ghost. He seeks Horatios help in watchingthe Kings reactions. The formation and execution of such a project can be achieved only bya sane person. On seeing that Claudius has hurriedly left the hall during the performance ofthe inner play. Hamlet says, O good Horatio, Ill take the ghosts word for a thousand pound.Didst perceive ? Horatio replies : Very well, my lord. I did very well note him. Hamlet hascaught the Kings conscience. Horatio knew it well that Hamlets mind is neither unhinged nordisordered.

Hamlet gave the guidelines even to the professional players in the art of acting. He told anactor to commemorate the speech written by him (Hamlet) and directed the dramatic party tostage The Murder of Gonzago instead of staging the story of the death of Priam, King ofTroy. He also delivers sound maxims regarding the art of stage-acting and says to the players,Do not mouth your speeches or make wild gestures. Do not rant in too loud a voice of tooemphatic a manner. Do not outHerod Herod. Do not be too tame while making your speechesand not to overstep the modesty of nature. Essence of acting consists in holding the mirrorupto nature. These instructions to the players indicate that he did not have even a touch ofmadness.

In the Queens private chamber, Hamlet highlights his mothers misdemeanour in havingmarried Claudius and shows her two portraits and compares the personalities of the oldKing and Claudius. He reminds her of her vows she exchanged with his (Hamlets) father andmarry the awful man. He pities her and says, At your age you should have had more sense.This humiliating remark shows that Hamlet had an old and experienced head on youngshoulders. Only a seasoned person could impart such a golden advice. It opens her eyesand makes her realize the enormity and gravity of her crime. He has already decided tospeak daggers to her. Therefore, he condemns and castigates her in rough and gruff voice

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using brutal language. Though denunciatory yet his coherent speech cannot be labelled asthe saving of a mad man.

Hamlet gives an evidence of his sanity during his conversation with the grave-diggers.Hamlet wonders how a man can sing while performing the solemn act of grave-digging. Thisis quite a logical and sensible question. Hamlet sees a skull thrown by a grave-digger. Hereflects that there was a time when the skull had a tongue in it and could sing. It might be theskull of an ambitious, intriguing politician or it might be the skull of lawyer, who in his time,actively carried on all kinds of legal business. Or, This fellow might be in his time, a greatbuyer of land, with his statues, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries.Hamlet adds, All that is left of that man now is just this dusty skull. He calls the grave-diggera man of humour when he says, Im digging mine grave, Sir ! The grave-digger calls anotherskull as that of yorick (a court-jester). Hamlet remarks, Emperors and jesters meet the samefate. These sensible and meaningful comment show Hamlets wit and wisdom.

Hamlets insulting treatment of Ophelia doesnt reveal his madness. He was hard towardsher because, under the influence of her father, she rejected his advances of love even thoughshe belonged to a lower strata than Hamlet. His roughness and rudeness were counter-reactions and part of strategy in putting on an antic disposition. He consider her as a puppetin the hands of her father (an associate of Claudius) who is serving as a spy. His disillusionmentin love made him use offensive and scornful language. His leaping into Ophelias grave wasalso the action of a man of the though understanding. (Probably he meant to attract Laertes tohis side by telling him that he loved Ophelia deeply even though he happened to murderPolonius by mistake.) He is prone to act on impulse. He is cut to the quick when Laertesshows his overwhelming grief. He fought like an animal or an enemy to show his genuineclaim to be buried with Ophelia.

It was Shakespeares intention to represent Hamlet as a feigner of madness and Opheliasreal madness. He executes his intention truthfully and skilfully. The plenty of eccentricity, fantasticthinking or feeling, wandering imagination and wild phrases do not constitute madness. Hamletnever remains ignorant of his where abouts. He always understands himself and others andnever gets incoherent or illogical in his reasons.

Hamlet does not feign madness out of craze or whim but as a measure of self-defence.The Ghosts revelation indirectly warns him to beware of his uncle who has killed his father,has married his mother and has snatched his crown. He could not execute his revengeagainst Claudius without posing himself to be mad because the entire governmental machinerywas his supporter. He knows the truth that his uncle has murdered his father. He must meetClaudius without exposing his strategy until he executed his allotted task. The antic dispositionserves as a screen behind which he can watch the King and await his appropriate of revenge.

In spite of his sensibility and sanity, Hamlet has a vein of morbidity and abnormality in him.When the play opens, he is at battle with the Norwegians. He gets the news of his fathersdeath and then the news of his mothers remarriage with his uncle. It changed the brave,happy, bright and handsome youngman into a quiet and brooding man. He forsook his normal,usual and original state of thought, feeling and conduct and turned abnormal. The Ghosts

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revelation and Ophelias infidelity and his own incapacity to execute his plans of revengefurther aggravate his morbidity.

To conclude we can say that Hamlets madness is not genuine but assumed/unreal/ feigned/self-imposed. Hamlet aptly calls himself mad in craft. Shakespeare never intended torepresent Hamlet as mad, or half mad, or verging on madness. He has very skilfully, successfullyand artistically portrayed his character.

Q. 4. What features make Alchemist an allegory?Ans. Varied and Wide-Ranging ImageryThe The Alchemist has an abundance of vivid imagery. Some of this imagery is realistic.

However, much of it is extravagant, exaggerated, fantastic, and fanciful. The imagery is variedand wide-ranging but not scattered. Instead, all of he imagery is, closely related to the themeor themes of the play. The play offers US alchemical imagery, imagery depicting wealth andvoluptuousness, religious and pseudo-religious imagery, medicinal imagery, satirical imagery,the imagery of quarrelling, the imagery of abuse and cursing, the supernatural imagery,astronomical and astrological imagery, imagery linked with fortune telling, and miscellaneousimagery inclusive of diversity. A brief description of significant ones is as under

1. Alchemical Imagery. The alchemist imagery dominates the play. The themes of avariceand lust have been developed on the basis of the belief in alchemy. In the very beginning,Subtle employs alchemist imagery in reminding face of the favour which Subtle had done tohim. Subtle claims that he had Sublimed Face, exalted him fixed him in the third regionand wrought him to quintessence. Face refers to Subtle as the smoky persecutor of nature.He means to say that Subtle is an alchemist who torments nature by performing all sorts ofexperiments over the furnace. Face also gives a reference to Subtles beech-coal, pots, hiscrucibles, and his retorts and other vessels.

Mammon comes before us and tells his friend Surly that very shortly he would transformeverything metallic in his house into gold by means of the philosophers stone which he isabout to get from Subtle. He proposes to buy all the tin, lead, and copper available in themarket. He will get all these base metals changed into gold. He wishes to purchase all thecopper mines of Deronshire and Cornwell. His aim is to obtain all the copper for conversioninto gold. Thus he change those regions into the Golden West Indies. Mammon says that thephilosophers stone has the power to confer honour, loves, respect long life, and valour on itspossessor. He refers to some of the ancient classical myths. He adds that all these myths areonly allegorical accounts of the wonders wrought by the philosophers stone. He refers toJansons Fleece, to Pythagorass golden thigh, to Pandoras box, to Medeas magic charms,to the dragons teeth to the Hesperian Garden to Joves shower of gold, and to Midass touchconverting everything into gold. Face informs Mammon that the philosophers stone would beready by evening. He adds that the red ferment has done his office. Subtle tells Mammon thatbright Sol is in his robe. His is ready to do his work; and that he (Subtle) has already obtainedA medicine of the triple soul.

