LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034
M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE
THIRD SEMESTER – NOVEMBER 2010
EL 3804 – DRAMA (BRITISH & AMERICAN) FROM 1900
Date : 01-11-10 Dept. No. Max. : 100 Marks
Time : 9:00 – 12:00
PART-A
Explain with reference to the context the following and answer the questions given below: (10×2=20marks)
- I’ve no ammunition. What use are cartridges in battle? Is this an illogical statement?
- Do you have the soul of a servant Nicola? Bring out the implication here.
- “What makes you think you exist”? Identify the situation that prompts this question.
- “This isn’t my birthday, Meg”. Why does the speaker say so?
- “Let’s finish and go. Get the thing done” What is the urgency conveyed through these statements?
- “Oh, about twenty years ago… there was a man very much like Daddy, and a woman very much like Mommy, who were married to each other……”
What is the significance of these lines?
- “Yup. Boy, you know what you are, don’t you? You’re the American Dream, that’s what you are”
Who or what is the ‘American Dream’.
- “ I never wanted to be an actor. You forced me on the stage”.
Who could have made this statement and for what reason?
- “It’s been heaven to me. This home has been a home again”.
Is ‘home’ really a home in the play and is it truly a heaven or hell to the principal players?
- “At least, I’ve loved you dearly, and done the best I could – under the circumstances”. What could be the mental disposition of the speaker?
PART- B
Answer FIVE of the following questions choosing not less than two from each section: (5×8=40marks)
Section-1
- Critically examine Waiting for Godot as an existentialist play.
- Discuss the characterization in The Importance of Being Earnest.
- How effectively does Juno and Paycock dramatize the socio-cultural aspects of the times?
- Discuss the roles of Petey and Meg in Pinter’s The Birthday Party.
Section-2
- “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like A Raisin in the Sun?” connect these poetic lines by Langston Hughes to the play by the same name.
- Can we say that August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ has a moving story line and a hero almost Shakespearean in contour?
- How does Edward Albee blend his artistic vision with an existentialist world view through his play, The American Dream?
- Arthur Miller has redefined the tragic hero in his play, Death of a Salesman. Discuss.
PART- C
Attempt answers for the following questions in about 300 words each: (2×20=40marks)
- a) Critically examine The Birthday Party as a comedy of menace.
(or)
- b) Discuss Arms and the Man as a modern satire on love and war.
- a) Trace the evolution of Eugene O’ Neil’s Long Day’s Journey into Night of old sorrow, written in tears and blood into a Journey into light – into love.
(or)
- b) How far do you agree with the view that Tennessee Williams’ portraits of women are some of the best ever produced in American drama? How far is it true of A street Car Named Desire?