Differences Between Audio Lingual and Communicative Language Teaching Methods


The audio lingual method, or the Army method, or also the New key, is the mode of language instruction based on behaviourist ideology, which professes that certain traits of living things could be trained through a system of reinforcement. The instructor would present the correct model of a sentence and the students would have to repeat it. Read More about Philology   The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure. There is no explicit grammar instruction everything is simply memorized in form. The idea is for the students to practice the particular construction until they can use it spontaneously. In this manner, the lessons are built on static drills in which the students have little or no control on their own output. 

Critical Analysis of George Herbert’s "Virtue" as a Lyrical Poem due to its Music and Melody ; Simplicity of Language, Spontaneity and Intensity, Religious Favour



An Analysis on Precision of Language,  Metrical Versatility, and  Ingenious use of Imagery or Conceits 

George Herbert’s Virtue

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky,
The dew shall weep thy fall tonight;
For thou must die.

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like seasoned timber, never gives;
But though the whole world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives. 

A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 70




A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers
UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK
1. Which of the following is not a tragedy of blood and revenge?
a. The Spanish Tragedy of Thomas Kyd.
b. Shakespeare's Hamlet.
c. Marlowe's Edward II (it’s a chronicle tragedy)
 2. At the end of The Portrait of a Lady Isabel Archer
I. Goes back to the house from the Garden.
II. Accepts the proposal of Casper Goodwood.
III. Straight away refuses the offer of Goodwood.
IV. Probably goes back to Rome and Osmond.
Which are the correct combinations according to the code?
Codes:
(A) I and II are correct.
(B) III and IV are correct.
(C) I and IV are correct.
(D) I and III are correct. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

3. Consider the following statements of
English Renaissance and choose the given options.
I. The poetry between 1580 and 1660 was the result of a remarkable outburst of energy- Renaissance awakening.
II. It is the drama of roughly the same period that stands highest in popular estimation. 
III. Renaissance drama reached for secular audiences, but the poetry remained the personal patronage.
IV.   Renaissance plays were written in an elaborate verse style and under the influence of classical examples, but the popular taste, to which drama was especially susceptible, required a flamboyance and sensationalism largely alien to the spirit of Greek and Roman literature.
A.    I is correct and IV is its proper explanation
B.     II is correct and III & IV are its proper explanation
C.     I is correct and II is its proper explanation
D.    I is correct and III is its proper explanation

A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 69




A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers
UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK

1. (a)  1066- The year of the Norman-French conquest of England.

   (b)The Germanic tribes from Europe who overran England in the 5th century, after the Roman withdrawal, brought with them the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, language, which is the basis of Modern English. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

  (c) The Germanic tribes brought also a specific poetic tradition, the formal character of which remained surprisingly constant until the termination of their rule by the Norman-French invaders six centuries later.

(d) The year 1066 is epoch- making in the history of England and English.

(A) only (a) and (b) are correct.

(B) only (d) is correct.

(C) (d) is correct and (a), (b), and (c) are the correct explanation of it.

(D) (a) and (c) are false.

2. Match the following:

I. “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer”
a. English history from the 10th to the 12th century
II. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
b. Old English epic poem.
III. “Dream of the Rood.”
c. A Christian poem by Cynewulf and his school
IV. Beowulf
d. Old English poems on the sadness of the human lot

      (I) (II) (III) (IV)

(A) (d) (a) (c) (b)

(B) (d) (b) (d) (a)

(C) (b) (a) (c) (d) Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(D) (a) (c) (d) (b)

3. The original Latin work of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People is

 (A)  Historica Ecclesiastica Gentes Anglorium

(B) Historica Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorium

(C)  Historica Ecclesiastica Gentes Anglorium

(D)  Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum

4. The following phrases from Shakespeare have become the titles of famous works. Identify the correctly matched group.



(I) Pale Fire
(a) Thomas Hardy
(II) The Sound and the Fury
(b) Somerset
Maugham
(III) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
(c) William Faulkner
(IV) Under the Greenwood Tree
(d) Tom Stoppard

(V) Of Cakes and Ale
(e) Vladimir Nabokov

     (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V)

(A) (e) (d) (c) (a) (b)

(B) (d) (e) (b) (c) (a)

(C) (e) (c) (d) (a) (b)

(D) (c) (d) (b) (e) (a)