The liquid on the furnace is about to be given St. Marrys bath, is already showing lacvirgins. He has obtained the salt of mercury. He has already exalted his medicine by hanging

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it in a steam bath and by dissolving it. Subtle holds that gold did not originally exist as gold. Infact, the metal that originally lay buried in the depths of the earth might be called the primematter in course of the centuries prime matter developed into gold. Surly provides somealchemical imagery by naming a large number of ingredients which according to the alchemists,go into the making of the philosophers stone. Subtle puts a large number of alchemicalquestions to Face the latter provides the correct alchemical answers to these questions.These questions and their answers contain numerous technical terms and phrases, each ofwhich is an imagery.

2. The Religious Aspect of Alchemical Imagery. A reference is also made in theconversation between Mammon and Surly, and then is conversation between Mammon andSubtle, to the religious aspect of alchemy. Mammon tells Surly that Subtle is an honest, notable,and good soul. He has bruised his knees and worn out his slippers by prayer and fasting.Subtle advises Mammon not to be hasty in demanding the philosophers stone because byshowing urgency about it, he would expose himself as a covetous man and covetous man isnot entitled to obtain he philosophers stone. Only a holy and deeply religious person couldhope to gain success in producing the philosophers stone.

3. Wealth and Voluptuousness Imagery of:I. Sir Epicure Mammon. He is the most important character depicting epicureanism.

The word epicure means a man who gives himself up to sensual pleasures, especially thepleasure of eating. Mammon was the devil who tempted man by avarice. Mammon symbolizeswealth, covetousness, and worldliness. Sir Epicure Mammon tells Surly, that they are nowabout to enter the new world. This is the world of gold mines comparable to those whichbelonged to the ancient king, Solomon. Mammon describes the life of luxury and sexualindulgence which he would lead after he has got the philosophers stone from Subtle.

(1) He would sleep in soft beds.(2) He would fill his oval room with erotic pictures which would stimulate his sexual desire.(3) He would fill his rooms with mists of perfume.(4) He speaks of the most delicious and costly foods that he would eat. These foods

would include oiled mushrooms, the tongues of carps, dormice, camels heels, andthe oily teats of a fat pregnant sow.

II. Face. He provides some imagery depicting wealth when he describes the SpanishDon who has been invited to Subtles bathhouse with a view to make love to Dol. Sexualimagery is also provided in this context by Face.

(1) He asks Dol to go and tune her virginal without delay, to Firk like a flounder when sheis in the arms of the Spanish Don.

(2) To kiss the Spanish Don as if she were a shelfish.(3) To keep Don awake during the night with her drum.(4) To go with him in case she really wishes to enjoy life. He would like her to go with him

and taste the life of palaces, to eat, to drink and to enjoy the fruits of the efforts of thealchemists. He would offer to her the tincture of pearl and coral of gold and amber.

III. There is commercial imagery provided by Subtle. It is as under

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(1) He speaks to Drugger, that a ship from the Persian Gulf would bring him enormouscommodities which would make him rich.

(2) The manner in which Face extracts and extorts money from the various clients is alsorelevant in this context.

4. Pseudo-Religious Imagery. There is pseudo-religious imagery in the play providedlargely by Tribulation and Ananias. Tribulation, speaks Biblical language.

(1) He tries to convince Ananias that even the children of perdition may, sometimes bemade instruments to promote the holiest works.

(2) The rebuffs, which the saints receive, should be endured by them patiently. The reasonis such rebuffs are a test of the integrity and piety of the saints.

(3) It is quite possible that by the time Subtle has completed the process by which thephilosophers stone is to be produced. Subtle would undergo a change and supportthe cause of the Anabaptists. He tries to placate Subtle by informing him that Ananiasis feeling repentant of his rudeness towards Subtle.

5. Satirical Imagery. Subtle provides some very effective satirical imagery duringconversation with Tribulation and Ananias. He tells the Anabaptists that, with the philosophersstone they would cure important men of gout, palsy, dropsy, leprosy, syphilis, and other dreadfuldiseases. Thus they would win the goodwill of those men which would do a lot to promote theaims of the Anabaptists. They would be able to hire large armies and buy the kingdom ofFrance and the rich territory of the West Indies. Subtle reminds them of the various malpracticesand crooked advice which they employ to acquire wealth. In this way he brings to light their actof exploiting the widows and wires of the puritan husbands and of influencing the actions oftheir followers by their misleading exhortations. Thus Subtle satirizes the false piety and thehypocrisy of the Puritans.

6. Medicinal Imagery. Subtle tells Dol that one of Mammons aims is to cure people oftheir diseases.

(1) He adds that Mammon would go to eating-houses and offer a cure to those sufferingfrom venereal diseases.

(2) He would cure those sufferings from the dread plague.(3) He would go to the Moorfields in search of lepers to cure them of their leprosy.(4) He would offer the elixir to the old prostitutes in order to make them young again.Drugger confesses that one occasion he had become very sick on account of having

drunk too much liquor. He had then been cured by an old woman by giving him boiled beerand a medicine made from a plant which grows on the walls. Several diseases are named bySubtle in his talk with the Anabaptists which, can be cured with the elixir.

7. The Imagery of Abuse and Cursing. Ananias provides amusing imagery using wordsof abuse and cursing. In the quarrel between Face and the Spanish Don, Ananias takesFaces side and says that the Spaniards are profane and idolatrous. He says to the SpanishDon (who is infact Surly in disguise).

Avoid, Satan ! Thou art not of the light. Depart, proud. Spanish fiend ! Ananiaspronounces a curse upon Lovewits house. He says that dogs would defile the walls of this

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house, wasps and hornets would multiply beneath the roof of this house which is the seat offalsehood and a care of cozenage.

8. Supernatural Imagery. Examples of supernatural imagery are as under (1) Dapper asks Subtle for an attendant spirit to enable him to win money in all kind of

gambling. Eventually, this familiar is provided to him in the shape of a fly which he isasked to wear on his wrist.

(2) Dapper is told that he would become rich through gambling. It would look that thespirits of the dead alchemists. John and Isaac, have returned to live in Dappers body.

(3) The Queen of Fairies is Dappers aunt. She would bestow considerable part of herwealth upon Dapper.

(4) Dol appears in the disguise of the Queen of Fairies and assures to give Dapper,several boxes of treasure and several thousand acres of fairly land to him. Face tellshis master that the voices which are coming from inside the house are not those ofhuman being, but of the spirits of the air.

