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British 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 student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the questions of the Assignments. Sample answers may be Seen as the Guide/Reference Book/assignment Guide. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/Solutions. Please consult you Teacher / Tutor before you 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 many insignificant 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 in the play. At the end, the devil comes to take away his soul. The intervening events are just significant. The consequences of Faustuss bargain are quite inevitable. So the incidents are of little meaning since they are ineffective in altering the consequences. The comedy and farce 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 different character. A few scenes reveal Faustuss inner conflict and personal self-retrospection. In that sense, the play has a sufficient middle. Faustus constantly reaffirms his original rash surrender of 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 the study of ethics, divinity and metaphysics. His imagination is captured by magic which brings him immense power and ensures a world of profit, delight and honour. He gained a novel knowledge against the knowledge of a more ultimate kind as soon as he has signed the contract with the devil. His first question to Mephistophilis is Where is the place that men call hell ? The devil defines hell as not a region, but the state of mind. Faustus does not believe this 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 the information about the stars and planets, plants and herbs etc. Faustus accuses the devil of depriving him of heavenly joys and ideas of repentance. Though the devil manager to divert him from ideas of repentance yet Faustus desires to know about stars and planets and the Maker of the world. Faustus is not contented with the mere workings of the machinery of the universe, but is inwardly urged to know about ultimate purposes. He knows it well that the knowledge of means cannot be isolated from the knowledge of ends. His new knowledge is quite 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 round Wittenberg, or chase the Prince of Perna from Germany. Instead he stages magical shows for the Emperor. He summons the spirits of Alexander the Great and his paramour. He also plays tricks on the Pope. His basic motivation is not the public welfare, but the desire for selfaggrandisement. 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 pale into insignificance. Then the action of signing the contract alone assumes importance. His case is no doubt hopeless. The devils pinpoint it time and again that he must abide by the contract or his flesh will be torn to pieces. A few allusions reveal that he was not the prisoner solely of this fatal act. To mould his mind, the Good Angel urges him to repent, but the Evil Angel dissuades him. Inspite of that, there arises an internal conflict in his mind time and again. Both the Angels try their best to bully and threaten him. Mephistophilis deems it his devilish duty to detract his mind from his depressing thoughts. It shows that the bond is not solely responsible for ensuring Faustuss damnation. Once Lucifer ensures Faustus that his escape is out of question. In a state of despair, Faustus gets ready to commit suicide with the dagger 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 his soul. Faustus declares that hell doesnt loosen its grip on him. Mephistophilis calls him a rebel against Lucifer and threatens to tear his flesh piecemeal. The threat works wonders. He no longer calls the Old Man my sweet friend. He rather addresses the devil as my sweet Mephistophilis and requests him to inflict on him the greatest hellish torments. In his moral deterioration he thinks of hell as our hell. He again considers himself as the member of the devil party. He seeks greater distraction than before. Instead of calling up the vision of Helen, he aspires to possess her. The transcendent power of beauty set alight a hell-fire and started burning Faustus. Faustus is the victim of his own conceptions, misconceptions or preconceptions. He is ensnared by his own legalism. Neither he, nor the devils know that the bond has effectively put Faustuss soul in their possession. Faustus himself believes in the God of justice. He says that his heart is hardened the extent that he cannot repent. His sense of legal obligation urges him to say that his last hour is approaching and Hell is calling him. Even at this moment an angel comes with a vial full of precious grace to save him. The devils were afraid that Faustus would escape their grasp. Being dead sure that he cannot be saved, Faustus gets desperate doesnt take any preventive action. However, the despair does not paralyse his imagination altogether. He is well aware of the happenings around him. Therefore, we can say that there have occurred remarkable changes in Faustuss soul between the signing of the bond and his final damnation. They are potent enough to constitute a 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 outstanding features of the play are poetry and humour. It has enriched itself by coalescing with fancy. The comic here is no longer pure comic. It is a mingled web shot through with the beautiful. The meeting of Bottom and Titania may be taken as a symbol signifying the union of the comic and the beautiful. The humour of the play reaches its peak in the scene when the Fairy Queen Titania whose very being is spun out of light and air and dew. Fondles the ass-headed bottom and 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 says Dowdon, is incomparably a finer efflorescence of the absurd than any preceding character of 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 in Athens. And Bottom himself never suffers from inferiority complex. He can perform every parteven 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 all Athens able to discharge Pyramus but he fostered by such hero-worship. Bottoms selfcomplacency develops to a point where his metamorphosis at the hands of Puck seem merely a fitting climax to a natural process of evolution. And even when he is thus translated; he does 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-satisfaction in a situation where even the wisest intelligence would be nonplussed. But the real humour in the 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 Puck translates Bottom, so he translates Lysander and Demetrius by means of a magic flower juice. Both of them desert Hermia and pursue Helena and are ready to cross swords for the love of Helena. Although the situation is brought about by an external agency, it has a symbolical significance. Love sometimes drives man to absurd follies similar to those committed by Lysander and Demetrius. This aspect of love is symbolised by the blindness of cupid. It is also emphasised upon by Theseus, when he places lovers and madmen in the same category Lovers and madmen have such seething brains Such shaping fantasies that apprehend More than coal reason comprehends. The mischievous Puck who is at the root of the whole trouble laughs at the follies of the lovers Lord what fools these mortals be Humour 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 central theme of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Pyramus hearing a voice through a chink in the wall and dying, uttering high sounding nonsense. Cut thread and thurm Quail, 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 recalling the loveable qualities of each-other. Pyramus who stabs themselves, first says that Thisbe was 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 her lovers sweet eyes have been covered by death. His lips were as beautiful as lilies, his nose was pretty like a cherry, his cheeks were beautiful like a yellow cowslips and his eyes were green like the plant which yields onions. She stabs herself with Pyramuss dagger. The whole Interlude, with its wall and moonshine and lion, is all a delicious feast of fun, which is unique in its own kind. It is also a burlesque upon the drama of the day in which classical subjects were handled with utter want of dignity and with incongruous extravagance of style, the jiggling metres, mania for alliteration and the far-fetched and fantastic epithets. The meaningless invocations the wearisome repetition of epithetic words are all ridiculed by the youthful Shakespeare 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 two months of her beloved husbands death. He is still in mourning and is still wearing black clothes. The sad look on his face is the evidence of his grief. He is shocked and hurt that his mother could marry a mean, cunning and sly person after being so much in love and happy with the old King his father. His uncle and his mother are enjoying voluptuous, incestuous and nuptial pleasure while he is still in mourning. This sign of weakness and unmanliness is another name for madness because only peasants keep mourning so long. Denmark is unhappy to see his sad face. He does not wipe the frown off his face and cheer up. He does not even 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 the death 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, Hamlet decides to pretend he is mad. Polonius declares that Hamlets madness (wildness) is caused by Ophelias coldness towards him. The King and Queen felt relieved that Hamlets madness was 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 her Ophelia says to Hamlet in a loving tone, I believed you when you said you loved me. Hamlet responds 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 because wise men know what monsters women make of men. On hearing his words, Ophelia starts sobbing 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 should have melted on the sight of tears flowing from ones beloveds eyes. The audience also think him mad. Even a mad man would have consoled and clasped her. Ophelias description of Hamlets odd behaviour and disorderly clothes support her view. Polonius begins a conversation with Hamlet and asks him, Do you recognize me ? Hamlet says that he does and calls Polonius, fishmongers. Hamlet says to Polonius, If you have a daughter, let her not walk in the sun, conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may conceiveFriend, look to it. When Polonius asks him what he has been reading, the prince replies, Ive been reading slanders by the satirical author who says, Old men have green beard, 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 that Hamlet is mad and there is method in his madness. