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)

1. I’ve no ammunition. What use are cartridges in battle? Is this an illogical statement?
2. Do you have the soul of a servant Nicola? Bring out the implication here.
3. “What makes you think you exist”? Identify the situation that prompts this question.
4. “This isn’t my birthday, Meg”. Why does the speaker say so?
5. “Let’s finish and go. Get the thing done” What is the urgency conveyed through these statements?
6. “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?

7. “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’.

8. “ I never wanted to be an actor. You forced me on the stage”.

Who could have made this statement and for what reason?

9. “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?

10. “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

11. Critically examine Waiting for Godot as an existentialist play.
12. Discuss the characterization in The Importance of Being Earnest.
13. How effectively does Juno and Paycock dramatize the socio-cultural aspects of the times?
14. Discuss the roles of Petey and Meg in Pinter’s The Birthday Party.

Section-2

15. “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.
16. Can we say that August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ has a moving story line and a hero almost Shakespearean in contour?
17. How does Edward Albee blend his artistic vision with an existentialist world view through his play, The American Dream?
18. 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)

19. a) Critically examine The Birthday Party as a comedy of menace.

(or)

1. b) Discuss Arms and the Man as a modern satire on love and war.

 

20. 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)

1. 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?

 

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