9. Astronomical and Astrological Imagery. Subtle poses to be adept in palmistry, inastrology, and in face-reading. He says that Druggers long ears and certain spots in histeeth, show that Druggers would prove to be a very lucky man. Subtle then relates the thumbto the planet Venus, the forefinger to Jove, the middle finger to Saturn, the ring finger to Sol,and the little finger to Mercury, Druggers house of life is Libra. This indicates that Druggerwould become a rich merchant. Subtle reads Kastrils hand and says that he can see clearlythe line of fortune on it.

10. Imagerys Purpose. The purposes of imagery are as under (1) The imagery of the Alchemist develops as alchemy develops, beginning with base

metals, such as a whore a pimp, and a quack.(a) The whore is transmuted into the Queen of Fairies.(b) The pimp is transmuted into a king of wits.(c) The quack is transmuted into a divine instructor. Later on all three return to the state of

base metals, as the dream of the philosophers stone ends in smoke.(2) Another function of the imagery is to extend and develop the multiple references that

alchemy had in actual lifeespecially the religious, medical, and commercialreferences as under

(a) The desire for gold is thought of as a religion.(b) The elixir is thought as a sovereign remedy.(c) The elixir is thought of as a means to sexual potency.(d) Business terms are used in reference to the whole produce.Q. 5. How is Playboy relevant today?Ans. The Irish audiences of the first decade of the 20th century, when the Playboy was

first produced in Dublin were not largely mistaken in thinking that The Playboy of the WesternWorld was an attack on the Irish character. It evoked many angry protests, and caused riots inthe theatre. Subsequently, when the play was produced in a couple of American cities, theIrish audiences there also strongly opposed the play. They would not allow the actors to com-plete the performances.

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The Irish audience got hostile to this play for moral, religious and political reasons. Theythought themselves as pious people and their womenfolk as virtuous. The play was an insultto the Irish people and their country because it depicted them in very dark colours. In theiropinion, the Playboy depicted the Irish women as lacking in virtue and the menfolk in generalto be immoral. The play contained certain obscene lines. Even some speeches wereconsidered as offensive. The female characters are depicted as lacking morals and the malecharacters are depicted as unscrupulous drunkards. The play was thereupon regarded as aslanderous attack on the Irish people and lived on their character. It hurt the nationalisticsentiment of the Irish audience and they did not relish or tolerate any of its features. Theaudience was wrong in reacting violently to the performance of the play. The playwright hadno such intentions. He simply wanted to mock at certain aspects of the Irish character and theIrish mentality of the times. He has given only his critical views of the nation by employingirony and satire freely. Like other authors of literary works, J.M. Synge has also attacked theliving individuals, groups of people or even whole communities sarcastically.

Authors of repute like Dyrden and Jonathan Swift attacked their contemporaries and theirentire nation by using the weapon of irony and satire. As a playwright, Synge has also exercisedhis right to expose certain frailties, absurdities, weaknesses and faults of his countrymen.Synge, himself was an Irish man. It was wrong on the part of the Irish audiences to view ThePlayboy with intolerance and ill-humour. There is no denying the fact that the playwrightscriticism of the Irish people is very subtle in The Playboy but the Irish audiences were quick toperceive the criticism which largely covert (implied) and occasionally overt (open).

J.M. Synge, in The Playboy attacks some of the accepted values of the settled life of theIrish people, around the onset of the twentieth century. It ridicules certain aspects of Irishreligious life, Irish social life and Irish domestic life. Synge has made an ironical attack on theconventional type of relationship existing between parents and children in those days. Childrenwere unquestionably expected to submit themselves to the authority of their fathers. Themothers role has nowhere been shown in the play. J.M. Synge challenges this aspect of thecontemporary domestic life. In the very beginning of the play, we find Pegeen indulged inconversation with Shawn Keogh, her fiance. She tells him that her father is going to attend awake and that she would have to spend the night alone. It means she makes no secret of herdislike for her father. In a way, she complains against her father who has no night to leave heralone during the night when he is well aware of the fact that harvest men, tinkers and soldierskeep going about in this part of the country and that such fellows can make a nuisance ofthemselves. He is ready to put his daughters honour at stake just for the sake of free and fulldrinks. His suggestion that Shawn should stay in the house to keep company with Pegeen isalso out of the place because they are not yet married. It was silly on his part to leave Christy,a young boy of unknown antecedents to stay with his daughter for there night at the public-place. He did not calculate that the young fellow would get drunk and misbehave with Pegeen.She also complains that her father has not provided her a waiter to help her in her in duties inthe public-house and also to stand by her side in the event of some trouble from intruders orrowdy elements in that region. Her father takes the matter very lightly. According to her father,

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a pot-boy was not so easy to find. Moreover, he was unable to make a proclamation througha town-crier of castle bar that he needs a pot-boy. It is at her suggestion that Christy is employedat the shebeen as a pot boy. He calls Pegeen as a queer daughter since she expects him toreturn home during the night after he is deadly drunk. Pegeen is outspoken. She calls him aqueer father who is ready to leave her alone for the twelve hours of the night indiscriminately.Michael is a jovial and happy-go-lucky kind of man. He does not give much weightage to thismild clash between himself and his daughter. He does not bother about her challenge orcriticism. He leaves Pegeen at the mercy of God and spends the night in attending the wake.

At another point, Pegeen resolves to marry Christy. Pegeen tells her father bluntly that shehas changed her mind and does not want to marry Shawn, who is A middling kind of scarecrowwith no savagery or fine words in him at all. Michael James shows his initial reluctance invain. Willy-nilly he agrees to allow Pegeen to marry Christy. She gets the upper hand. Shedeclares that with Christy working in the shebeen she would not feel afraid of the villainoussoldiers and others.

Attack on the Custom of Arranged Marriages The playwright seems to be attacking the customers of arranged marriages in Ireland in

an ironical manner. Shawns engagement was arranged by Pegeens fatherShawn hadpromised to give a herd of bullocks to Pegeens father. Thereupon, Pegeens father consideredhim as a worthy man of substance. It resulted in Shawns engagement with Pegeen. Pegeendid not have a round opinion about Shawn. She called him Sheneen and a dastard wholacked guts and bravery. As soon as Pegeen falls in love with Christy she tells her fatherovertly (plainly) that she has resolved not to marry Shawn. It infuriates her greedy father. Hecalls Pegeen a heathen daughter who does not feel ashamed in giving him the biggestshock of his life especially at the moment when he is already feeling overwhelmed by theexcessive liquor that he had consumed at the wake. (This fact is clear from the informationthat he had been unable to return to the Shebeen with Jimmy and Philly because he was toodrunk to be able to walk the distance.) Michael James also realised that Shawn was a timidfellow who refused to feel jealous of Christy and also proved himself a through coward byrefusing to fight Christy. Thereupon, he feels compelled to give his consent to Pegeensmarrying Christy. Christy is also a tactless fellow. He makes an offer to Christy to make himdepart from the place. He (Shawn) offers to give Christy his new hat, his breeches and hisown blessings and Father Reillys blessings in addition. His act of bribing proves ineffectiveand only annoys Christy. Shawn, himself is responsible for the strengthening of love-tiesbetween Pegeen and Christy.