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were Hamlets schoolfellows but are now Claudiuss courtiers. 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 mirth and charm in life. Even the beautiful world seems to him foul and repellent. Man, the most exquisite work of divine creation too appears to be nothing, but dust to him. Neither man nor woman delights him. These were his brainless views. At the same time he gets normal and says that the players whom they have engaged to entertain him would be welcome. Again he says, The King and Queen are deceived about me. Im but mad north-north-west : When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-hawk. This scholarly phrase is both apt and meaningful. It means that certain mishaps most often make the people lose their sense but he is still sensible enough to outwit persons like them who come to spy on him under the instruction of the King and Queen. Hamlet behaves normally with the actors of the play. Polonius calls the players as the best actors in the world. Hamlet calls Polonius as Jepthah, judge of Israel with treasure in his possession. Hamlet explains that Jepthah loves his only daughter very much but he supposes that Polonius did not love his only daughter that much. (This awkward remark was a direct hit on Polonius who had asked his daughter to act coldly towards him.) Then Hamlet welcomes the actors. He makes Polonius to feed and lodge them properly. He asks an actor to arrange the performance of the play called The Murder of Gonzago. Hamlet also inserts his own speech in the play in addition to other usual speeches in order to catch the conscience of the King. The play The Murder of Gonzago begins. The Queen was shown clinging to the arm of the King, vowing her love for him. She says, I will never marry again, if you die, which I hope is 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 the garden and pouring poison into his ears. This scene was the reminder of his own evil deed for the throne and to win the love of the Queen. Claudius went pale with shame. He asks shakily, What sort of play is this? Hamlet says cheerfully, not madly, In this scene you have seen how the nephew killed the King for his throne. In the next scene, youll see how he wins the love of the Queen. Overfilled by the sense of his guilt, Claudius got up hurriedly and left the hall with Gertrude behind him. It convinced Hamlet of Claudiuss guilt. Hamlets summoned by his mother. He castigates her for having proved false to her true husband by having married a contemptible and unscrupulous villain. In plain words he says, It is a shame that she, and elderly woman, should by her remarriage, have shown herself to be a 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 is feeling brokenhearted. Hamlets words are like daggers in her heart when Hamlet talks to the Ghost, 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 sorry like a man in senses for having murdered a wrong man. He tells her not to try to fool herself that he has gone mad and remind her of his guilty conscience that makes her frightened. He advises her to repent at leisure because she has married in haste and to avoid the wretched King 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 be buried with her. He forgets the fact that he, himself was the sole cause behind Ophelias madness 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 his ears and his mother was a party to his murder. The Ghost had also instructed him not to spare his uncle and not to harm his mother. His doubts were dispelled and he was filled with fury at the sins of his uncle and mother. He told everything to Horatio about the Ghosts revelations and directions. He made Horatio swear his word on the sword not to breathe a word to anyone 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 around plans of revenge and it made him behave strangely. This is an overwhelming evidence to show that Hamlet is not really mad but he feigns to be mad. He puts on an antic disposition to justify his eccentric manner. Polonius himself realised daring his conversation with Hamlet that there is method in Hamlets madness but he declares him mad by virtue of his pregnant replies. Hamlets calls people like Polonius These tedious old fools. It means Hamlet was intentionally talking to Polonius in riddles. Hamlets deliberately feigned eccentric manner comes to the surface when he says to his schoolfellows, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I am mad 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 other reason. 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 pleasantries and asks them whether the King and the Queen have instructed them to call on him and that he can judge why they have been sent for. He tells them about his loss of mirth and delight. He speaks a few words of welcome to them and tell them that the Queen and King are mistaken and deceived about him. He says, Ive sense enough to outwit persons like you who come to spy on me under the instructions of King and the Queen. Guildenstern describes Hamlets condition as a crafty madness or self-imposed madness. Hamlet has confided everything to Horatio. His private talks with Horatio and his own soliloquies are avowedly sane utterances and show his genius. They are coherent, logical and profound in thought. His generalization shows his deep wisdom. He says, Frailty, thy name is woman ! What is a man if his chief good and market of his time be but to sleep and feed ? ; And that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain Hamlets soliloquy beginning To be or not to be that is the question is one of the most-quoted passages. It has a universal appeal. Hamlets soliloquies are replete with wisdom and are remarkable for their poetic eloquence and felicity of expression. They cannot be called as a mad mans speeches even though they reflect the agony of a sensitive soul. In one of his soliloquies, Hamlet makes a plan to catch the conscience of the King through the performance of a drama corresponding to the facts of his fathers death as revealed by the Ghost. He seeks Horatios help in watching the Kings reactions. The formation and execution of such a project can be achieved only by a sane person. On seeing that Claudius has hurriedly left the hall during the performance of the 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 has caught the Kings conscience. Horatio knew it well that Hamlets mind is neither unhinged nor disordered. Hamlet gave the guidelines even to the professional players in the art of acting. He told an actor to commemorate the speech written by him (Hamlet) and directed the dramatic party to stage The Murder of Gonzago instead of staging the story of the death of Priam, King of Troy. 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 too emphatic a manner. Do not outHerod Herod. Do not be too tame while making your speeches and not to overstep the modesty of nature. Essence of acting consists in holding the mirror upto nature. These instructions to the players indicate that he did not have even a touch of madness. In the Queens private chamber, Hamlet highlights his mothers misdemeanour in having married Claudius and shows her two portraits and compares the personalities of the old King and Claudius. He reminds her of her vows she exchanged with his (Hamlets) father and marry 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 young shoulders. Only a seasoned person could impart such a golden advice. It opens her eyes and makes her realize the enormity and gravity of her crime. He has already decided to speak 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 as the 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. This is quite a logical and sensible question. Hamlet sees a skull thrown by a grave-digger. He reflects that there was a time when the skull had a tongue in it and could sing. It might be the skull 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 great buyer 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-digger a man of humour when he says, Im digging mine grave, Sir ! The grave-digger calls another skull as that of yorick (a court-jester). Hamlet remarks, Emperors and jesters meet the same fate. These sensible and meaningful comment show Hamlets wit and wisdom. Hamlets insulting treatment of Ophelia doesnt reveal his madness. He was hard towards her because, under the influence of her father, she rejected his advances of love even though