LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

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M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

FOURTH SEMESTER – APRIL 2008

 EL 4811 – SHAKESPEARE – CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION

 

 

 

Date : 16/04/2008            Dept. No.                                        Max. : 100 Marks

Time : 9:00 – 12:00

SECTION A

 

I Annotate the following passages.                                  ( 10 x 2 = 20)

 

1. … Oh brawling love, oh loving hate

Oh any thing of nothing first create!

Oh heavy lightness, serious vanity,

 

2.It is an honour that I dream not of

 

3.Do thou but close our hands with holy words,

Then love-devouring death do what he dare,

It is enough I may but call her mine

4.Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme

5.Only look up clear;

To alter favour ever is to fear.

Leave all the rest to me.

6.We fail?

But screw your courage to the sticking place,

And we’ll not fail.

7.Never till this day

Saw I him touched with anger so distempered,

8.A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,

Humanely taken, all, all  lost, quite lost.

9.That I did love the moor to live with him…

…my heart’s subdu’d

Even to the very quality of my lord.

10. A liberal hand: the hearts of old gave hands,

But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts.

 

SECTION B

 

II  Answer any FIVE of the following questions in about 100 words each. (5 x 8 =40)

 

11.Analyse  Henry IV as a historical play.

12.Comment on the element of disguise in the play As you Like It.

13.How appropriate is the theme of Taming of the Shrewd in the present context.

 

14.Modern society’s craving for fame and poplularity is, in a way, equal to

King Lear’s self-love.  Discuss.

15.Bring out  the contrasting aspects of today’s corrupt love and Romeo and Juliet’s

-genuine love.

16.Macbeth is not an individual; he is  the representation of  a progressing society.

-Illustrate.

17.Compare and contrast Ferdinand and Miranda with Romeo and Juliet.

18.Discuss the character Iago as an anti-hero.

 

SECTION C

 

Answer the following essay questions in about 400 words each.   2 x 20 = 40

 

19.The expression “ survival of the fittest” is nothing short of Macbeth’s vaulting ambition

-leading to murders.   Elucidate.       (or)

Which of the  four detailed plays  prescribed to you is more contemporary in its theme?

Make a detailed  analysis of your choice.

20.Othello is more loyal to love and possessiveness than to Desdemona.   Illustrate.

(or)

Ferdinand and Miranda’s love episode is an artistic touch of  Shakespeare as an all

-time best playwright to show that love conquers all human ill passions.

 

 

 

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NM 44

LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

FOURTH SEMESTER – April 2009

EL 4811 – SHAKESPEARE – CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION

 

 

 

Date & Time: 18/04/2009 / 9:00 – 12:00                 Dept. No.                                                Max. : 100 Marks

 

 

PART – A

 

1. Interpret the following passages in about 30 words each.           (10 x2 = 20 marks)

 

1. For I never saw true beauty till this night.

 

2. For saints have hands that pilgrims hands do touch,

And palm to palm in holy palmers’ kiss.

 

3. It is the east and Juliet is the sun

Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon.

 

4. Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such a prophetic greeting?

 

5. Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.

 

6. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour – keep

Your cabins. You do assist the storm.

 

7. We are such stuff
   As dreams are made on, and our little life
   Is rounded with a sleep.

 

8. ….                ….     …     then you can speak

Of one who loved not wisely but too well;

Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought,

Perplexed in the extreme;

 

 

9. But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

For dews to peck at. I am not what I am.

 

10. O beware, my lord, of jealousy:

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat I feeds on

 

PART – B

 

Answer any FIVE of the following in about 200 words each.                         (5 X 8 = 40 marks).        

11. How is the theme of ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ presented in The Tempest?
12. Explain the features of the ‘last plays’ present in The Tempest.?
13. Cite instances of usurpation in The Tempest.
14. Comment on the roles of Friar Lawrence and the Nurse.
15. Cordelia speaks the truth but it was the folly of Lear to understand her.
16. Write on the deserved torture of Lady Macbeth.
17. Shakespeare’s humour plays demerit him.

 

PART – C

 

Answer any two of the following in about 500 words each,

choosing one from each section.                                                                          (2 x 20 =40 marks)

18. The tragic end of Othello is predetermined – Comment.

 

(or)

 

Attempt a neohistoricist criticism of the Tempest.

 

19. To love God is to live and to love human beings and power is to commit suicide. Illustrate this view with reference to Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.

