
	Trending ▼ ICSE CBSE 10th ISC CBSE 12th CTET GATE UGC NET Vestibulares ResFinder

ICSE Notes 2016 : English Paper 2 (English Literature) (Ashok Hall Girls Residential School, Almora)

12 pages, 1 questions, 0 questions with responses, 0 total responses,

Sakshi Rungta
Ashok Hall Girls' Residential School (AHGRS), Almora

+Fave Message

Profile Timeline Uploads

Home > sakshi121 > F Also featured on: School Page golaanvi

Formatting page ...

There are perhaps fewer disturbing lines in all of Shakespeare than Shylock s promise to Solanio and Salarino in Act III, scene i, that he will outdo the evil that has been done to him. Shylock begins by eloquently reminding the Venetians that all people, even those who are not part of the majority culture, are human. A Jew, he reasons, is equipped with the same faculties as a Christian, and is therefore subject to feeling the same pains and comforts and emotions. The speech, however, is not a celebration of shared experience or even an invitation for the Venetians to acknowledge their enemy s humanity. Instead of using reason to elevate himself above his Venetian tormenters, Shylock delivers a monologue that allows him to sink to their level: he will, he vows, behave as villainously as they have. The speech is remarkable in that it summons a range of emotional responses to Shylock. At first, we doubtlessly sympathize with the Jew, whose right to fair and decent treatment has been so neglected by the Venetians that he must remind them that he has hands, organs, dimensions, senses similar to theirs (III.i.5 0 ). But Shylock s pledge to behave as badly as they, and, moreover, to better the instruction, casts him in a less sympathetic light (III.i.6 1 ). While we understand his motivation, we cannot excuse the endless perpetuation of such villainy. 2. What if my house be troubled with a rat, And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats To have it baned? What, are you answered yet? Some men there are love not a gaping pig, Some that are mad if they behold a cat, And others when the bagpipe sings i th nose Cannot contain their urine; for affection, Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood Of what it likes or loathes. . . . ... So can I give no reason, nor I will not, More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing I bear Antonio, that I follow thus A losing suit against him. Are you answered? (IV.i.43 61 ) When, in Act IV, scene i, Antonio and Shylock are summoned before the court, the duke asks the Jew to show his adversary some mercy. Shylock responds by reasoning that he has no reason. He blames his hatred of Antonio on affection, / [that] Mistress of passion, who is known to affect men s moods in ways they cannot explain (IV.i.4 9 5 0 ). Just as certain people do not know why they have an aversion to cats or certain strains of music or eating meat, Shylock cannot logically explain his dislike for Antonio. The whole of his response to the court boils down to the terribly eloquent equivalent of the simple answer: just because. The speech merits consideration not only because it articulates a range of emotions that often cannot be verbally expressed, but also because Shylock s language patterns reinforce our impression of his character. The use of repetition in the passage is frequent. Shylock returns not only to the same imagery the gaping pig (IV.i.5 3 ) and the woolen bagpipe (IV.i.5 5 ) but he also bookends his speech with the simple question, Are you answered? (IV.i.6 1 ). Here, Shylock s tightly controlled speech reflects the narrow and determined focus of his quest to satisfy his hatred. The speech s imagery is of the prosaic sort typical of Shylock. Other characters speak in dreamily poetic tones, evoking images of angels and waters scented with spice, but Shylock draws on the most mundane examples to prove his point. To him, Antonio is a rat, and his dislike of Antonio no more odd than that which some men have toward pigs or cats. Shylock uses bodily functions to drive home his point, likening rage to urination in a crass turn of phrase that is unique to his character. Also, Shylock s rage takes on an apparent arbitrariness. Originally, Shylock s gripe with Antonio seems based on a carefully meditated catalogue of the Venetian s crimes. Here, however, it appears little more than a whim, a swing of the pendulum that sways to affection s moods (IV.i.5 0 ). By relying on the defense that his actions are justified simply because he feels like them, Shylock appears unpredictable and whimsical, and he further fuels our perception of his actions as careless and cruel. 3. You have among you many a purchased slave Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules, You use in abject and in slavish parts Because you bought them. Shall I say to you Let them be free, marry them to your heirs. Why sweat they under burdens?. . . ... You will answer The slaves are ours. So do I answer you. The pound of flesh which I demand of him Is dearly bought. Tis mine, and I will have it. (IV.i.89 99 ) Again, in this passage, we find Shylock cleverly using Venice s own laws to support his vengeful quest and enlisting society s cruelties in defense of his own. Shylock begins his speech on a humane note, yet this opening serves merely to justify his indulgence in the same injustices he references. Shylock has no interest in exposing the wrongfulness of owning or mistreating slaves. Such property rights simply happen to be established by Venetian laws, so Shylock uses them to appeal for equal protection. If Antonio and company can purchase human flesh to use in abject and in slavish parts, Shylock reasons, then he can purchase part of the flesh of a Venetian citizen (IV.i.9 1 ). In his mind, he has merely extended the law to its most literal interpretation. Unlike the Venetians, who are willing to bend or break the law to satisfy their wants, Shylock never strays from its letter in his pursuit of his bond. His brand of abiding by the law, however, is made unsavory by the gruesome nature of his interpretation. 