Test Papers / Previous Question Papers of IGNOU MEG2 British Drama June 2006

MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN ENGLISH
Term-End Examination

June, 2005

MEG-2 : BRITISH DRAMA

Time: 3 hours
Maximum Marks: 100

1. Critically comment on any four of the following passages with reference to the context in not more than 150 words each : 4x5=20

(i) Pozzo : (halting). You are human beings none the

less.( He puts on his glasses.) As far as one can see

(He takes off his glasses) of the same species as

myself. (He bursts into an enormous laugh) Of the

same species as Pozzo ! Made in God's image !

(ii) Thomas : Beloved, we do not think of a martyr simply

as a good Christian who has been killed because he

is a Christian : for that would be solely to mourn.

We do not think of him simply as a good Christian

who has been elevated to the company of the

Saints : for that would be to rejoice : and neither our

mourning nor our rejoicing is as the world's is. A

Christian martyrdom is never an accident, for saints

are not made by accident.

(iii) Cliff : Well, I suppose he and I think the same about

a lot of things, because we're alike in some ways.

We both come from working class people, if you like.

Oh I know some of his mother's relatives are pretty

posh, but he hates them as much as he hates yours.

Don't quite know why. Anyway, he gets on with me

because I'm common. (grins) Common as dirt, that's me.

(iv) Egeus : Full of vexation come I, with complaint

Against my child, my daughter Hermia.

Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord

This man hath my consent to marry her.

(v) Polonius : Have I, My lord ? Assure you, my good liege,

I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,

Both to my God and to my gracious king;

2. Discuss Shakespeare's, A Midsummer Night's Dream as a romantic comedy.(400 w ords) 20

OR

Comment on the Jacobean characteristics in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist. (400 words).

3. Bring out the significance of the play within the play in Shakespeare's Hamlet. (400 words) 20>

OR

Critically comment on the central theme of John Svnqe's play, The Plagboy of the western wortd. (4oo words) 20

4. Discuss the significance of Synge's title, The playboy of the Western World, (400 words) 20

OR

Would you define Dr. Faustus as a victim of the clash between the Renaissance man and religious values ? Explain. (400 words)

5. The institutiono f marriage is attacked in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger. Do you agree ? (400 words) 20

OR

What is the significance of the Knight's prose passages in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral ? (400 words)

6. Discuss the central theme of Sarnuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. (400-words)

OR

Would you say that the Eliza and Higgins relationship in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is a complex one ? Give reasons. (400 words)

7. Write short notes on any two of the following in not more than 200 words each : 2x10=20

(i) Pozzo in Waiting for Godot

(ii) Dol Common in Alchemist

(iii) Thomas Becket's silence in Murder in the Cathedral

(iv) Webster in Look Back in Anger

(v) The Ghost in Hamlet