He has tarnished his image in Pegeens eyes by his refusal to stay with her for the night.It shows he was deaf to her loud call of passion. Only an emasculated fellow will miss such aGod-given opportunity out of fear for a local priests objection. His blood did not boil when hecame to know that complete stranger shared his finances bed who might or must havemisbehaved with Pegeen on getting drunk. This thoughtless and passionless fellow wasvirtually no match for a girl of thought and overflowing passion. It hardly matters that eventstake a different turn and Pegeen fails to marry Christy.

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Relations between Christy and his father(Old Mahon)The children of the early twentieth century did not enjoy cordial relations with their parents.

The comic exposure of this unhealthy and unsatisfactory relationship is remarkable in thecase of Christy and his father, Old Mahon Christys father had a poor opinion about him. Hecannot believe that any decent and rich girl would ever think of marrying his son, whom hedescribes as a born idiot. He could never have won in the games and could never have beencheered by a crowd.

Christy tells Pegeen that his father used to ill-treat him and used to force him to work toohard. His father was a dead drunkard. He used to snore heavily in his sleep and was in thehabit of cursing and swearing like a military man. On certain occasions, his father, after drinkingdeep for weeks, used to get up at dawn, and going out into the yard as naked as an ash-treein the moon of May, used to throw lumps of earth towards the stars in the sky. The silly old manwanted the young man (Christy) to marry a fifty-five year old ugly widow who has notorious forher loose morals. Besides, she had also suckled him (Christy) like a mother for six monthswhen he was born.

During his conversation with Widow Quin, Old Mahon says My son (Christy) is a good-for-nothing, worthless fellow who did no work, but was a lier on walls and a talker of folly.

This shows that the father and the son had unharmonious relations. When Christy disagreesto marry an elderly lady, his father loses his temper instantly and raises a sickle to attack him.Christy also picks up a spade and gives him hard blow which seems to have killed the oldman. On his resurrection, the old man has now come to search out his son not for reconciliation,but with a view to destroying him to take revenge on him for his murderous attack. The secondtime also they fight with weapons to kill each-other. Their bitter grievances against each-othershow their extremely unpleasant relations. They become reconciled only at the end when hefound Christy bound by ropes and his leg scorched by Pegeen who was going to marry him.

Fathers indiscriminate Proposal to ChristyChristy tells the village girls and Widow Quin that his father wanted him to marry an elderly

widow who was ugly (bulky), lame and blind of one eye. She was a woman of loose moralsand was a walking terror from beyond the hills and she a hag this day with a tongue on herhas the crows and sea-birds scattered. Through Christys remarks, Synge exposes in acomic manner the undesirability of an arranged marriage. This amusing account is part of thecomedy of the play. It shows Old Mahons arbitrary decision and his selfish motives in wantingChristy to marry that particular woman. She was his fathers beloved and as such was motherlyto Christy. The quarrel was precipitated between the father and Christy who marry the womanof ill-fame. It was a deadly quarrel because of them took up arms to kill each-other.

Attack on Protection of a CriminalChristy enters the shebeen at night. He says that the police is looking for him because he

has committed a serious crime of hitting his own father with a spade and that his father hadfallen down in the potato-field where they had a quarrel. The police would like to arrest himfor that. Everybody, at the shebeen with the sole exception of Shawn is greatly impressed by

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this young fellows action in having killed his father. Everybody thinks that he has done quite aheroic deed. Pegeen also expresses her admiration for Christy for displaying his bravery.Widow Quin also feels attracted towards him at first sight. The village girl bring presents forChristy.

Pegeen says to Christy Theres no danger for you here but he should never talk again sointimately with the local girls. The village girls look upon Christy as a hero. One of the girlsuggests that Christy should marry Widow Quin who is looking for a second husband. WidowQuin also tries to get Christy as a husband for herself. She tells him that he will be very happywith her at her cottage and that he will also be perfectly safe from arrest at her house. They willform a suitable match because they are both murderers. Michael James also desires toprotect him from being arrested by the police. It becomes clear when he goes away to attendthe wake leaving behind Christy with Pegeen. Widow Quin names Christy as The ChampionPlayboy of the Western World.

These incidents show that the Playboy contains an oblique attack on the Irish people fortheir strange attitude towards a parricide. Michael Pegeen and others glorify him in the mostirrational manner. Synge classifies that the story of the play is not imaginary but is based onan actual incident of the Aran Islands. The play is a satirical hit on the mentality of the Irishpeople who led the life of monotony and boredom. They were tolerant of brutality and violence.Pegeens praise for a fellow who used to main ewes and for another fellow who had knockedthe eye from a police constable are disturbing but amusing facts. The attitude of the peopleof Mayo towards a parricide is by no means commendable. The author simply scoffs at thosepersons who shower lavish praises on Christy as a man fit to be holding his head high withthe wonders of the world. The true image of the spectators comes to surface when Christymurders his resurrected father in their presence. They turn hostile to the hero who was theirchampion and who had won many prizes and whom they had carried on their shoulders fromthe arena to the shebeen. They tie him up in order to hand him over to the police. EvenPegeen scorches his leg with burning turf. This type of reversal shows their mentalinconsistency. Pegeen remarks satirically that there is a big gap between a gallous story anda dirty deed. This is an irrational explanation of the change.

A Severe/Satirical attack on Religious Narrow- mindednessThe Playboy of the Western World contains a subtle attack on hypocritical piety and

religious narrow-mindedness. Shawn appears to us a model of virtue, piety and moral rectitude.He refuses to spend a night alone even with his fiance even to protect her because he thinksthat Father Reilly would object to his staying with her (Pegeen) when he is not yet married toher. However, his overscrupulous attitude makes him appear absurd. It makes the audienceroar with laughter. The situation touches the height of comedy when Shawn manages to slipaway from Michaels hands. This is a funny behaviour on Shawns part. Shawn however assuresPegeen that he is the kind of man who will never prove unfaithful to his wife. Shawn namesthe priest time and again, invokes his authority and exhibits his reverence for the Church. Hissubservience to Father Reilly appears highly comic. When Christy returns to his village Shawnsays to Pegeen Now Father Reilly will be in a position to perform our marriage ceremony

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and unite us in wedlock as soon as the wound caused by Christys bite on his leg has healed.Shawns devotion to the priest and his blind and unwavering compliance with the priestsmoral injunctions are simply contemptible and comic events. Indirectly, Synge scoffs at theundue or overdue piety and exaggerated religiosity.

