West Bengal Civil Service
Examination-2003
(Optional Papers)
English Paper -I
Time Allowed : 3 Hours Full Marks : 100
All questions carry equal marks.
Answer five questions, taking at least one question from each of the three groups.
Group-A
1. Examine the three principal phases of the development of Chaucer's poetry with special reference to one major work in each phase.
2. Discuss the main features of Restoration Drama with special reference to Dryden and Congreve.
3. Write in essay on the growth of the English novel in the eighteenth century with special reference to Richardson and Fielding.
4. In what sense can the English Romantic Movement be called the "Romantic revolt" ? Writs with special reference to any two of the following author : Wordsworth, Scott, Hazlitt, Shelley.
5. Assess the importance of any two of the following in the history of English literature :
Rudyard Kipling; J.M.Synge; Virginia Woolf; Dylan Thomas.
6. Write short critical notes on any two of the following :
(a) Beowulf (b) Jacobean tragedy (c) Gulliver's Travels (d) The Pre-Raphaelites (e) The poetry the first World War (f) Look Back in Anger.
Group-B
7. "The Latin influence on the English language has been something between a help and a hindrance". Discuss.
8. Describe the two great phonetic changes affecting the Germanic languages and discuss their relative importance in English.
9. Write philological notes on any eight of the following :
assassin, bighty, boycott, cab, clerk, dainty, ecclesiastical, egg, father, handkerchief, its, scientist, tandem, tram, window.
Group - C
10. How do deceptions and self-deceptions generate comic effects in Shakespeare's comedies ? Discuss with special reference to As You Like It and Twelfth Night.
11. Comment on the role the wirches in Macbeth.
12. With reference to any two of Shakespeare's comedies, discuss the conflict between patriarchal control and the revolts against it.
13. Attempt a critical assessment of any one of the following :
(a) The usr of songs in Shakespeare's comedies
(b) Shakespeare's use of comic reliefs in tragedies
(c) The mixture of prose and verse in the dialogues of Shakespeare's plays
(d) The First Folio.
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