5. The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stategems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. (V.i.8 2 8 6 ) By Act V, with Shylock stowed safely offstage, Shakespeare returns to the comedic aspects of his play. He lightens the mood with a harmless exchange of rings that serves to reunite the lovers, and he brings Antonio s lost ships back to port. Because Shylock has been such a large, powerful presence in the play, and because his decimation at the hands of the Venetians is profoundly disturbing, the comedy in Belmont never fully escapes the shadow of the troublesome issues that precede it. The lovers happiness, then, is most likely little more than a brief passing moment. This passage can be read as a meditation on the transitory nature of the comforts one finds in a wearisome world. Lorenzo, ordering music to celebrate Portia s homecoming, reflects that music has the power to change a man s nature. Much like a wild beast that can be tamed by the sound of a trumpet, a man can be transformed into something less stockish, hard, and full of rage (V.i.8 0 ). As the Venetians, all of whom have exercised treasons, strategems, and spoils of one kind or another throughout the play, congregate at Belmont, we imagine them as kinder and happier than they have otherwise been, but we also know that the music of Belmont will not likely survive on the streets of Venice (V.i.8 4 ) . but they all expect him to show mercy, which he refuses to do. When, during the trial, Shylock asks Portia what could possibly compel him to be merciful, Portia s long reply, beginning with the words, The quality of mercy is not strained, clarifies what is at stake in the argument (IV.i.1 7 9 ). Human beings should be merciful because God is merciful: mercy is an attribute of God himself and therefore greater than power, majesty, Being merciful, she argues, blesses the person being merciful, and the person who receives the mercy. It is, therefore at its strongest, shown by people who are the most powerful. It becomes a monarch (i.e. is more kingly) better than his crown does.or law. The king's sceptre shows the force of his power on earth ("temporal power"), and is part of his awe and his majesty, which is why people dread and are scared of kings. However, mercy is above the influence and power of the sceptre ("sceptred sway")... Mercy is an attribute of God himself, the king of kings. And earthly power becomes most godly when it is merciful: when decisions of justice are "seasoned" (made more palatable) with mercy. 1. Portia asks Shylock to show mercy upon Antonio and spare his life. She acknowledges that Shylock does have a right to "his pound of flesh," but that a merciful person would either forgive the debt or settle for something "less invasive." 2. In Portia's "Quality of Mercy" speech, she argues that mercy should apply infinitely to all situations. She cites examples of a merciful God and attempts to make an ethical appeal to Shylock's religious beliefs. While Portia's speech would be motivating to most audiences, she neglects to consider that Shylock does not believe in the merciful God of the New Testament. He trusts in the vengeful, omnipotent God of the Old Testament. Likewise, throughout the play, Shylock references Biblical characters who did not hesitate to get their dues (i.e., Jacob). The phrase "the quality of mercy is not strain'd" is spoken in Act IV of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and it is spoken by Portia (in disguise as Antonio's lawyer) in a courtroom. Two things are in play during this speech: one is the legal elements of Shylock's case against Antonio and the other is this plea for mercy, a distinctly Christian concept. In part, mercy is "love of one's friends, compassion for those in difficulty and a willingness to forgive past wrongs...." Is Antonio or Shylock The Merchant of Venice"?Is Antonio or Shylock The Merchant of Venice"? Shylock has taken the centre of most modern interpretations of the play (of the modern filmed version of the play which, with Al Pacino as Shylock, puts Pacino's face right under the title on the cover!) largely due to the extra frisson created post-Holocaust by the anti-semitism directed towards him. He is indeed a merchant, and his "bond" for a pound of Antonio's flesh forms the centre of the main plot of the play - though he does vanish from the last act altogether, forced to reform into a Christian. Antonio, however, is also "bound", it seems, not just to Shylock, but to Bassanio, and - of course - his merchant ships are also hugely important to the play. He certainly, appears in more scenes and speaks more lines than Shylock. It is possible that Antonio, in Elizabethan times, was obviously a central character, and Shylock a grotesque, comic second. Who was Antonio in "The Merchant of Venice"? Antonio is a nobleman who has business dealings with Shylock, a Jewish merchant and moneylender. Shylock lends money to Antonio's friend, Bassanio, who