 

(or)

 

The world is filled with Macbeths and Lady Macbeths.  Contemplate on the present scenario of the

world where people crave for posts and power. Analyse  this with    reference to Macbeth.

 

 

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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

FOURTH SEMESTER – APRIL 2011

EL 4811 – SHAKESPEARE – CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION

 

 

Date : 05-04-2011             Dept. No.                                        Max. : 100 Marks

Time : 9:00 – 12:00

SECTION A

 

Comment on the following in about 50 words each (2×10=20 marks)

 

1. Fair is foul and foul is fair,

Hover through the fog and filthy air

2. Whence is that knocking?

How is’t with me, when every noise appals me?

3. it is a tale told by an idiot

Full of the sound and fury

Signifying nothing.

4. If thou more murmur’st

I will rend an oak

And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till

Thou hast howl’d away twelve winters.

5 Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee

In mime own cell, till thou didst seek to violate

The honour of my child.

6. Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
7. Prithee, no more: let him come when he will; I will deny thee nothing.
8. Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye…
9. More light and light—more dark and dark our woes!
10. How sound is she asleep! I needs must wake her.

 

SECTION B

 

Write short essays on any five of the following in about 200 words each (5×8=40 marks)

 

11. Role of Falstaff.
12. Theme of love in Taming of the Shrew
13. Lady Macbeth’s death
14. Minor characters in The Tempest.
15. Iago is any man or woman who is denied of his privilege. Discuss.
16. Friar Lawrence is a failure as far as Romeo’s love is concerned. Elucidate.
17. Write on the theme of disguise in the play “As you like it”
18. Could Cordelia fit into a category of modern woman? Explain your view.

 

 

 

 

 

SECTION C

 

Answer the following in about 500 words each (2×20=40 marks)

 

19. Examine the theme of kingship with reference to Macbeth or Henry IV.

Or

Discuss the character of Caliban as a hero wronged.

 

20. The contemporary atmosphere corrupted by commerce and trade seems, to some extent, to make a

mockery of the sublime experiences of Romeo and Juliet in love.  Do you agree with this view?

Substantiate your point.

(or)

Iago and Othello and Desdemona reflect the unseen battle among envy and  self-promotion and  a soft

(wo)man’s perfect love in the contemporary  situation. – Elucidate.

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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

FOURTH SEMESTER – APRIL 2012

EL 4811 – SHAKESPEARE – CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETATION

 

 

Date : 16-04-2012             Dept. No.                                        Max. : 100 Marks

Time : 1:00 – 4:00

 

SECTION A

 

Comment on the following lines in about 30 words each: (10×2=20 marks)

 

1. Two truths are told,

As happy prologues to the swelling act

Of the imperial theme.

 

2. Yet do I fear thy nature:

It is too full of the milk of human kindness,

To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;

Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it:

 

3. Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

 

4. Zounds, sir, you’re robbed; for shame, put on your gown;

Your heart is burst; you have lost half your soul;

 

5. The duke himself,

Or any of my brothers of the state,

Cannot but feel this wrong as ‘twere their own

For if such actions may have passage free,

Bondslaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.

 

6. MY charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,

And they shall be themselves

 

7. Fairly spoke; / sit then, and talk with her, she is thine own

 

8. Fair encounter / of two most rare affections:heaven rain grace

On that which breeds between them.

 

9. For this alliance may so happy prove,/ To turn your households’ rancor to pure love

 

• Well sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady, Lord,/

Lord, when ‘twas a little prating thing

 

SECTION B

 

Write short essays on any five of the following in about 200 words each

(5×8=40 marks)

 

11. Discuss the role of Falstaff.
12. Sexual politics in Taming of the Shrew
13. The significance Lady Macbeth’s death
14. Character of Iago
15. Is Friar Lawrence responsible for Romeo and Juliet’s sad end?
16. Justify the role of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet.
17. Compare and contrast Caliban with Ariel.
18. Comment on the opening scene of The Tempest.

 

SECTION C

Answer the following in about 500 words each                (2×20=40 marks)

 

19. Examine Othello as a domestic tragedy.

Or

Show how the encounter with the weird sisters brings out the best

and worst in Macbeth.

 

20. Compare and contrast the love of Miranda and Juliet.

Or

Love and forgiveness reveal God in man.  Explain this with reference

to The Tempest.

 

 

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