A Satire on Excessive DrinkingThe playwright attacks the evil of excessive drinking in a comic manner. Michael James,

Philly and Jimmy go to attend the wake simply because plenty of free liquor flows there. All ofthem are boon companions because they drink together. Philly and Jimmy return semidrunkfrom the wake. Again they search for liquor in the shebeen. They get desperate on finding allthe cupboards locked. They call Pegeen the devils daughter. Michael could not return withthem because he was over-drunk and was unable to walk all the distance Jimmy and Phillyfeel afraid of handling Christy because having been excessively drunk they were feeling nervousin going near Christy. Shawn says in a comic way Isnt it true for Father Reilly that all drinksa curse that has the lot of you so shaky and uncertain now. Obviously speaking, excessivedrinking alone has incapacitated them.

Christy says that his father used to drink for weeks and then, getting up at dawn, used togo out in the yard as naked as an ash-tree in the moon of May in order to throw clods at thestars in the sky. Christys father, himself reveals to Widow Quin On one occasion I drank somuch in the company of the Limerick girls that I had almost become a paralytic. All thesedescriptions are satires on the evil of excessive drinking.

A Satire on Husbands MurderWidow Quin admits on several occasions that she has murdered her husband. She had

destroyed her man and buried her children. She doesnt feel any sense of shame or guilt init. The village community is also tolerant towards her and her criminal act. Pegeen alonecondemns her because she wants to snatch her beloved lover. She might be justified inattacking her guilty husband under force of perverse circumstances. Her intention of committingher husbands murder remains covert. Hence, this portrayal also contains satirical touches.

A satirical attack on the attitude to English PolicemenThe Irish people of the early twentieth century were quite sick of the English policemen,

who were the incharge of law and order. Pegeen calls the police constables as peelers.Michael informs Christy that the peelers in this place are decent, thirsty and poor fellows.They would not touch even a cur dog, much less arrest a dangerous murderer like you. TheIrish people regarded the policemen as aliens and foreigners. Both Synge and the Irish peopleat large were bitterly hostile of them. They make fun of them in the most contemptuous manner.Their attack on the policemens attitude is satirical.

We can conclude that The Playboy of the Western World in an attack on the Irish characterand mentality. It is a comedy with a subtle challenging of accepted values of settled life.

Q. 6. Comment on Pygmalion as a Shavian play.Ans. The play Pygmalion provides to us an abundant evidence of Shaws exceptional

comic genius. The dominant note and the prevailing atmosphere of the play are undoubtedlycomic. The play provides plenty of laughter, the comedy often becomes boisterous and even

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uproarious. We have both conscious and unconscious humour in the play. A few illustrationsare as under

Unconscious Humour versus Conscious HumourIt is essential to distinguish between unconscious and conscious humour.1. Unconscious humourIt is provided by a character without his knowing that his

behaviour as his talk would make the reader or the audience laugh. It remains known to theauthor only that the manner in which this particular character is about to behave or talk wouldamuse the audience. The character himself does not consciously behave or talk with thedeliberate object of amusing the reader as the audience.

2. Conscious humourIt results from a characters deliberate effort to amuse hislisteners for example, the manner in which a circus clown behaves. The clown deliberatelybehaves in such a manner as to amuse the spectators or the audience. Likewise, when aman makes a joke among a group of people, we have an example of conscious humour. Thereason is the speaker has made the joke deliberately to amuse his listeners and make themlaugh. His joke shows him to be a witty man.

The Unconscious Humour In the Play Unconscious humour is provided in theplay by several characters. A brief description thereof is as under

1. Humour Provided by ElizaWe are greatly amused by Elizas reaction to abystanders telling her that the not-taker is probably a police detective who would charge herwith soliciting customers. The flower-girl starts grumbling and saying repeatedly that she is agood girl, yet the note-taker might try to so some hard for her. Although the note-taker hastried to explain to her that he is not a policeman.

She keeps grumbling, she says I dont want to have no truck with him. A little later Eliza adds Hes no gentleman, he aint, to interfere with a poor girl. Still later,

she says Hes no right to take away my character. Later she says Ought to be ashamed ofhimself, unmanly coward! In the above instances humour arises from the incongruity betweenwhat the flower-girl thinks and what actually is the position. She does not behave and talk withany conscious purpose to amuse us.

2. Eliza amuses us when, instead of walking home as she has always done, she takes ataxi and then asks the taxi-driver to take her to Buckman Pellies. The taxi-driver asks herwhether she has ever been in a taxi before, she replies. Hundreds and thousands of times,young man.

3. Eliza turns up at Higginss house and reveals the purpose of her visit. She thinks thatHiggins would feel greatly pleased to learn that some person has come to engage him to givelessons in speaking English in return of fees. Therefore, she says that she would pay him notmore than a shilling per lesson, adding, Take it or leave it. It is not realised by the girl whatshe thinks to be a handsome amount does not constitute even the smallest fraction of whatHiggins would normally be charging for such lessons.

4. Eliza completely misunderstands Higginss intentions when Higgins orders hishousekeeper to take the girl away, to strip her of all her clothes, and to give her a completebath to rid her of all dust and dirt.

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The Humour Provided by Mrs. Pearce1. Mrs. Pearce, finding that Higgins is bent upon keeping the girl in his house, wants all

kinds of assurances from him. She gives us a glimpse into Higginss personal life. Althoughshe simply talks in her own natural way just to satisfy herself, yet we are amused when welearn from her talk about various untidy habits of Higgins. For example in using the sleeve ofhis dressing-grown as a napkin at the breakfast-table, in wiping his fingers against his dressing-gown and in eating different items of food from the same plate.

2. We are amused when Mrs. Pearces points out to Higgins that he has the bad habit ofswearing and of using a certain word which begins with the some letter with which the wordbath begins. She does not utter the word bloody. Instead she conveys her idea in anindirect manner.

3. The Humour Provided By Alfred DoolittleAlfred Doolittle makes two appearancesin the play and provides plenty of fun. His views and ideas and his manner of expressinghimself are such as to amuse those who listen to him. The humour arises from incongruitybetween the socially accepted views and attitudes and Doolittles peculiar views and attitudes.Some examples of his humour are as under

1. Alfred Doolittle amuses us by his initial attitude of combined threats, coaxing, flatteryand entreaty.

2. Doolittle says that with fifty pounds he would even allow Higgins to keep the girl Elizaas his mistress.

3. Doolittle calls himself one of the undeserving poor.4. Doolittle asks Higgins if five pounds is an unreasonable amount as the price of his

daughter whom he had brought up and fed and clothed by the sweat of her brow.5. Doolittle wants the five pounds just to have one good spree for himself and his

mistress. If he is given ten pounds, his attitude to the money will change because withso much money in his possession he might become thrifty and want to save some of it.In that position he would be divested of all the happiness.

6. The reason which Doolittle gives for his mistresss unwilligness to marry him whileagreeing to live with him amuses us.

