West Bengal Civil Service
Examination-2002
(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 group.
Group - A
1. Write a short essay on the old English elegies and account for their enduring-appeal.
2. What do we learn from Chaucer about the life and thought of his age ?
3. Who were the important predecessors of Shakespeare in the history of English drama ? Select any two of them and indicate how : they contributed to the growth of English drama.
4. "Romanticism has been defined as the addition of strangeness to beauty'. Consider the definition with reference to the major poets of early nineteenth century.
5. What is your assessment of the importance in the history of English literature of any one of the following :-
W.B. Yeats; James Joyce; G.M.Hopkins; G.B-Show.
6. Write short critical notes on any two of the following :
(a) The faerie queen
(b) Metaphysical poetry
(c) Augustan verse satire
(d) Women novelists of the Victorian age
(e) Tom Jones
(f) Murder in the Cathedral.
Group - B
7. "The French were the rich, the powerful and the refined classes". Cite appropriate linguistic evidence to substantiate the remark.
8. "Word - composition plays a very important part in English". Illustrate.
9. Write philological noles on any eight of the following :-
wine, cheap, heathen, church, sister, starve, they, genteel, puny, perfect, daisy, mob, housewife, gossip, ache.
Group - C
10. Can you say why Shakespeare's protagonists in the Romantic Comedies are women ? Discuss with special reference to either 'Twelfth Night" or "As You Like It".
11. Is Macbeth a tragedy or is it only a play on the fall of a wicked man ?
12. How do the soliloquies in a Shakespearean tragedy help in dramatic characterisation of man ? Illustrate.
13. Attempt a critical assessment of any one of the following :-
(a) the role of the Fool in Shakespeare's Comedies
(b) Witchcraft in Shakespeare's plays
(c) Shakespeare's use of imagery
(d) Shakespeare's audience.
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