she belonged to a lower strata than Hamlet. His roughness and rudeness were counterreactions and part of strategy in putting on an antic disposition. He consider her as a puppet in the hands of her father (an associate of Claudius) who is serving as a spy. His disillusionment in love made him use offensive and scornful language. His leaping into Ophelias grave was also the action of a man of the though understanding. (Probably he meant to attract Laertes to his side by telling him that he loved Ophelia deeply even though he happened to murder Polonius by mistake.) He is prone to act on impulse. He is cut to the quick when Laertes shows his overwhelming grief. He fought like an animal or an enemy to show his genuine claim to be buried with Ophelia. It was Shakespeares intention to represent Hamlet as a feigner of madness and Ophelias real madness. He executes his intention truthfully and skilfully. The plenty of eccentricity, fantastic thinking or feeling, wandering imagination and wild phrases do not constitute madness. Hamlet never remains ignorant of his where abouts. He always understands himself and others and never 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 revenge against Claudius without posing himself to be mad because the entire governmental machinery was his supporter. He knows the truth that his uncle has murdered his father. He must meet Claudius without exposing his strategy until he executed his allotted task. The antic disposition serves 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 fathers death 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 revenge further 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 to represent Hamlet as mad, or half mad, or verging on madness. He has very skilfully, successfully and artistically portrayed his character. Q. 4. What features make Alchemist an allegory? Ans. Varied and Wide-Ranging Imagery The 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 varied and wide-ranging but not scattered. Instead, all of he imagery is, closely related to the theme or themes of the play. The play offers US alchemical imagery, imagery depicting wealth and voluptuousness, 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 miscellaneous imagery inclusive of diversity. A brief description of significant ones is as under 1. Alchemical Imagery. The alchemist imagery dominates the play. The themes of avarice and 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 to him. Subtle claims that he had Sublimed Face, exalted him fixed him in the third region and 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 of experiments over the furnace. Face also gives a reference to Subtles beech-coal, pots, his crucibles, and his retorts and other vessels. Mammon comes before us and tells his friend Surly that very shortly he would transform everything metallic in his house into gold by means of the philosophers stone which he is about to get from Subtle. He proposes to buy all the tin, lead, and copper available in the market. He will get all these base metals changed into gold. He wishes to purchase all the copper mines of Deronshire and Cornwell. His aim is to obtain all the copper for conversion into gold. Thus he change those regions into the Golden West Indies. Mammon says that the philosophers stone has the power to confer honour, loves, respect long life, and valour on its possessor. He refers to some of the ancient classical myths. He adds that all these myths are only allegorical accounts of the wonders wrought by the philosophers stone. He refers to Jansons 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 touch converting everything into gold. Face informs Mammon that the philosophers stone would be ready by evening. He adds that the red ferment has done his office. Subtle tells Mammon that bright Sol is in his robe. His is ready to do his work; and that he (Subtle) has already obtained A medicine of the triple soul. The liquid on the furnace is about to be given St. Marrys bath, is already showing lac virgins. 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. In fact, the metal that originally lay buried in the depths of the earth might be called the prime matter in course of the centuries prime matter developed into gold. Surly provides some alchemical 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 alchemical questions to Face the latter provides the correct alchemical answers to these questions. These questions and their answers contain numerous technical terms and phrases, each of which is an imagery. 2. The Religious Aspect of Alchemical Imagery. A reference is also made in the conversation between Mammon and Surly, and then is conversation between Mammon and Subtle, 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 by showing urgency about it, he would expose himself as a covetous man and covetous man is not entitled to obtain he philosophers stone. Only a holy and deeply religious person could hope 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 the pleasure of eating. Mammon was the devil who tempted man by avarice. Mammon symbolizes wealth, covetousness, and worldliness. Sir Epicure Mammon tells Surly, that they are now about to enter the new world. This is the world of gold mines comparable to those which belonged to the ancient king, Solomon. Mammon describes the life of luxury and sexual indulgence 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, and the oily teats of a fat pregnant sow. II. Face. He provides some imagery depicting wealth when he describes the Spanish Don who has been invited to Subtles bathhouse with a view to make love to Dol. Sexual imagery 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 she is 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 the alchemists. 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 enormous commodities which would make him rich. (2) The manner in which Face extracts and extorts money from the various clients is also relevant in this context. 4. Pseudo-Religious Imagery. There is pseudo-religious imagery in the play provided largely by Tribulation and Ananias. Tribulation, speaks Biblical language. (1) He tries to convince Ananias that even the children of perdition may, sometimes be made instruments to promote the holiest works. (2) The rebuffs, which the saints receive, should be endured by them patiently. The reason is 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 the philosophers stone is to be produced. Subtle would undergo a change and support the cause of the Anabaptists. He tries to placate Subtle by informing him that Ananias is feeling repentant of his rudeness towards Subtle. 5. Satirical Imagery. Subtle provides some very effective satirical imagery during conversation with Tribulation and Ananias. He tells the Anabaptists that, with the philosophers stone they would cure important men of gout, palsy, dropsy, leprosy, syphilis, and other dreadful diseases. Thus they would win the goodwill of those men which would do a lot to promote the aims of the Anabaptists. They would be able to hire large armies and buy the kingdom of France and the rich territory of the West Indies. Subtle reminds them of the various malpractices and crooked advice which they employ to acquire wealth. In this way he brings to light their act of exploiting the widows and wires of the puritan husbands and of influencing the actions of their followers by their misleading exhortations. Thus Subtle satirizes the false piety and the hypocrisy of the Puritans. 6. Medicinal Imagery. Subtle tells Dol that one of Mammons aims is to cure people of their diseases. (1) He adds that Mammon would go to eating-houses and offer a cure to those suffering from 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 beer and a medicine made from a plant which grows on the walls. Several diseases are named by Subtle 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 words of abuse and cursing. In the quarrel between Face and the Spanish Don, Ananias takes Faces side and says that the Spaniards are profane and idolatrous. He says to the Spanish Don (who is infact Surly in disguise). Avoid, Satan ! Thou art not of the light. Depart, proud. Spanish fiend ! Ananias pronounces 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 of falsehood 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 is asked to wear on his wrist. (2) Dapper is told that he would become rich through gambling. It would look that the spirits 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 her wealth 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 tells his master that the voices which are coming from inside the house are not those of human being, but of the spirits of the air. 9. Astronomical and Astrological Imagery. Subtle poses to be adept in palmistry, in astrology, and in face-reading. He says that Druggers long ears and certain spots in his teeth, show that Druggers would prove to be a very lucky man. Subtle then relates the thumb to 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 Drugger would become a rich merchant. Subtle reads Kastrils hand and says that he can see clearly the 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 commercial references 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 Western World was an attack on the Irish character. It evoked many angry protests, and caused riots in the theatre. Subsequently, when the play was produced in a couple of American cities, the Irish audiences there also strongly opposed the play. They would not allow the actors to complete the performances.