4. Match the following:

I. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
a.  secular vision poem of   semiallegorical nature
II. The Parliament of Fowls
b. impassioned work in the form of dream visions Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)
III. The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman
c. a romance, or tale, of knightly adventure and love
IV. Le morte d'Arthur
d. Arthurian romance

     (I) (II) (III) (IV)
(A) (d) (b) (c) (a)
(B) (d) (a) (b) (c)
(C) (b) (c) (d) (a)
(D) (c) (a) (b) (d)

George Eliot's "Middlemarch": Psychological Novel and Study of Provincial Life and Characters


"Middlemarch, the magnificent book which with all its imperfections is one of the few English novels for grown up people." -Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941)

George Eliot’s Middlemarch , A Study of Provincial Life which appeared in parts in 1871-72,   considered by many to have produced her greatest work, enchanted her public with a penetrating, psychological novel set in rural England during the early 19th century. Eliot carefully researched and meticulously detailed the social climate of the time, making the town of Middlemarch and its inhabitants seem true to life-A Study of Provincial Life.

George Eliot's masterpiece, Middlemarch  is an epic novel in every sense of the word. Dealing with English middle-class life in a provincial town, it is socially and politically relevant.  Eliot set the novel forty years earlier, in 1830 – just before the First Reform Bill was passed. Eliot believed that it takes time to understand historical events – it's impossible to understand all the consequences of something right after it takes place. The politics and societal changes were much more interesting in the book . We find ourselves imagining in the book  about medicine or building a railroad, Parliament and etc. It make   sensible to me as well to see it played out by words rather than just reading about it in social history book.

Middlemarch by George Eliot Real name Mary Anne Evans) is a novel that combines a study of provincial life with a deep exploration of the psychology of its characters. The story takes place in a fictional English town called Middlemarch, and follows the lives of several interconnected characters as they navigate their personal and professional relationships, ambitions, and struggles.

The story centers round Dorothea who  is a kind hearted and honest woman. She longs to find some way to improve the world. She thinks Casaubon is a great intellectual, but after she marries him, she quickly discovers that he is not passionate enough to make her happy. She also learns that she is not as submissive and sacrificing as she had previously thought. She draws plans for comfortable cottages to replace the ramshackle buildings on large estates. She helps Lydgate when he suffers for his connections with Bulstrode. She falls in love with Casaubon’s young cousin, Will Ladislaw. She defies Casubon’s machinations and marries Will even though it means losing her inheritance as Casubon’s widow. Sure, the scandal was tame compared to today, but these people were hapless. Whether it was Dorothea marrying that stick-in-the-mud, Casaubon or Rosamund and her spendthrifty ways, we were consistently flabbergasted, bored, and entertained through this epic novel.

In the whirlpool of incidents we find many immortal characters and  incidents in the novel. To cite few examples we find Brooke, Dorothea and Celia’s bachelor uncle. He is humbling man who can never stick to an opinion, always wanting to please everyone. He hires Will Ladislaw to write for his paper. He runs for a seat in Parliament on the Reform platform, but he let his own tenants live in poverty and squalor. The scandal resulting from his hypocrisy prompts him to improve conditions on his own estate, Tipton Grange. While Nicholas Bulstrode is a wealth Middlemarch banker. He is married to Walter Vincy’s sister, Bulstrode professes to be a deeply religious Evangelical Protestant, but  he has dark past: he made his fortune as a pawnbroker selling stolen goods. He married Will Ladislaw’s grandmother after her first husband died. Her daughter had run away years before, and she insisted that Bulstrode find her daughter before she re-married, because she wanted to leave her wealth to her only surviving child. Bulstrode protected the daughter and her child. Will Ladislaw, but he kept her existence a secret. He bribed the man he hired to find her, John raffles, to keep quiet. John raffles blackmails him with this information. When Raffles becomes ill, Bulstrode cares for him. However, he disobeys Lydgate’s medical advice, and Raffles dies as a result. When the scandal about his past and the circumstances of Raffle’s death become known, Bulstrode leaves Middlemarch is shame. He purchases Stone Court from Joshua Rigg Featherstone.