wants to be able to become a suitor of Portia, a wealthy woman of Belmont. Why was there enmity between Antonio and Shylock? Shylock declares that if the money is not repaid, he will be able to extract a pound of Antonio's flesh; Shylock does this because he resents Antonio's previous treatment of him. Antonio frequently mentions that Shylock is a Jew, and belittles him in public, calling him a dog and spitting on him (according to Shylock). Shylock is a calculating man who guesses that Antonio may not be able to repay him; so the 'pound of flesh' stipulation is his way of getting revenge and publicly punishing Antonio for his cruelty and humiliating treatment. This being said, the themes of the poem include using time effectively, making the best of the time that we have, and just making "good". A worthless life that is wasted away reflects an irresponsible and derelict nature. It is basically acting abhorrently since life is a precious gift that all should do something with. Those who waste away alive are already dead, basically; for what is life if not time to take the human experience as far as possible? Therefore, the only way to live is by making life worth living, and drawing some "good" from it. A Psalm of Life, a lyric of religious emotion was published in October of 1838. This poem is taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow s first volume of poems. A psalm is a sacred song, an invocation to mankind to follow the path of righteousness. A Psalm of Life is a blow to the pessimistic attitude of taking life lightly. The poet encourages his readers not to waste life, that life is short and is going to end soon. The poem highlights the views of the poet about how to live life and that there is only one life and therefore, we should make a good use of it. The poem consists of nine stanzas, each containing four lines. The poet begins the poem by asking us not to tell him in sorrowful verses that life is an empty, meaningless dream. According to Longfellow, a person who spends his sleeping is already dead. Such a worthless life misguides other human beings. Finally, irresponsibility does not reflect the true human nature. The second stanza begins with two phrases, Life is real! Life is earnest! The poet uses an encouraging tone to say that life is real and serious. Life should not be treated lightly. Moreover, the poet says that death is not the ultimate goal; life does not end with death. Dust thou art, to dust returnest is not applicable to the soul, this quotation is applicable only to the body. The third stanza of A Psalm of Life is about the way of living. The poet tells us that our way of leaving should be only based on enjoyment or mourning. The aim of life is to act wisely each day so that we can make a better future. Stanza four is about the work assigned to us and about the time which is flying. Art is long, and Time is fleeting means that the work given to us is too long and time-consuming. The poet encourages that under such situations, our hearts still remain stout and brave and are beating funeral marches to the grave, like the drums covered with cloth. The message that the poet wants to convey through this stanza is that one should lose courage under any circumstance. What are the figures of speech used in the poem "Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? The Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a poem which encourages its readers to live a good and moral life, so the title itself is an allusion to the psalms of the Bible. In the first line, that biblical allusion continues with "Tell me not, in mournful numbers..." alluding to the Bible's Book of Numbers. From there, we find metaphors and personification. First, life is compared to an "empty dream" (a metaphor); and "For the soul is dead that slumbers" personifies the soul. Parallelism comes to play in the second and final stanzas: "Life is real! Life is earnest!" And "Still achieving, still pursuing." More metaphors, as well as similes, are found throughout the piece. Hearts are compared (simile) to drums in the fourth stanza, and people are compared (simile) to cattle in the fifth. "Art is long and Time is fleeting" is a metaphor. Finally, this poem contains quite a bit of alliteration: "Find us further" is one example. "Dumb driven cattle" is another. A Doctor s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945 by Vikram Seth The poem begins with a calm and serene note. The doctor says that it was dawn and he was in his bed, not fully clothed. When he stretched out and looked outside, he saw shining leaves and shadows. In the next moment, there were two sudden flashes of strong light and the old stone lantern lit up by itself. The doctor wondered whether the flashes were magnesium flares seen during a war. In the next moment, the doctor finds out that the roof and wall of his building has collapsed and the debris were scattered all over. Dust covered up the whole place and clothes disappeared from his body. They were burnt. The doctor was wounded on his cheek, thigh and he was bleeding. A piece of glass had entered into his body which he removes detachedly. He was wondering what suddenly took place and what had happened to him. The narrator called out his wife, where are you, Yecko-san? Yecko-san looked pale, frightened and had blood stains on her body. The doctor assures his wife that they would be fine and they must go to the hospital for aid. The doctor and his wife steps out of their house and while walking on the