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The Irish audience got hostile to this play for moral, religious and political reasons. They thought themselves as pious people and their womenfolk as virtuous. The play was an insult to the Irish people and their country because it depicted them in very dark colours. In their opinion, the Playboy depicted the Irish women as lacking in virtue and the menfolk in general to be immoral. The play contained certain obscene lines. Even some speeches were considered as offensive. The female characters are depicted as lacking morals and the male characters are depicted as unscrupulous drunkards. The play was thereupon regarded as a slanderous attack on the Irish people and lived on their character. It hurt the nationalistic sentiment of the Irish audience and they did not relish or tolerate any of its features. The audience was wrong in reacting violently to the performance of the play. The playwright had no such intentions. He simply wanted to mock at certain aspects of the Irish character and the Irish mentality of the times. He has given only his critical views of the nation by employing irony and satire freely. Like other authors of literary works, J.M. Synge has also attacked the living individuals, groups of people or even whole communities sarcastically. Authors of repute like Dyrden and Jonathan Swift attacked their contemporaries and their entire nation by using the weapon of irony and satire. As a playwright, Synge has also exercised his 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 The Playboy with intolerance and ill-humour. There is no denying the fact that the playwrights criticism of the Irish people is very subtle in The Playboy but the Irish audiences were quick to perceive 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 the Irish people, around the onset of the twentieth century. It ridicules certain aspects of Irish religious life, Irish social life and Irish domestic life. Synge has made an ironical attack on the conventional type of relationship existing between parents and children in those days. Children were unquestionably expected to submit themselves to the authority of their fathers. The mothers role has nowhere been shown in the play. J.M. Synge challenges this aspect of the contemporary domestic life. In the very beginning of the play, we find Pegeen indulged in conversation with Shawn Keogh, her fiance. She tells him that her father is going to attend a wake and that she would have to spend the night alone. It means she makes no secret of her dislike for her father. In a way, she complains against her father who has no night to leave her alone during the night when he is well aware of the fact that harvest men, tinkers and soldiers keep going about in this part of the country and that such fellows can make a nuisance of themselves. He is ready to put his daughters honour at stake just for the sake of free and full drinks. His suggestion that Shawn should stay in the house to keep company with Pegeen is also 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 publicplace. 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 in the public-house and also to stand by her side in the event of some trouble from intruders or rowdy 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 through a town-crier of castle bar that he needs a pot-boy. It is at her suggestion that Christy is employed at the shebeen as a pot boy. He calls Pegeen as a queer daughter since she expects him to return home during the night after he is deadly drunk. Pegeen is outspoken. She calls him a queer 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 this mild clash between himself and his daughter. He does not bother about her challenge or criticism. 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 she has changed her mind and does not want to marry Shawn, who is A middling kind of scarecrow with no savagery or fine words in him at all. Michael James shows his initial reluctance in vain. Willy-nilly he agrees to allow Pegeen to marry Christy. She gets the upper hand. She declares that with Christy working in the shebeen she would not feel afraid of the villainous soldiers 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 had promised to give a herd of bullocks to Pegeens father. Thereupon, Pegeens father considered him as a worthy man of substance. It resulted in Shawns engagement with Pegeen. Pegeen did not have a round opinion about Shawn. She called him Sheneen and a dastard who lacked guts and bravery. As soon as Pegeen falls in love with Christy she tells her father overtly (plainly) that she has resolved not to marry Shawn. It infuriates her greedy father. He calls Pegeen a heathen daughter who does not feel ashamed in giving him the biggest shock of his life especially at the moment when he is already feeling overwhelmed by the excessive liquor that he had consumed at the wake. (This fact is clear from the information that he had been unable to return to the Shebeen with Jimmy and Philly because he was too drunk to be able to walk the distance.) Michael James also realised that Shawn was a timid fellow who refused to feel jealous of Christy and also proved himself a through coward by refusing to fight Christy. Thereupon, he feels compelled to give his consent to Pegeens marrying Christy. Christy is also a tactless fellow. He makes an offer to Christy to make him depart from the place. He (Shawn) offers to give Christy his new hat, his breeches and his own blessings and Father Reillys blessings in addition. His act of bribing proves ineffective and only annoys Christy. Shawn, himself is responsible for the strengthening of love-ties between 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 a God-given opportunity out of fear for a local priests objection. His blood did not boil when he came to know that complete stranger shared his finances bed who might or must have misbehaved with Pegeen on getting drunk. This thoughtless and passionless fellow was virtually no match for a girl of thought and overflowing passion. It hardly matters that events take 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 the case of Christy and his father, Old Mahon Christys father had a poor opinion about him. He cannot believe that any decent and rich girl would ever think of marrying his son, whom he describes as a born idiot. He could never have won in the games and could never have been cheered by a crowd. Christy tells Pegeen that his father used to ill-treat him and used to force him to work too hard. His father was a dead drunkard. He used to snore heavily in his sleep and was in the habit of cursing and swearing like a military man. On certain occasions, his father, after drinking deep for weeks, used to get up at dawn, and going out into the yard as naked as an ash-tree in the moon of May, used to throw lumps of earth towards the stars in the sky. The silly old man wanted the young man (Christy) to marry a fifty-five year old ugly widow who has notorious for her loose morals. Besides, she had also suckled him (Christy) like a mother for six months when he was born. During his conversation with Widow Quin, Old Mahon says My son (Christy) is a goodfor-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 disagrees to 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 old man. 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 second time also they fight with weapons to kill each-other. Their bitter grievances against each-other show their extremely unpleasant relations. They become reconciled only at the end when he found Christy bound by ropes and his leg scorched by Pegeen who was going to marry him. Fathers indiscriminate Proposal to Christy Christy 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 morals and was a walking terror from beyond the hills and she a hag this day with a tongue on her has the crows and sea-birds scattered. Through Christys remarks, Synge exposes in a comic manner the undesirability of an arranged marriage. This amusing account is part of the comedy of the play. It shows Old Mahons arbitrary decision and his selfish motives in wanting Christy to marry that particular woman. She was his fathers beloved and as such was motherly to Christy. The quarrel was precipitated between the father and Christy who marry the woman of ill-fame. It was a deadly quarrel because of them took up arms to kill each-other. Attack on Protection of a Criminal Christy 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 had fallen down in the potato-field where they had a quarrel. The police would like to arrest him for 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 a heroic 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 for Christy. Pegeen says to Christy Theres no danger for you here but he should never talk again so intimately with the local girls. The village girls look upon Christy as a hero. One of the girl suggests that Christy should marry Widow Quin who is looking for a second husband. Widow Quin also tries to get Christy as a husband for herself. She tells him that he will be very happy with her at her cottage and that he will also be perfectly safe from arrest at her house. They will form a suitable match because they are both murderers. Michael James also desires to protect him from being arrested by the police. It becomes clear when he goes away to attend the wake leaving behind Christy with Pegeen. Widow Quin names Christy as The Champion Playboy of the Western World. These incidents show that the Playboy contains an oblique attack on the Irish people for their strange attitude towards a parricide. Michael Pegeen and others glorify him in the most irrational manner. Synge classifies that the story of the play is not imaginary but is based on an actual incident of the Aran Islands. The play is a satirical hit on the mentality of the Irish people 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 knocked the eye from a police constable are disturbing but amusing facts. The attitude of the people of Mayo towards a parricide is by no means commendable. The author simply scoffs at those persons who shower lavish praises on Christy as a man fit to be holding his head high with the wonders of the world. The true image of the spectators comes to surface when Christy murders his resurrected father in