George Eliot
Another interesting point is brief character sketches. Harriet Bulstrode, Walter Vincy’s sister  is a kind, honest, religious woman. No one in Middlemarch blames her for her husband’s misdeeds. Interestingly, she resolves to stay with her husband even after she learns of his wrongdoing. There is Elinor Cadwallader  the wife of the Rector at Tipton Grange, Brooke’s estate. She was born to a good family, but she married down and angered her friends and families. She is a practical woman who is forever trying to play matchmaker to unmarried young people, including Dorothea, Celia, and Sir James. howevr,  Unlike his wife, Humphrey Cadwallader   doesn’t believe in meddling in other people’s affairs. Edward Casaubon - Edward Casaubon owns a large estate called Lowick. He is a scholarly clergyman. His lifelong ambition is to write the Key to all Mythologies, hut he is insecure and uncertain about his own abilities. He marries Dorothea because he thinks she is completely submissive and worshipful. Her stubborn independence frustrates him, and he mistakenly believes that she is constantly criticizing him. Casaubon is Will Ladislaw’s cousin. His mother’s sister was disowned by her family for running away to marry a man they don’t like. Her own daughter Will’s mother, also ran away to marry. Casaubon offers financial support to Will because he feels obligated to make amends for his aunt’s disinheritance. He becomes jealous of Will’s relationship with Dorothea. He includes an addendum in his will stating that Dorothea will loose his wealth and property if she ever marries Will Ladislaw. 

Interestingly, Sir James Chettam is a baronet. He owns a large estate called freshet. He courts Dorothea, but she chooses to marry Casaubon. He later marries her sister. He enacts Dorothea’s cottage plans on his own estate.  Camden Farebrother is a Vicar, but he does not consider himself to be a very good clergyman, though many people like his sensible sermons. He becomes fast friends with Lydgate and supports his mother, sister, and aunt on his small income. He must gamble to make ends meet and to pursue his scientific hobbies. He loses in the election for the chaplaincy at the New Hospital. Caleb Garth is a poor businessman. He earns his living managing large estates. He co-signs a debt for Fred Vincy. When Fred is unable to pay, Garth’s family suffers. He receives new business, overcomes the loss, and hires Fred Vincy to work for him. He declines to manage Stone Court for Bulstrode after Raffles reveals Bulstrode’s dark past. Susan Garth is Caleb Garth’s wife. She is a former schoolteacher. Mary Garth – is the daughter of Caleb and Susan Garth. She loves Fred, but she refuses to marry him if he becomes a clergyman and fails to find a steady occupation. Will Ladislaw – is the grandson of Casaubon’s disinherited aunt. Bulstrode tries to give him money to aton for hiding his existence from his grandmother. He refuses the money because he knows it came through thievery. He worships Dorothea. He does not care for money and loves everything that is beautiful. Tertius Lydgate is  the orphan son of a military man. He choose the medical profession at a young age, much to the chagrin of his wealthy, titled relatives. He comes to Middlernarch hoping to test new methods of treatment. He marries Rosamond Vincy, whose expensive habits get him into debt. He takes a loan from Bulstrode and becomes embroiled in Bulstrode’s scandal. Dorothea aids him in his darkest hour. He hopes to find the tissue that is the most basic building block for life. Sir Godwin Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate’s uncle. Captain Lydgate – Captain Lydgate is Tertius Lydgate foppish cousin. He takes Rosamond out riding. She suffers a miscarriage as a result of an accident on horseback. Naumann is Ladislaw’s painter friend in Rome. He uses Casaubon as a model for Thomas Aquinas as a ruse to draw a sketch of Dorothea. Miss Noble – Miss Noble is Mrs. Farebrother’s sister. She steals small items of food to give to the poor. She becomes fond of Will Ladislaw. Selina Plymdale - Selina Plymdale is a good friend of Harriet Bulstrode. Her son courts Rosamond Vincy, but he is rejected. Ned Plymdale courts Rosamond, but she refuses him. John Raffles – John Raffles is an old business partner of Bulsrode. Bulstrode bribed him to keep the existence of the daughter and grandchild of his first wife secret. He comes back to blackmail Bulstrode  He is Joshua Rigg Featherstone’s stepfather. He dies at Stone Court because Bulstrode interferes with Lydgate’s medical treatment. Joshua Rigg Featherstone is Peter Featherstone’s illegitimate son. John Raffles is his stepfather. He inherits Stone Court. He sells it to Bulstrode because he wants to become a moneychanger.

