LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

AF 01

THIRD SEMESTER – April 2009

EL 3804 – DRAMA (BRITISH & AMERICAN) FROM 1900

 

 

 

Date & Time: 23/04/2009 / 1:00 – 4:00         Dept. No.                                                       Max. : 100 Marks

 

 

 

PART-A

 

Answer the following briefly:                                                          (10×2 =20 marks)

 

1. “Do you stuff your pockets with sweets…”

Explain the context of this question.

 

2.” You are a washout.”

Identify the speaker and the tone of the comment.

 

3.” You were born to be a servant, I was not.”

Identify the issue behind this statement.

 

4. “Why did you leave the organization?”

Is this just a plain question or much more?

 

5. “This tea is like gravy.”

Does this comment reveal something about the speaker?

 

6. “I’ve never felt it was my home. It was wrong from the start. Everything was done
   in the cheapest way.”

Do you think the ‘home’ was really the ‘cheapest’ one, reading through the autobiographical details?

 

7. “Don’t you remember my father? He wouldn’t stop after he was stricken. He said doctors were fools”.

Is James Tyrone as heartless as he is made out to be?

 

8. I never dragged her on the road against her will. Naturally, I wanted her with me.
   I loved her.”

Is the speaker’s love reciprocated?

 

9. “Now that you’re here, I don’t suppose you could go away and maybe come back
   some other time.”

Who is the person addressed to and for what reason?

 

10. “You’re the American Dream, that’s what you are. All those other people, they
    don’t know what they’re talking about. You …you are the American Dream”

What does the speaker mean really?

 

 

 

PART-B

Answer FOUR of the following questions choosing not less than two from each section:                                                                                             (4×10=40 marks)

Section-1

11. Compare and contrast the characters of Nicola and Louka as servants?

 

12. Discuss Lucky and Pozzo as symbols of the universal human condition.

 

13. Critically comment on the theme and characterization in Juno and the Paycock.

 

Section-2

 

14. Consider The Death of a Salesman as a modern tragedy.

 

15. What is your impression of the character of Blanche?

 

16. Trace the racial echoes either in A Raisin in the Sun or Fences.

 

 

PART-C

 

Answer Two of the following in about 300 words each:   (2×20=40marks)

 

17. a) Critically examine Waiting for Godot as an existential play.

Or

1. Discuss The Birthday Party as a Comedy of Menace.

 

18. a) Edward Albee, through his play, The American Dream, presents an artistic
    vision which is essentially an affirmative existentialist world view. Elucidate.

Or

1. b) The psychological “long day’s journey into night,” which gives title and
   direction to the play, is a different journey for each of its characters. Discuss.

 

 

 

Go To Main page