7. On his second appearance in the play now a rich man Doolittle amuses us by hisinverted logic. He laments his prosperity saying that his wealth has made a gentlemanof him and that he was happier and more independent when he was not a gentleman.

8. Doolittle tells us how when he was poor he used to extract money by one trick oranother, but now other people have started coming to him to extract money from himon one pretext or another. A Alfred Doolittle finds it necessary to get married to hismistress, and she too has to agree to the marriage if she is to share Doolittles new-found wealth.

1. The Humour Provided By Higgins1. We feel much amused on learning about Higginss untidy habits. He frequently swears

without any inhibitions. He does not recognise an old pupil and asksWho the devil areyou ?

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2. When Eliza asks him what is to become of her now that she has been transformed intoa fine lady, Higgins repliesWhat the devil do I know whats to become of you ?

3. Higgins and Pickering amuse us when they begin to speak simultaneously to Mrs.Higgins in praise of Elizas abilities and talents. They begin almost to shout. ConsequentlyMrs. Higgins has to stop her ears with her fingers and has to call them both to order.

2. The Comedy of SituationA great number of the situations in the play are very funny. Some are as under1. Higgins and Pickering speak simultaneously in praise of Elizas natural gifts.2. Eliza and Freddy are interrupted by a police constable in the course of their lovemaking

in the street. The lovers have to free from that spot thereafter they halt at another place whereagain they embrace and kiss each-other. But this time again they are interrupted by a policeconstable. Now having no other alternative they have to seek the privacy of a ride in a taxi.

3. Eliza throws Higginss slippers at his face and tells him that she would like to kill him.4. Alfred Doolittle makes his second appearance dressed resplendently, as if he were a

bridegroom.5. When asked if there is any danger of Elizas marrying Higgins, Higgins informs his

mother that Eliza is going to marry Freddy and having said so, he bursts into a derisive laugh.3. The Conscious Humour and Wit of Higgins1. When the flower-girl gives her name as Eliza, Higgins jokingly begins to recite a

nursery rhyme. Eliza, Elizabeth, Betsy, and Bess/They went to the woods etc. Then both themen enjoy a hearty laugh at their own fun.

2. When the flower-girl persists in boohooing, Higgins tells her that a woman who utterssuch depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere no right even to live.Instantly he reminds her that she is a human being with a soul. He adds that her native languageis the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible, so she must not sit crooning like abilious pigeon.

3. A moment later, he calls the flower-girl a squashed cabbage leaf, and describes heras a disgrace to the noble architecture of the Church and as an incarnate insult to the Englishlanguage.

4. While speaking to Pickering Higgins says that a woman wants to live her own life and aman wants to live his own, and that each tries to drag the other one to the wrong track. Onewants to go north and the other south. The result is that both have to go east, though they bothhate the east wind this is the reason why he is a confirmed old bachelor and is likely to remainso.

5. Higgins tells Pickering that if they listen to Alfred Doolittle for a few minutes more, theywould give up their own convictions and would feel tempted to adopt the views and opinionsheld by this fellow. In a mocking tone that she should marry some sentimental hog with lots ofmoney and with a thick pair of lips to kiss her with and a thick pair of boots to kick her with.

6. Higgins speaks to, and about, the various members of the hill family in a mocking andtaunting manner

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(a) He says that the girl Clara knows nothing of poetry.(b) Her mother knows nothing of science.(c) Brother Freddy knows nothing of art as science or anything else.

However at the same time Higgins admits that he himself knows nothing ofphilosophy. In speaking to Clara Hill and her mother, he freely uses such expressionsas What the devil and What the Dickens.

7. Mrs. Pearce objects to his use of an objective beginning with the letter b in connectionwith butter, brown bread, and boots he wittily says that he had used the word (bloody) withbutter, brown bread, and boots, for the sake of alliteration.

8. When Mrs. Pearce urges Pickering not to encourage Higgins to do anything foolish,Higgins asks, What is life but a series of inspired follies ?

9. Higgins advises Eliza not to think of her future at this young age. His advice is, thatwhen a girl is young, she should think not of her own future but of other peoples future. At thisage, Eliza should think of chocolates and taxis and gold and diamonds.

10. Higgins says that Eliza is incapable of understanding anything and then adds Besides,do any of us understand what we are doing. If we did, would we ever do it ?

11. He threatens if she does not behave properly, she would be taken by the police to theTower of London and be beheaded.

Q. 7. What features make Murder in the Cathedral a poetic drama?Ans. Eliot has employed a variety of metres quite successfully in his play Murder in the

Cathedral. The readers come across three-stressed unrhymed; four-stressed rhyming, blankverse and thumping doggerel quite frequently which show Eliots versatility in the field ofmetres. They also find a glimpse of the hymnal rhythm and the rhythm based on the gloria ofthe Mass. They also come across two quite different forms of prose one for the Knightsspeeches and the other for the Christmas sermon.

Eliot has employed multiplication of metrical forms in a stupendous manner in the speechesof the Chorus with a fantastic union of idiomatic and poetic, formal and informal.

Eliot strove hard to develop a style appropriate to each kind of dialogue or scene in hisplay Murder in the Cathedral. The playwright has made use of an easy, near, blank verse forBeckets dialogues with the priests. He has used quite a varied series of forms from the threestress lines of the womens domestic talk to the long complexes of praise or of pleading forthe Chorus. He had used rhymed doggerel while he writes the quarrels between Becket andthe Knight. Similarly, Eliot writes the speeches of the Tempters who dramatize the torturesomeprogress of Beckets inner conflict in a four-stress rhyming verse.Eliot has also written short lines such as :

We have kept the feast, heard the masses,We have brewed beer and cider,Gathered wood against the winter,Talked at the corner of the fire.........The speeches of the Chorus were the fruits of Eliots previous experimentation in The

Rock which are the greatest thing in a great play. Eliots Choral writing bears the reflection of

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Greek tragedy in the chance of the women of Canterbury in this play. Eliot achieved magnificentresults by his versatile use of verse and magnificence in this play. However, he failed inachieving his ultimate objective of creating a verse form capable of enclosing within itself allthe moods, modes and characters of a successful play.

Eliot has also made use of certain rhetorical devices e.g. antithesis, cumulative effectsand balances. The lines But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended and you wouldwait for trap to snap bear inner rhyme.

The verse in Murder in the Cathedral varies from the slacker, extremely conversationalpitch of the lighter passages to the tightened rhythm of the more emotional passages. Whilesuggesting the contemporary environment Eliot used the verse which resembles prose yethas the distinctness of its own. It does not prove jarring to the ears when the more emphaticverse is used.