their presence. They turn hostile to the hero who was their champion and who had won many prizes and whom they had carried on their shoulders from the arena to the shebeen. They tie him up in order to hand him over to the police. Even Pegeen scorches his leg with burning turf. This type of reversal shows their mental inconsistency. Pegeen remarks satirically that there is a big gap between a gallous story and a dirty deed. This is an irrational explanation of the change. A Severe/Satirical attack on Religious Narrow- mindedness The 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 thinks that Father Reilly would object to his staying with her (Pegeen) when he is not yet married to her. However, his overscrupulous attitude makes him appear absurd. It makes the audience roar with laughter. The situation touches the height of comedy when Shawn manages to slip away from Michaels hands. This is a funny behaviour on Shawns part. Shawn however assures Pegeen that he is the kind of man who will never prove unfaithful to his wife. Shawn names the priest time and again, invokes his authority and exhibits his reverence for the Church. His subservience to Father Reilly appears highly comic. When Christy returns to his village Shawn says 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 priests moral injunctions are simply contemptible and comic events. Indirectly, Synge scoffs at the undue or overdue piety and exaggerated religiosity. A Satire on Excessive Drinking The 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 of them are boon companions because they drink together. Philly and Jimmy return semidrunk from the wake. Again they search for liquor in the shebeen. They get desperate on finding all the cupboards locked. They call Pegeen the devils daughter. Michael could not return with them because he was over-drunk and was unable to walk all the distance Jimmy and Philly feel afraid of handling Christy because having been excessively drunk they were feeling nervous in going near Christy. Shawn says in a comic way Isnt it true for Father Reilly that all drinks a curse that has the lot of you so shaky and uncertain now. Obviously speaking, excessive drinking alone has incapacitated them. Christy says that his father used to drink for weeks and then, getting up at dawn, used to go out in the yard as naked as an ash-tree in the moon of May in order to throw clods at the stars in the sky. Christys father, himself reveals to Widow Quin On one occasion I drank so much in the company of the Limerick girls that I had almost become a paralytic. All these descriptions are satires on the evil of excessive drinking. A Satire on Husbands Murder Widow 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 in it. The village community is also tolerant towards her and her criminal act. Pegeen alone condemns her because she wants to snatch her beloved lover. She might be justified in attacking her guilty husband under force of perverse circumstances. Her intention of committing her husbands murder remains covert. Hence, this portrayal also contains satirical touches. A satirical attack on the attitude to English Policemen The 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. The Irish people regarded the policemen as aliens and foreigners. Both Synge and the Irish people at 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 character and 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 undoubtedly comic. 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 illustrations are as under Unconscious Humour versus Conscious Humour It 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 the author only that the manner in which this particular character is about to behave or talk would amuse the audience. The character himself does not consciously behave or talk with the deliberate object of amusing the reader as the audience. 2. Conscious humourIt results from a characters deliberate effort to amuse his listeners for example, the manner in which a circus clown behaves. The clown deliberately behaves in such a manner as to amuse the spectators or the audience. Likewise, when a man makes a joke among a group of people, we have an example of conscious humour. The reason is the speaker has made the joke deliberately to amuse his listeners and make them laugh. His joke shows him to be a witty man. The Unconscious Humour In the Play Unconscious humour is provided in the play by several characters. A brief description thereof is as under 1. Humour Provided by ElizaWe are greatly amused by Elizas reaction to a bystanders telling her that the not-taker is probably a police detective who would charge her with soliciting customers. The flower-girl starts grumbling and saying repeatedly that she is a good girl, yet the note-taker might try to so some hard for her. Although the note-taker has tried 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 of himself, unmanly coward! In the above instances humour arises from the incongruity between what the flower-girl thinks and what actually is the position. She does not behave and talk with any conscious purpose to amuse us. 2. Eliza amuses us when, instead of walking home as she has always done, she takes a taxi and then asks the taxi-driver to take her to Buckman Pellies. The taxi-driver asks her whether 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 that Higgins would feel greatly pleased to learn that some person has come to engage him to give lessons in speaking English in return of fees. Therefore, she says that she would pay him not more than a shilling per lesson, adding, Take it or leave it. It is not realised by the girl what she thinks to be a handsome amount does not constitute even the smallest fraction of what Higgins would normally be charging for such lessons. 4. Eliza completely misunderstands Higginss intentions when Higgins orders his housekeeper to take the girl away, to strip her of all her clothes, and to give her a complete bath to rid her of all dust and dirt.

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The Humour Provided by Mrs. Pearce 1. 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. Although she simply talks in her own natural way just to satisfy herself, yet we are amused when we learn from her talk about various untidy habits of Higgins. For example in using the sleeve of his dressing-grown as a napkin at the breakfast-table, in wiping his fingers against his dressinggown 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 of swearing and of using a certain word which begins with the some letter with which the word bath begins. She does not utter the word bloody. Instead she conveys her idea in an indirect manner. 3. The Humour Provided By Alfred DoolittleAlfred Doolittle makes two appearances in the play and provides plenty of fun. His views and ideas and his manner of expressing himself are such as to amuse those who listen to him. The humour arises from incongruity between 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, flattery and entreaty. 2. Doolittle says that with fifty pounds he would even allow Higgins to keep the girl Eliza as 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 with so 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 while agreeing to live with him amuses us. 7. On his second appearance in the play now a rich man Doolittle amuses us by his inverted logic. He laments his prosperity saying that his wealth has made a gentleman of 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 or another, but now other people have started coming to him to extract money from him on one pretext or another. A Alfred Doolittle finds it necessary to get married to his mistress, and she too has to agree to the marriage if she is to share Doolittles newfound wealth. 1. The Humour Provided By Higgins 1. 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 are you ?

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2. When Eliza asks him what is to become of her now that she has been transformed into a 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. Consequently Mrs. Higgins has to stop her ears with her fingers and has to call them both to order. 2. The Comedy of Situation A great number of the situations in the play are very funny. Some are as under 1. 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 where again they embrace and kiss each-other. But this time again they are interrupted by a police constable. 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 Higgins 1. 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 the men enjoy a hearty laugh at their own fun. 2. When the flower-girl persists in boohooing, Higgins tells her that a woman who utters such 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 language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible, so she must not sit crooning like a bilious pigeon. 3. A moment later, he calls the flower-girl a squashed cabbage leaf, and describes her as a disgrace to the noble architecture of the Church and as an incarnate insult to the English language. 4. While speaking to Pickering Higgins says that a woman wants to live her own life and a man wants to live his own, and that each tries to drag the other one to the wrong track. One wants to go north and the other south. The result is that both have to go east, though they both hate the east wind this is the reason why he is a confirmed old bachelor and is likely to remain so. 5. Higgins tells Pickering that if they listen to Alfred Doolittle for a few minutes more, they would give up their own convictions and would feel tempted to adopt the views and opinions held by this fellow. In a mocking tone that she should marry some sentimental hog with lots of money 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 and taunting 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 of philosophy. In speaking to Clara Hill and her mother, he freely uses such expressions as What the devil and What the Dickens. 