Borthrop Trumbell is an auctioneer in Middlemarch . Walter Tyke  - Walter Tyke  is an Evangelical Protestant minister. Bulstrode is a supporter of his. He wins the election for the chaplaincy at the New Hospital, beating out Farebrother. Rosamond Vincy is the daughter of Walter and Lucy Vincy. She grows up accustomed to an expensive lifestyle. She marries Lydgate because she thinks he he is rich and because he has titled relatives. She dreams of leaving Middlemarch and living an exciting, aristocratic lifestyle, but her expensive tastes get Lydgate deeply into debt. Fred Vincy is the oldest son Walter and Lucy Vincy. His father sends him to college because he wants Fred to become a clergyman, but Fred does not want to work in the Church. Fred gets himself into debt by gambling. He is accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. He causes financial difficulty for the Garths because he can not pay debt on which Caleb Garth co-signed his name. He wants to marry Mary Garth, but she won’t have him unless he finds a steady occupation other than the Church. He hopes to inherit Stone Court from his uncle, Peter Featherstone. These hopes are disappointed, so he works for Caleb Garth. Walter Vincy is a modestly well-off businessman in manufacturing. He is also mayor of Middlemarch. Fred and Rosamond’s expensive tastes infuriate him. He refuses to lend Rosamond and Lydgate money to pay Lydgate’s debt. He is Harriet Bulstrode’s brother. Lucy Vincy is Walter Vincy’s wife. She is the daughter of an innkeeper, much to Rosamond’s chagrin. She dotes on her son and doesn’t want him to marry Mary Garth. She is the sister of Featherstone’s second wife.

George Eliot's Middlemarch is a masterpiece of literature that combines the elements of a psychological novel and a study of provincial life and characters. Eliot's intricate portrayal of the social, political, and economic complexities of a small English town and her vivid depictions of the multifaceted characters make Middlemarch a timeless classic. Through her exploration of human nature, Eliot invites readers to reflect on their own lives and the society they inhabit. Middlemarch continues to captivate readers and scholars alike, cementing Eliot's place as one of the greatest novelists of all time.

Key points of Our Discussion:

  • It a complex and richly textured novel that continues to be celebrated for its insightful and empathetic portrayal of human nature and society.
  • The portrayal of the complexities of human nature, particularly in relation to love, marriage, and social status.
  • The exploration of the tension between individual desires and societal expectations, particularly for women.
  • The critique of Victorian society, its values, and its institutions.
  • The use of omniscient narration and multiple perspectives to create a nuanced and layered understanding of the characters and their motivations.
  • The portrayal of the impact of historical and political events on individual lives and communities.

Reference
1. The Project Gutenberg eBook of Middlemarch, by George Eliot. (n.d.). The Project Gutenberg eBook of Middlemarch, by George Eliot. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/145/145-h/145-h.htm

A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 68


A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers
UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK
1. Identify the correctly matched group of John Milton’s lines with their corresponding poem.
Corresponding poem
John Milton’s lines
(I) Samson Agonistes A to Z (Objective Questions)
(a) The childhood shows the man,
As morning shows the day. Be famous then
By wisdom; as thy empire must extend,
So let extend thy mind o'er all the world.
(II) Lycidas
(b) She fair, divinely fair, fit love for gods.
(III) Paradise Lost I
(c) At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:
Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new.

(IV) Paradise Regained
(d) I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.
(V) Paradise Lost II
(e) Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end.

     (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V)
(A) (e) (d) (c) (a) (b)
(B) (d) (e) (b) (c) (a)
(C) (e) (c) (d) (a) (b)
(D) (c) (d) (b) (e) (a)

A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 67


A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers
UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK

1.Match the two columns:
Literary Works                   Author

The Rape of the Lock  -    epic poem by Pope

The Rape of the Lucrecee -      a long poem by Shakespeare

The way of the World  -     A comedy by William Congrave

The Way of All Flesh    -      a novel by Samuel Butler.

The Prelude    -                  A poem by William Wordsworth
Preludes    -                A poem by T. S. Eliot

Elizabethan Essays         -    Prose by T.  S. Eliot

Elizabeth and Essex  A to Z  -  prose by Lytton Stretchey

Everyman           -                  One of the best known morality plays.

Everyman in His Humour    -      Satirical comedy by Ben Jonson.

The Book of The Duchesse   -   A poem by Chaucer

The Book of Martyrs      -          a story by John Foxe

The Pilgrim’s Progress    -              by John Bunyan

The Pilgrim’s of the Rhine     -       by Bulwer Lytton

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent – a novel by Sterne

Lyrical Ballads   - Collection poems by Coleridge & Wordsworth

Prefare to Lyrical Bullads      -     A prose by Wordsworth.

All for love   -                  A blank verse tragedy by Dryden

Love labour lost   -     A drama by Shakespeare

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Objective Questions from English Literature

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