Eliots use of language in Murder in the Cathedral is as innovative as his versification.Metrics and beats affect the audiences unnoticed. The use of befitting words at proper placesaffect the audiences a great deal. This is a fine play in the area of sensibility. His languagecan create characters and his use of words shows his technical variety. There is perfectinteraction of language and theme. The language used in Beckets speeches distinguisheshim. There is much more gravely formal architectural quality in Beckets first speech thananything that has gone before. Eliots characters speak better than they know. The threeTempters can be markedly distinguished from other characters. In his opening speech, thefirst Tempter starts every sentence either with a specific question or a question by implication.He makes a hypnotic use of alliterations and coiled rhyme to impart the sense of cosy self-satisfaction. However, he is incapable of hiding his shallowness and his insincerity. Eliot,quite skilfully makes him demolish himself through his own mouth. He seems to be histrionicallycreated.

The second Tempter is an established man of decision who is very calculative and keepsa record of all happenings. He uses the clipped language which lacks the limpidity of thelanguage used by the first Tempter.

Eliots cadenced prose is simpler than that of his verse. There is straightforward dictionin the sermon dealing with the issue of martyrdom. It is an authoritatively and gracefullyconstructed and modulated piece of prose. It is profoundly stylish. It works by contrast becauseit comes after the intricate verse structure of Part I of the play. It also shows an interact betweenEliots language and his theme. This poetic prose contains and exercise of a poeticimagination even though it is not packed with imagery and rhyming. The meaning of peaceand martyrdom are twofold themes of the sermon. The arguments in the sermon contain botha religious and an emotional impetus. There is a visible utter simplicity in the rich and formalarchitectonics of language in the sermons final paragraph.

The language used by Eliot in the speeches of the four Knights is conspicuously of adifferent order. It is unique and distinct from the language of the rest of the play. The over-dramatic language, fittingly suits for stage-delivery. It has a great range of pace, colouringand place which are nearer to the conscious listening of the audience. It is also swelling with

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contrasts and modes and moods ranging from the comic to the pompous. Even the sermondoes not contain such type of dramatic language. This language invariably is a part from thelanguage of invisible spiritual world. It is solely related to the realities of the temporal, visibleand material world. The play hitherto had been and exploration of Beckets soul. The speechesof the four Knights give a shock to the audience because they examine the aims and motivesof Becket.

Eliot longed to forget Shakespeare in his writing of his first poetic play Murder in theCathedral. He desired to break loose from Shakespearean language and metre (BlankVerse) to disconcert the audience wilfully. He desired to express himself in the poeticallyprose language. In his poetic drama, the lack of action would be replaced by the incantatorypower of words. There is a healthy and generalistic fusion of rich verse and prose in Murderin the Cathedral. The prose in the Knights post murder speeches culminates upon Shawsnote. The verse is however, taut, alliterative, full of unusual and pre-Shakespearean imagery.

The four Knights, armed with swords enter the Cathedral and address Becket as Daniel.They challenge him and ask him to come out into the lions den. Their song at this point is aparody of a religious hymn and its rhythm is akin to the 20th century music Daniel Jazz. In thisway, Eliot may be considered as the precursor of the movement towards religious jazz poetrywhich started flourishing in England in the post-Second-World-War England.

We observe an impressive variety of technical skill in the initial speech of the Chorus inMurder in the Cathedral. Words are repeated to achieve emphasis. The change from dullto pictorial language achieve contrast. The economical use of questions induces curiosity. Asa skilled music-hall artist, Eliot holds, suspense and incites the audience into wondering whathappens next.

When the messenger tells the priest about Beckets reconciliation with the King of France,the First Priest asks : But again, is it war or peace ? Eliot, deliberately achieves the dramatictightening through questions. For example,

Who shall have it ?What shall be the month ?What shall we give for it ?

Most of the dramatic moments of Eliots play emerge from the quite sensational bareness,terseness, sometimes even banality of altogether unexpected statements. For example :

We have seen births, deaths and marriages,We have had various scandals,We have been affected with taxes,We have had laughter and gossip,Several girls have disappeared,Unaccountably, and some not able toWe have all had our private terrors..........

All the romantic dramatists (Shelly, Keats, Tennyson, Browning etc.) of the 19th centuryhad failed they had striven to adopt the Shakespearean style of Blank Verse. Eliot brokeaway outrightly from the stereotyped tradition of English poetic drama set up by Shakespeare.

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He rather turned for a model to a pre- Shakespearean play called Everyman written in the15th century. He kept in mind the verification of Everyman. His avoidance of too much iambic,some use of alliteration and occasional unexpected rhyme helped him a great deal indistinguishing the versification of his present drama from the versification of the 19th centuryplaywrights. The lines in Everyman are irregular and of varying length with varying number ofstresses. However, there are touches of alliteration and a great deal of rhyme in them. Eliothas combined both short and long lines. His three or four syllabled lines become very assertivebecause they comprise an emphatic combination of alliteration. This kind of verse undoubtedlyappealed to 20th century audiences.

To conclude, we can say that the play Murder in the Cathedral become popular with the20th century audiences by virtue of its stylistic qualities of balance; antithesis; alliteration inrhymed verse, innovative use of language, emphasis, contrast, bareness, terseness, suspense,rhythm of Daniel Jazz and fusion of rich verse and journalistic prose.

Q. 8. Comment on the title of Waiting for Godot.Ans. Godot and Waiting are the two key words in the play Waiting for Godot. It is quite

a controversial subject as to What Godot actually means. Some critics suggest that Godotis a diminutive (weakened) form of the word God. Godot thereby suggest the intervention ofa supernatural agency. We may also deem Godot to stand for a mythical human being whosevery appearance is expected to change the situation radically. Both the possibilities of thesupreme agency and the supposed human being can equally be valid in their application ofthe use of the use of the name Godot. Even though, Godot fails outrightly to make hisappearance in the play, he is as virtual a character as any of those characters we actually seein the play. The absence of Godot in the play makes us presume that the subject of the play isnot Godot but waiting. The act of waiting is an essential and dominant characteristic aspectof the human condition. The human beings wait for one thing or the other, all through theirlives. Godot simply represents the objective of their waiting. The objective may vary from anevent, a thing, a person, death, etc. In this play Waiting for Godot Beckett has depicted asituation which has a general human appeal and application.