7. Mrs. Pearce objects to his use of an objective beginning with the letter b in connection with butter, brown bread, and boots he wittily says that he had used the word (bloody) with butter, 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, that when a girl is young, she should think not of her own future but of other peoples future. At this age, 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 the Tower 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, blank verse and thumping doggerel quite frequently which show Eliots versatility in the field of metres. They also find a glimpse of the hymnal rhythm and the rhythm based on the gloria of the Mass. They also come across two quite different forms of prose one for the Knights speeches and the other for the Christmas sermon. Eliot has employed multiplication of metrical forms in a stupendous manner in the speeches of 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 his play Murder in the Cathedral. The playwright has made use of an easy, near, blank verse for Beckets dialogues with the priests. He has used quite a varied series of forms from the three stress lines of the womens domestic talk to the long complexes of praise or of pleading for the Chorus. He had used rhymed doggerel while he writes the quarrels between Becket and the Knight. Similarly, Eliot writes the speeches of the Tempters who dramatize the torturesome progress 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 magnificent results by his versatile use of verse and magnificence in this play. However, he failed in achieving his ultimate objective of creating a verse form capable of enclosing within itself all the moods, modes and characters of a successful play. Eliot has also made use of certain rhetorical devices e.g. antithesis, cumulative effects and balances. The lines But real friendship, once ended, cannot be mended and you would wait for trap to snap bear inner rhyme. The verse in Murder in the Cathedral varies from the slacker, extremely conversational pitch of the lighter passages to the tightened rhythm of the more emotional passages. While suggesting the contemporary environment Eliot used the verse which resembles prose yet has the distinctness of its own. It does not prove jarring to the ears when the more emphatic verse 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 places affect the audiences a great deal. This is a fine play in the area of sensibility. His language can create characters and his use of words shows his technical variety. There is perfect interaction of language and theme. The language used in Beckets speeches distinguishes him. There is much more gravely formal architectural quality in Beckets first speech than anything that has gone before. Eliots characters speak better than they know. The three Tempters can be markedly distinguished from other characters. In his opening speech, the first 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 selfsatisfaction. 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 histrionically created. The second Tempter is an established man of decision who is very calculative and keeps a record of all happenings. He uses the clipped language which lacks the limpidity of the language used by the first Tempter. Eliots cadenced prose is simpler than that of his verse. There is straightforward diction in the sermon dealing with the issue of martyrdom. It is an authoritatively and gracefully constructed and modulated piece of prose. It is profoundly stylish. It works by contrast because it comes after the intricate verse structure of Part I of the play. It also shows an interact between Eliots language and his theme. This poetic prose contains and exercise of a poetic imagination even though it is not packed with imagery and rhyming. The meaning of peace and martyrdom are twofold themes of the sermon. The arguments in the sermon contain both a religious and an emotional impetus. There is a visible utter simplicity in the rich and formal architectonics of language in the sermons final paragraph. The language used by Eliot in the speeches of the four Knights is conspicuously of a different order. It is unique and distinct from the language of the rest of the play. The overdramatic language, fittingly suits for stage-delivery. It has a great range of pace, colouring and 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 sermon does not contain such type of dramatic language. This language invariably is a part from the language of invisible spiritual world. It is solely related to the realities of the temporal, visible and material world. The play hitherto had been and exploration of Beckets soul. The speeches of the four Knights give a shock to the audience because they examine the aims and motives of Becket. Eliot longed to forget Shakespeare in his writing of his first poetic play Murder in the Cathedral. He desired to break loose from Shakespearean language and metre (Blank Verse) to disconcert the audience wilfully. He desired to express himself in the poetically prose language. In his poetic drama, the lack of action would be replaced by the incantatory power of words. There is a healthy and generalistic fusion of rich verse and prose in Murder in the Cathedral. The prose in the Knights post murder speeches culminates upon Shaws note. 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 a parody of a religious hymn and its rhythm is akin to the 20th century music Daniel Jazz. In this way, Eliot may be considered as the precursor of the movement towards religious jazz poetry which 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 in Murder in the Cathedral. Words are repeated to achieve emphasis. The change from dull to pictorial language achieve contrast. The economical use of questions induces curiosity. As a skilled music-hall artist, Eliot holds, suspense and incites the audience into wondering what happens 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 dramatic tightening 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 to We have all had our private terrors.......... All the romantic dramatists (Shelly, Keats, Tennyson, Browning etc.) of the 19th century had failed they had striven to adopt the Shakespearean style of Blank Verse. Eliot broke away 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 the 15th 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 in distinguishing the versification of his present drama from the versification of the 19th century playwrights. The lines in Everyman are irregular and of varying length with varying number of stresses. However, there are touches of alliteration and a great deal of rhyme in them. Eliot has combined both short and long lines. His three or four syllabled lines become very assertive because they comprise an emphatic combination of alliteration. This kind of verse undoubtedly appealed to 20th century audiences. To conclude, we can say that the play Murder in the Cathedral become popular with the 20th century audiences by virtue of its stylistic qualities of balance; antithesis; alliteration in rhymed 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 Godot is a diminutive (weakened) form of the word God. Godot thereby suggest the intervention of a supernatural agency. We may also deem Godot to stand for a mythical human being whose very appearance is expected to change the situation radically. Both the possibilities of the supreme agency and the supposed human being can equally be valid in their application of the use of the use of the name Godot. Even though, Godot fails outrightly to make his appearance in the play, he is as virtual a character as any of those characters we actually see in the play. The absence of Godot in the play makes us presume that the subject of the play is not Godot but waiting. The act of waiting is an essential and dominant characteristic aspect of the human condition. The human beings wait for one thing or the other, all through their lives. Godot simply represents the objective of their waiting. The objective may vary from an event, a thing, a person, death, etc. In this play Waiting for Godot Beckett has depicted a situation which has a general human appeal and application. On the surface, the play Waiting for Godot does not seem to have any particular affinity with the human predicament (unfortunate position). We dont feel inclined to identify ourselves with the two loquacious tramps who are totally indifferent to all the serious conditions and concerns sophisticated and civilized life. Godot seems to hold some significance but he fails even 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 a peculiar kind. They express time and again and that they are waiting for Godot. However, they have no knowledge who or what Godot is. They are not even sure whatever they are waiting at the right place or even of the right day. They even do not know what would happen if Godot comes there or if they stop waiting. They neither have watches nor the fixed schedule. There is no one to give them directions or to pass on any piece of information. They are quite ignorant in the absence of any essential knowledge. They are impotent because they fail to act 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. They simply seek ways to pass the time through all the situations. All their activities e.g. telling stories, singing songs, playing formal and verbal games, doing physical exercises or pretending to be Pozzo and Lucky are mere stopgaps. They serve no other purpose than of passing 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, return the ball, cant you, once in a way ? and Estragon does. Later on, Estragon says, We dont manage too badly, eh, Didi, between the two of us ---- we always find something, eh Didi, to give us the impression we exist. They forget the reasons behind their actions and repeat them. This gives the audience some boredom. Their pointless talks seem valuable as the way to kill time. But we are constrained to jump to the conclusion that the play is certainly not about 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 presents the objects themselves, rather than giving them direct expression in his drams. His play is a direct expression or presentation of the object itself as distinct from any statement about it or any description of it. The audience recognise their individual experiences in the waiting of the two tramps. The nature of the experience may differ from individual to individual. Everybody is not supposed to wait by a tree on a deserted country road for a distant acquaintance to keep his appointment. However, every person has certainly experienced certain other situation wherein he or she has waited an waited. We may