road, tripped on a head of a man, who was probably crushed to death under a gate. They saw a house that tilted, swayed, toppled and crashed. Fire was springing up in the dust and was spreading fast by the wind. The couple thought of going to the hospital as they needed aid and also the doctor wanted to help his staff. But then he wondered how could he help his staff when he himself was injured. His legs felt wasted and he sat down on the ground. He was thirsty but he did not find any water to drink. He was panting but finally he got up with little strength and walked towards the hospital. Small Pain in My Chest Small Pain in My Chest is written in a form of ballad. A ballad is a short story in verse originally meant to be sung. It is a long narrative poem that tells a story. It comprises of small stanzas and has a refrain. It provides the poem a musical quality. The poetical devices used in this ballad are as follows,Narration: In this poem, Small Pain in My Chest, the poet has told the agony of a dying soldier on the battlefield. The poem does not describe his action but the consequences of a war and the effects on the lives of the soldiers. The poem has beautifully described the thoughts going in the mind of a dying soldier. The soldier is shown to be smiling in order to hide his pain. Rhyming Scheme: The poem is consists of nine stanzas of four lines each with the rhyming scheme aabb. The first lines rhyme with the second and the third rhymes with the fourth. This pattern is designed to show the reader the flow of emotions in a poem. Refrain: A refrain is a phrase, verse or group of verses repeated at intervals throughout the poem, especially at the end of each stanza. Small pain in my chest is repeated with little variations throughout the poem. It has been used to focus on the pain and suffering that the soldier is going through. Alliteration: Alliteration is the close repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginning of words to facilitate narration. The examples of alliteration in the poem Small Pain in My Chest, are, *myself more lucky *see the sun is shining *smiled a smile *seems silly *what would my wife The Professor The Professor is noted for its expression of the Indian attitude. Indians are proud of their proficiency in English but they are never bothered about the fact that their Indian English is far from the Native English. The Professor is both a conversational poem as well as a satirical poem. The Professor is in a conversational form, it is about a conversation between two people, a professor and his former student. The professor is the narrator in this poem and he talks about himself, his family and children. The poem is in free verse style without having any regular metrical form. This form helps the poet to freely describe the thoughts and feelings of a retired professor. He speaks about his sons and daughters, his health, changing times and changing values, talks that are typical of a middle aged man. Thus, we can say the poet Nissim Ezekiel has used a informal style to convey the thoughts of the old man. A satire is a way of criticizing a person, an idea or anything else. In a satire, the human follies are attacked by using humour, irony and exaggeration. The Professor is a satirical poem where the professor is the object of satire and is ridiculed by the poet. Through the character of the professor, Ezekiel has satirized the educated class, living in the cities. Like an old father-figure, the professor speaks about his eleven grandchildren and then boasts about the material wealth of his sons. Moreover, the poem is a blow to the Indians who use English language, making mistakes of syntax, grammar, tense etc but still they would speak in English(they find it prestigious) rather than in their mother tongue. Use of Hyperbole: Hyperbole means exaggerating something. Ezekiel has shown that Indians have the habit of exaggerating for emphasis. The use of hyperbole is quite apparent in the professor s speech. The examples are listed below*Our progress is progressing. *Everything is happening with leaps and bounds. *This year I am sixty nine *You were so thin, like stick. Use of Irony: The narrator being a professor should have a well command not only over the subject he teaches but also the language he uses. But the poem is full of grammatical errors. He talks like a boastful father, as he speaks of his sons By God s grace, all my children Are well settled in life One is Sales Manager, One is Bank Manager, Both have cars. THEME: Urban Thinking Pattern: The Professor revolves around the typical urban mentality of people in India. The speaker here is a professor whose academic excellence is far above from that of a common man. Instead of having a broad thinking, the professor has a narrow, stereotyped thinking. His views are confined to his family, children and their material achievements in life. He talks about his daughters who are happily married and about his two sons who are sales and bank managers respectively. Like a typical urban mentality, he thinks women should be happily married and confined to their homes only. The poet has ridiculed the typical Indian mentality which measures a person s success based on monetary gains. Ezekiel has intertwined satire, irony, humor with Indianism, urbanity and academic excellence to draw the picture of a bereaved professor who meets one of his former students.

Formatting page ...

sakshi121 chat

Horizontal lines at:
Guest Horizontal lines at:
AutoRM Data:
Box geometries: