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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI 600 034
B.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION ENGLISH LITERATURE
FIFTH SEMESTER NOVEMBER 2017
EL 5506 SHAKESPEARE
Date: 08-11-2017 Dept. No. Max. 100 Marks
Time: 09:00-12:00
PART A
I. Explain with reference to context in about 75 words each: (10 x 3 30marks)
1. She lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man's revenue.
2. Yet my chief humour is for a
tyrant: I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to
tear a cat in, to make all split.
3. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
4. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
If you were civil and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
5. Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all.
6. But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter;
Or rather a disease that's in my flesh,
Which I must needs call mine: thou art a boil,
A plague-sore, an embossed carbuncle,
In my corrupted blood.
7. Because I would not see thy cruel nails
Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister
In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs.
8. Know thou first,
I loved the maid I married; never man
Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here,
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Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart
Than when I first my wedded mistress saw
Bestride my threshold.
9. Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, and so shall starve with feeding.
10. To the market-place!
You have put me now to such a part which never
I shall discharge to the life.
PART B
II. Answer any FIVE of the following in about 150 words each: x 8 =40 marks)
11. Trace the changes that Miranda's character undergoes over the course of the play.
12. Critically discuss the meanings of the play's title, "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
13. Critically comment on the parallels between Richard and Bolingbroke.
14. Critically comment on the importance of the bed-trick, in "All's Well That Ends Well."
15. Critically comment on the symbolic importance of the handkerchief in "Othello."
16. Critically discuss the historical background of "Coriolanus" and its relevance to the politics of
Shakespeare's England.
17. Critically comment on the role and character of the Fool in "King Lear."
18. What is the significance of the absence of Theseus and Hippolyta from the play's main plot?
PART C
III. Write an essay on any TWO in about 300 words each: x 15 30 marks)
19. Critically examine the reasons why "All's Well That Ends Well" has been classified as a 'problem
play.'
OR
Critically analyse the relationship between tragedy and history in "Coriolanus."
20. Critically discuss the way in which Shakespeare uses metatheatre in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
OR
Critically discuss Shakespeare's notions of kingship in "Richard II."