have waited for the declaration of the examination results or the arrival of the wedding party or some other important telephonic message or for something expected or unexpected to turn up. In plain words, everybody waits for somebody, like the two tramps waiting for Godot. Millions of people are confronted with ignorance, impotence and boredom like us. This commonness of waiting gives widespread appeal and recognizable significance to the play Waiting for Godot. The two tramps have still not achieved total nihilism even though they have made much progress in it. In spite of their hopefulness they are persistently tormented by despair. They have expectancy, rather than a dynamic hope. The two tramps are in a place and a mental state in which time standstill without causing anything to happen at all. Their sole objective is simply to pass the time in the best possible way until the night falls and they can go. They fully realize that their futile exercises are merely filling up the hours with pointless activity. In this sense, their waiting is stagnant and mechanical. It also shows an obligation. Though they resent remaining where they are but they are bound to remain where they are. Their desire to leave in vain may be aptly called a moral obligation since it involves the possibilities of both punishment and reward. The very appearance of Godot may introduce a novel factor in their existence. On the contrary, they will certainly miss him in case they happen to leave. Though they may be quite cynical yet their waiting invariably contains a definite element of hope. This is a common experience because whenever we wait we are expectant even though we are almost certain that our waiting will prove futile. This mood of expectancy undeniably has a universal 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 identical with themselves because they are always subject to the flux of time. They go on changing with the change in time very speedily to the extent that they are not the same today as they were when we met them yesterday. The two tramps do not seem to recognise Pozzo and Lucky when they first appear before them. Estragon even mistakes Pozzo for Godot Vladimir comments that they have radically changed since their previous appearance. Estragon forgets even 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 making makes 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 because nothing concrete or virtual usually happens. The more the things change, the more they are the same. Therefore, the world is terribly stable. In Pozzos views, The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. All the days are alike. We might never have existed if we happen to die, In his outburst, Pozzo exclaims Have you not done tormenting me with your accused time ? --- They give birth astride of a grave. The night follows the light gleams. Still the two tramps live in hope. They are waiting for Godot. His arrival will bring the flow of time to a stop. To them Godot is a symbol of peace and rest from waiting. They are hoping to find peace and permanence outside time and 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 waiting for Godot. Vladimir calls habit as a great deadener. Both the tramps took ninety minutes on the stage to prove it. The sound of their own voices reassure them of their own existence. Due to 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. (The voices 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. It is a representation of stagnant life that suffers from a black of cohesion which is its very subject-matter. Here Godot may represent God, a mystical human being, meaning of life, for death or for something else. This parable does not relate an action because the action it relates is life without action. It does not offer any story because it describes man deprived of and eliminated from history. The characters in this play are other worldly. This world has nothing 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 to hang themselves one cannot collide with the world if there is no world in existence. Millions of people on earth feel that they do not live in a world where they act. Rather, they are acted upon. The tramps want to pull on in spite of their inactions and pointless existence. Nobody is ready to give up living even though his living has become pointless. The tramps are not waiting for 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 continued waiting for something as the regular continuation of their existence. They cannot help assuming that they waiting for something. Godot has no meaning (shape or structure) for them. It is but the name for the fact that the haphazardly going life is wrongly interpreted to mean waiting for something. The positive attitude of the two tramps tantamounts to a double negation. It is amazing that they fail to gauze the pointlessness of their existence. Beckett himself is more concerned 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 was puzzled by the Hungarian revolution and about Britains last imperialist fling at Suez. The angry generation was in a mood to protest against the hydrogen bomb and about every type of political and social question. The play Look Back in Anger became the centre of a lot of serious theorizing about the angry young man (John Osborne) and his place in society. The immediacy of subject-matter of the play was the chief reason of its social impact. Osborne was fully aware of the contemporary idiom. Therefore, he gave vent to his feelings for the temper of postwar youth and the contemporary scene. He passed sarcastic comments on matters ranging from posh Sunday newspapers as well as White tile universities to bishops and the hydrogen bomb. The readers, spectators and the general public that Osbornes Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer were both related to the then prevailing political and social topicalities (interest in present time) e.g., the frustration, discontent and unease of English society as an aftermath of the Suez war. The main character of the play, Jimmy Porter was of working class origin. He became the ranting (prolonged loved and angry speech) spokesman of the angry mood. He displayed his anger when he observed that the newly emerging educated class was feeling itself denied the conventional opportunities. As a result, Look Back in Anger came to be regarded as the central and most instantly influential expression of the moods of its time, namely the mood of the angry young man. There is no denying the fact that Look Back in Anger is a key to the mood and temper of the postwar England (after 1945). Lindsay Anderson had portrayed the emotional history of the postwar decade in his essay. In his essay, Lindsay had mentioned how the British soldiers had celebrated the victory of the English Labour Party in the 1945 elections. These soldiers believed that they were signalling the onset of a new era. Their rule in India was of the imperial tradition. They anticipated a socialist paradise in the future. But their dreams never materialised. After assuming power, the British Labour Party introduced various reforms in their country with a view to building up a welfare state. However, the young idealists were discontented. They did not think that all was well with the world. The motto of the Labour Party, however was that all should have been well with the world. As a result, the English people celebrated their new artistic and technological achievements at the festival of Britain in 1951. Amidst the same, the entire Labour Government was defeated at the polls. As a result, the Conservatives were back at the helm of affairs.

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However, there was hardly an difference between the aims of the English Labour Party and the Conservationists, the two major political parties in Britain. The functioning of the Conservationists was hardly different from that of the Labour Party. Hence, the English people were in the doldrums since it seemed almost the same to them which party they voted for or against. They were in such a tight corner that they were even unable to die for good causes any longer. In one of his famous speeches in Look Back in Anger Jimmy Porter says, There are no good, brave causes left in the world. Look Back in Anger was produced in 1956. This year (1956) enshrined rich causes for disillusionment or agitation. The people in Hungary, rebelled against their Russian-imposed Communist Government. The revolt by Armed might was crushed in Russia. The rest of the world however remained inactive and a passive spectator. The Suez canal had hitherto been owned and run by Anglo-French interests. The Egyptian Government, in the Mediterranean announced that it was taking over the Suez canal. Both France and Britain sent their troops to safeguard their interests in the Suez area. However, they had to suffer humiliation there. Their entire adventure rather proved that the days of British imperial glory had came to an end. Meanwhile, protests were organised in England itself round the question of nuclear disarmament. All the about occurrences contributed to the climate of public opinion wherein the play Look Back in Anger initially appeared. (We cannot ignore the fact that Look Back in Anger had no direct relevance with the Hungarian and the Suez crises because they had occurred later than the production of the play in 1956.) However, these occurrences predicted the sense of frustration and disillusionment that prevailed afterwards and were expressed in advance through Osbornes play. Jimmy Porter, the hero of Look Back in Anger was ideally constituted to be the all-purpose hero of the disgruntled young generation. Jimmy Porter is the hero of the play Look Back in Anger. The hero regards himself and evidently is regarded by Osborne as the mouth piece for the younger postwar generation. The youthful generation looked round at the world but they found nothing right with it. The spectators, reader and common masses deemed Jimmy as representing a whole generation, as representing those who had nailed a red flag to the roof of a mess at the foot of Anand Parbat in Delhi to celebrate the victory of the Labour Party in 1945 and those who had eventually become disillusioned when they failed to get the new world materialised. The adherents of this view were eventually in the middle thirties then (in 1956). Osborne was their figure head though he was just twenty-seven then. Osborne, along with the young persons were labelled angry young mens. The hero of the play in question, Jimmy Porter was linked with Kingsley Amiss Luck Jim as the cult-figure (one that is fashionable among members of a particular, usually small group) of the younger generation. Look Back in Anger is the virtual delineation of the postwar youth. Jimmy Porter, the hero possesses all the salient features of a postwar youth. The characteristics of post war youth were the instinctive leftishness the surrealist (very strange, not real, as in a drama with ideas, images etc. appearing distorted or mixed together in an odd way) sense of humour; the steady movement or tendency (drift) towards anarchy; the wilful rejection of the official attitude; the sense of lacking a noble cause worth fighting for; the casual promiscuity (having

