Notes, Guide and Study material
Critical appreciation of “Look, Stranger!” WH Auden is a poet of the age of anxiety. He is primarily a satirist. fundamentally a romantic and successful poet in light verse. His poetry, to quote David Perkins, “puzzles and eludes as much as it astonishes and attracts.” Published in 1936, Auden’s famous poem “Look. Stranger!” is such … Read more
Discuss “Araby” as a short story The short story is a highly complex form of literary art, presenting a single segment of life with its brevity and concentration. In his attempt to communicate an essential aesthetic vision. James Joyce creates a special style of short story that became almost like an objective correlative of the … Read more
Theme of martyrdom in Murder in the Cathedral T. S. Eliot writes in Poetry and Drama: “I did not want to write a chronicle of 12th-century politics; nor did I want to tamper unscrupulously with the meager records. I wanted to concentrate on death and martyrdom” The theme of martyrdom, in terms of dramatic action, … Read more
Importance of Interlude in Murder in the Cathedral The sermon as an interlude has not received the critical attention which it deserves. It is very natural and dramatic and is historical. Its emotional value is great, and it is a legitimate dramatic preparation for the episode of murder and martyrdom. Taken as an address to … Read more
Temptation Episode in Murder in the Cathedral The Morality play follows the medieval literary tradition of allegory. In the temptation episode Eliot follows the broad structure of the Morality but he differs in the details. He does not use the traditional figures and he does not give his figures any name; he calls them tempters. … Read more
Appropriateness of the title “The Lotus Eater” The title of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story “The Lotus Eater” is highly suggestive and bears a deep symbolic relation with the story. Derived from the story of the mariners of Ulysses who tasted the lotus plant and flower and fell under a spell and refused to stir … Read more
Character of Wilson in “The Lotus Eater” W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories and novellas are often gems of clever plotting, but their motivating force and brilliance lie in his exquisite characterization. The center of attraction in “The Lotus Eater” is the tragic character of Thomas Wilson. Maugham introduces the character of Wilson in the very … Read more
The character of Pegeen in The Playboy of the Western World Synge’s presentation of female characters had caused an uproar from 1903 onwards when the portrait of Nora in In the Shadow of the Glen was “felt to be a slur on Irish womanhood” (T.R. Henn: Introduction to The Complete Plays). Pegeen Mike is hardly … Read more
The Playboy of the Western World as folk drama The plays of John Millington Synge (1871-1909) are filled with the humour, sorrows, and dreams of the country folk of the Aran Islands and the western Irish coastlands. In The Playboy of the Western World, his most famous play, “we have a popular imagination that is … Read more
Briefly discuss the character portrayal of Cleopatra in “All for Love” In Dryden’s All for love, the governing passion of Cleopatra is her love for Antony. She lives only for the sake of Antony and Antony alone. Power, authority, pomp and show- these do not matter to her at all. By virtue of her passion … Read more