On the surface, the play Waiting for Godot does not seem to have any particular affinitywith the human predicament (unfortunate position). We dont feel inclined to identify ourselveswith the two loquacious tramps who are totally indifferent to all the serious conditions andconcerns sophisticated and civilized life. Godot seems to hold some significance but he failseven to make his appearance on the stage. Soon we are made to realise that two tramps,named Vladimir and Estragon are waiting one evening a country road. Their waiting is of apeculiar kind. They express time and again and that they are waiting for Godot. However, theyhave no knowledge who or what Godot is. They are not even sure whatever they are waitingat the right place or even of the right day. They even do not know what would happen if Godotcomes there or if they stop waiting. They neither have watches nor the fixed schedule. Thereis no one to give them directions or to pass on any piece of information. They are quiteignorant in the absence of any essential knowledge. They are impotent because they fail toact properly in the absence of any concrete knowledge. They remain baffled and helpless

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since they cannot control the situation because they are unable to understand it fully. Theysimply seek ways to pass the time through all the situations. All their activities e.g. tellingstories, singing songs, playing formal and verbal games, doing physical exercises orpretending to be Pozzo and Lucky are mere stopgaps. They serve no other purpose than ofpassing the time. They are not ignorant about the purpose behind their activities. Come on?Gogo, pleads Didi, breaking off a rejection on the two thieves crucified with Christ, returnthe ball, cant you, once in a way ? and Estragon does. Later on, Estragon says, We dontmanage too badly, eh, Didi, between the two of us ---- we always find something, eh Didi, togive us the impression we exist. They forget the reasons behind their actions and repeatthem. This gives the audience some boredom. Their pointless talks seem valuable as theway to kill time. But we are constrained to jump to the conclusion that the play is certainly notabout Godot or even about waiting. The play puts waiting on the stage alongwith ignorance,importance and boredom. They are all made visible on the stage before us. Beckett presentsthe objects themselves, rather than giving them direct expression in his drams. His play is adirect expression or presentation of the object itself as distinct from any statement about it orany description of it. The audience recognise their individual experiences in the waiting of thetwo tramps. The nature of the experience may differ from individual to individual. Everybodyis not supposed to wait by a tree on a deserted country road for a distant acquaintance tokeep his appointment. However, every person has certainly experienced certain other situationwherein he or she has waited an waited. We may have waited for the declaration of theexamination results or the arrival of the wedding party or some other important telephonicmessage or for something expected or unexpected to turn up. In plain words, everybodywaits for somebody, like the two tramps waiting for Godot. Millions of people are confrontedwith ignorance, impotence and boredom like us. This commonness of waiting giveswidespread appeal and recognizable significance to the play Waiting for Godot.

The two tramps have still not achieved total nihilism even though they have made muchprogress in it. In spite of their hopefulness they are persistently tormented by despair. Theyhave expectancy, rather than a dynamic hope. The two tramps are in a place and a mentalstate in which time standstill without causing anything to happen at all. Their sole objective issimply to pass the time in the best possible way until the night falls and they can go. They fullyrealize that their futile exercises are merely filling up the hours with pointless activity. In thissense, their waiting is stagnant and mechanical. It also shows an obligation. Though theyresent remaining where they are but they are bound to remain where they are. Their desire toleave in vain may be aptly called a moral obligation since it involves the possibilities of bothpunishment and reward. The very appearance of Godot may introduce a novel factor in theirexistence. On the contrary, they will certainly miss him in case they happen to leave. Thoughthey may be quite cynical yet their waiting invariably contains a definite element of hope. Thisis a common experience because whenever we wait we are expectant even though we arealmost certain that our waiting will prove futile. This mood of expectancy undeniably has auniversal appeal and validity.

The flow of time reflect itself in its chastest and most implicit form in the act of waiting.Time passes at a breakneck speed whenever we are active but we are confronted with the

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action of time itself whenever we happen to wait passively. Human beings are never identicalwith themselves because they are always subject to the flux of time. They go on changing withthe change in time very speedily to the extent that they are not the same today as they werewhen we met them yesterday. The two tramps do not seem to recognise Pozzo and Luckywhen they first appear before them. Estragon even mistakes Pozzo for Godot Vladimircomments that they have radically changed since their previous appearance. Estragon forgetseven meeting them but, Vladimir insists that they (the tramps) know them.

With the passage of time, Pozzo and Lucky get crudely deformed before they reappear.The tramps doubt whether they are the same persons whom they met on the previous day.Pozzo too fails to recognise or remember them. It shows that the act and aspect of makingmakes us experience the flow of time. We experience the action of time while we are waiting.Though there is a constant change in time. Yet that change in itself is an illusion becausenothing concrete or virtual usually happens. The more the things change, the more they arethe same. Therefore, the world is terribly stable. In Pozzos views, The tears of the world area constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. Allthe days are alike. We might never have existed if we happen to die, In his outburst, Pozzoexclaims Have you not done tormenting me with your accused time ? --- They give birthastride of a grave. The night follows the light gleams. Still the two tramps live in hope. They arewaiting for Godot. His arrival will bring the flow of time to a stop. To them Godot is a symbol ofpeace and rest from waiting. They are hoping to find peace and permanence outside timeand long time and long to be saved from the fleetingness and instability of the illusion of time.Then they will have arrived home deserting the homeless life of wanderers.

The themes of habit, boredom and the suffering of human being are dramatised in waitingfor Godot. Vladimir calls habit as a great deadener. Both the tramps took ninety minutes onthe stage to prove it. The sound of their own voices reassure them of their own existence. Dueto the dubiety of the evidence of their senses they are not always certain of their existence.They also keep talking in order to drown out those voices that assail them in the silence. (Thevoices have assailed almost all of Becketts heroes in the novels.)

The play Waiting for Godot is a parable (a fable) about the kind of life that is pointless. Itis a representation of stagnant life that suffers from a black of cohesion which is its verysubject-matter. Here Godot may represent God, a mystical human being, meaning of life, fordeath or for something else. This parable does not relate an action because the action itrelates is life without action. It does not offer any story because it describes man deprived ofand eliminated from history. The characters in this play are other worldly. This world hasnothing to do with them any longer. Therefore, it has become void for them. The antiheroes(tramps) are merely alive but they have no charm in living. They occasionally get ready tohang themselves one cannot collide with the world if there is no world in existence. Millions ofpeople on earth feel that they do not live in a world where they act. Rather, they are actedupon. The tramps want to pull on in spite of their inactions and pointless existence. Nobody isready to give up living even though his living has become pointless. The tramps are not waitingfor something very specific. At times, they forget that they are waiting and who they are

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waiting for. It shows they are not waiting for anything. They are exposed to their continuedwaiting for something as the regular continuation of their existence. They cannot help assumingthat they waiting for something. Godot has no meaning (shape or structure) for them. It is butthe name for the fact that the haphazardly going life is wrongly interpreted to mean waiting forsomething. The positive attitude of the two tramps tantamounts to a double negation. It isamazing that they fail to gauze the pointlessness of their existence. Beckett himself is moreconcerned about waiting then about Godot.

Q. 9. Discuss the theme of Look Back in Anger.Ans. As soon as, the play Look Back in Anger appeared on the stage, its hero became

a kind of folk hero among the youthful generation. The contemporary English society waspuzzled by the Hungarian revolution and about Britains last imperialist fling at Suez. Theangry generation was in a mood to protest against the hydrogen bomb and about every typeof political and social question. The play Look Back in Anger became the centre of a lot ofserious theorizing about the angry young man (John Osborne) and his place in society. Theimmediacy of subject-matter of the play was the chief reason of its social impact. Osbornewas fully aware of the contemporary idiom. Therefore, he gave vent to his feelings for thetemper of postwar youth and the contemporary scene. He passed sarcastic comments onmatters ranging from posh Sunday newspapers as well as White tile universities to bis