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many sexual partners, not carefully chosen) etc. Moreover, the determination that no one who dies shall go unmourned was the underlying trait. Jimmy Porter is by all means the very personification of rebelliousness and disillusionment. The spectators find Jimmy Porter speaking in a discontented, restless manner as soon as the play opens. He is discontented with the Sunday newspaper. He complains that the Sunday newspapers make one feel ignorant. He is discontented with his wife, Alison. He complains that she hardly listens to him but goes to sleep when he begins to speak. He is also dissatisfied with his friend Cliff Lewis because he (Cliff) is too ignorant to understand what the newspapers have to say. Afterwards he starts making fun of the Bishop of Bromley and also of the woman who got four of her ribs broken in her religious fervour and got kicked in the head at a religious assembly. Very cynically he remarks that the people who overtly and pretendingly (ostensibly) make sacrifices whether of their sexual pleasures, beliefs or careers never wanted those things primarily. He was all hatred and condemnation of all the socalled posh newspapers because inspite of their being Liberal or Conservative, both of them publish silly gossips and conjectures. He quotes that a newspaper was of the opinion that William Shakespeare changed his sex when he was writing The Tempest. Jimmy Porter also observes that his friend Cliff Lewis and his wife, Alison are lacking even in ordinary human enthusiasm. Jimmy Porter is born of a working-class family. His wife, Alison on the other hand hails from the affluent middle-class family. Alisons parents neither approved of nor consented to her marriage with Jimmy Porter. They had rather opposed it. Jimmy has never forgotten this fact even after a lapse of four years. He always wages a relentless war against classdistinctions. Charity begins at home. He criticises Alison and her parental family openthroatedly almost every time. He ridicules Alisons father for living in the past. Jimmy remarks that Alisons father was jubilant in imperialist India, but is now leading a life of remorse at having lost the benefits and advantages which he used to experience as a big boss in that country. He also criticises Alisons mother merely because she hailed from the social class which was higher than his own class. He also ridiculed her because she too had opposed Alisons decision to marry him. While describing his wife, Alison and her brother Nigel he uses derogatory adjectives like flatterer (sycophant), phlegmatic and pusillanimous (cowardly). He criticises Alison for her habit of ironing clothes ceaselessly. He loses his temper and starts scolding her without rhyme or reason. He starts snubbing his friend, Cliff Lewis at the slightest provocation since he (Jimmy) regards (Cliff) as an ignorant person. He was a critic of the society as a whole which compelled a University graduate like him to run a sweet-shop because he was not offered an honourable and meaningful job. He holds the society as responsible for his leading such as monotonous life. He describes Nigel (Alisons brother) as that straight-backed, chinless wonder from Sandhurst. According to Jimmy, Nigels knowledge of ordinary life and common people is so vague and lazy that he deserves to receive the reward of a medal. Though he possesses such a glaring defect in him yet Nigel will manage to become a Cabinet Minister. The worst of Jimmy Porters ironical remark was Alisons mother is a bitch who should be dead and by eating whose flesh her worms in her grave will

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get indigestion. He does not hesitate to comment that Alison is such a pusillanimous lady whose passion is that of a python and who devours him everytime she makes love to him by dint of the same terrific fashion. The play Look Back in Anger is replete with Jimmys raging against institutions, persons, things and matters. When he learns that his wife, Alison is going to Church under Helenas influence he feels deeply annoyed. He is so much opposed to formal religion and its rituals that he gets annoyed even on hearing the sound of the singing of Church-bells. He scoffs at Dantes theology as well as at the midnight invocations to the Coptic Goddess of fertility in which the people of the Midland are indulging. The disillusioned Jimmy has become such a misogynist that very cynically he criticises the entire female sex because they are parasites (blood thirsty), leeches and are too noisy. His wife is so ill-mannered that she jumps on the bed as if someone were launching a battleship. He mentions the ill manners of a couple of girls their routine actions were a sort of assault course on his sensibilities slamming their doors, stamping their high heels, hanging their irons and saucepans. The song composed by Jimmy refers to boozing (drinking alcohol in large quantities) and whoring (having sex with a lot of men). He accuses all women of trying to bleed men to death. He has forsaken his visits to cinema because he is afraid that he will be robbed of his employment by the sort of people who happen to occupy the front rows. Being fed up of heterosexual (womanly) love he is thinking of following the example of Andre Gide. Jimmy Porter is of the opinion that people of his generation are not able to die for anything noble because there are no good, brave causes left in the world. It makes him lament. There will be no brave new world now. Rather there will only be a brave new-nothing-very-muchthank-you. Dying will now be as shameful and inglorious as stepping in front of a running bus. He even condemns the economic philosophy of persons holding similar views with Helena who look forward to the past and whose economics is the Economics of the Supernatural ? He utters the words Everybody wishes to escape from the pain of being alive and from the pain of love when Helena forsakes him. He condemns her since she tries to live the spiritual life of a saint rather than like a sensual human being. Jimmy cares more for Cliff than he cares for Alison or Helena because he possesses virtues like fidelity and solidarity which they (Alison and Helena) lack miserably. Alison told her father that Jimmy was a university graduate and he had tried his hand at many thingsjournalism, advertising, even vacuum-cleaning for a few weeks; organizing a jazz band etc. but had not settled down in life. He is a confused person who does not know exactly what he would do in case he leaves the sweet stall. This attitude of drift and uncertainty had a wide appeal and was typical of the aimless youth of postwar England. There was wide-prevailing boredom among the youth of postwar England and Jimmy as no exception to it. He was hateful of Sundays which were tiresome and monotonous. He had to follow the same silly routine everytime e.g. reading newspaper, drinking tea, ironing clothes. He is not in favour of Churchgoing because the very bells of the Church appear to be producing a jarring and deafening sound. He resort playing on his trumpet to ward off his boredom. A prominent critic is of the view that the play Look Back in Anger is not intended to mirror the wretched state of postwar society. Rather the main objective behind it is to analyse or

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dissect a perverse marriage. If we accept this view, we come to the conclusion that Jimmys problem is not the vile and gross injustice and hypocrisy of social order. Rather it is his vehement and languishing desire to possess a womans complete, unquestioning love and his simultaneous inability to get along with any woman. However, this narrow view does not fit in the entire scope of the play comprising a wide range. Q. 10. From among the plays you have read choose any one that you have liked giving reasons lor your choice. Ans. Among all Plays I mostly like the play A Midsummer Nights Dreams because this play is mainly based on the issue of feminist nightmare which prevail in our society. Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream is a feminist nightmare. It is full of men trying to dominate women and women falling under their power. Each group of lovers is male dominated. In addition to which the father daughter relationship is completely man trying to control women. From fairies to humans, it seems the male sex is always striving to be on top. Shakespeare is a man. It is seen in his writing that in more then just A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare had a very poor view of women. In most of his plays, women either take on the role of temptress, are portrayed as domineering or lower than the men in the play. The women in this play are no different. In Shakespeare's days women were not allowed to be actors so the men played the women's parts. There is no wonder why none of the women feel real. Each female character is how a man thinks a woman would act, and react to situations. As an actor, it is a challenge performing any of Shakespeare's women. The challenge lies in trying to add feminine qualities to the women characters. If you have a strong woman character such as Hermia, finding out how she, a woman, loves Lysander is particularly hard since she is written as such a dominating character.

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