MEG-2 British Drama Important question

 MEG-2 British Drama Block-wise important question from each play based on old question paper & Other important questions from exam point of view

Block-1 Christopher Marlowe : Doctor Faustus - 17RTC

• Tragedy of the Renaissance and Reformation - IIII

• Christian faith 

• Dr. Fanstus stands for the Renaissance man // tragedy of the aspirational Renaissance man. 

• tragic irresolution is the strength // Tragedy in Dr. Faustus - I // a tragedy of human heroism. 

• as a tragedy of neu rosis and relate it to the predicament of contemporary man.

• tragic conflict

• Dr. Faustus attempts to depart from a comedy of evil to become a tragedy of human heroism.

• role of Mephistophilis - II

• dramatic poetry.  

• Homo, fuge : Whither should I fly ?"

• The Split Personality of Doctor Faustus 

• Notes -  Helen, The agony of Dr. Faustus

Block-2 William Shakespeare : A Midsummer Night's Dream - 11RTC

• Shakespearean romantic comedy - III //basic plot of Romantic Comedy// How does Shakespeare alter the romantic comedy formula in A Midsummer Night's Dream ?

•  "grand quarrel scene" between Hermia and Helena

• Play within the play

• role played by the Mechanicals - I, especially Bottom

• common points between the main play and the Mechanicals' play in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

• Fairies- I

• Titania-Oberon plot

• significance of the pastoral

• The element of fantasy in A Mid Summer's Night Dream.

• Dreams - III

• gender issues// Shakespeare's treatment of women

• "Celebrating love within the institution of marriage." Is it an apt description of A Midsummer Night's Dream ? 

• Notes - Bottom - II, Beatrice, Puck, Hermia

Block-3 William Shakespeare : Hamlet - 16RTC

• Analyse Hamlet as a revenge play - III // Revenge is the central theme of Hamlet.

• tragedy of a man obsessed with melancholy - I

• Tragedy of irresolution and inaction - I

• Hamlet as a Shakespearean tragic hero.

• "To be, or not to be"

•  major themes in Hamlet's soliloquies.  - IIII

• significance of the play within play - I

• Hamlet's attitude towards Claudius

• "Claudius rather than Hamlet is the protagonist of the play."

• Notes - Osric - I, Horatio - I , Claudius - I, Gertrude, Ophelia, Laertes-Hamlet Clash 

Block-4 Ben Jonson : The Alchemist - 13RTC

• Structure

• the use of alchemy in the Alchemist  

• through Subtle that Ben Jonson has exposed and satirized the cheats and swindlers // Subtle - II 

• What makes the Alchemist so popular among theatre groups both in the Elizabethan and the Modern age.

• "The issues with which he chose to deal were among the most deeply ingrained preoccupations of his age." Discuss with reference to Ben Jonson's The Al

• The illusion of reality with regard to alchemy as the central motif - I 

•  Jacobean society - II

• Ben Jonson's The Alchemist attempts to capture the spirit of his age. 

• a satire on human follies and foibles - I // Satirical comedy

• Comedy of Humours

• The Alchemist as a comedy of character and event. 

• role played by the swindlers and the Dupes

• classical tragedy in which unities of time, place and action are strictly followed.

• Notes- Cheats, Widow Quinn

Block-5 The Playboy of the Western World - 7RTC

• "extravagant comedy" - III

• either a comedy nor a tragedy.

• Bildungsroman - I

• as a dark comedy.  - I

• Folk Play - I

• Title

• Imagery

• Discuss the role of J.M. Synge in the Irish Dramatic Movement with special reference to The Playboy of the Western World. 

•  the farcical elements

• "The Playboy of the Western World is a play about the instinctive desire to rebel against tradition." 

• "The Playboy of the Western World is a play about rebellion. 

• The Playboy of the Western World illustrates the changed concept of comedy in the modern world. Discuss. 

• Notes - Pegeen Mike, Shawn Keogh, Christy

Block-6 Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion - 9RTC

• social snobbery and class difference // Class Conflict // Pygmalion examines class and gender difference in a comic perspective.  // Shaw denounce social snobbery - I

• Doolilttle's criticism of middle class morality

• Is Shaw's Verbal humour only funny, or is it also instructive ?

• element of romance in. the play in harmony with the ideology - I

• How is Pygmalion, an early 20thcentury play set in England meaningful to you in India at the end of the millenium ?

• "Pygmalion hinges on the contrast of characters."

•  themes and issues use of myth contribute to the enrichment

• the comic conventions in Pygmalion - II

• social implications of the different modes of English speech - I

• comment on the verbal comedy

• The character of Eliza - II

• Notes - Higgins - II, Use of myth, Colonel Pickering 

Block-7 T.S. Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral - 7RTC

• nature of the four temptations that Beckett confronts in Murder in the Cathedral - I //significance of the fourth temptation - II

• idea of Martyrdom - IIII 

• Chorus - IIII III

• Becket's silence after the fourth temptation

• Eliot's Christian perspective

Block-8 John Osborne: Look In Anger - 10RTC

• title of the play - I

• element of misogyny

• Gender and class conflict - I

• Characters in Look Back in Anger are enmeshed in class and gender issues.

• The Angry young men - IIII I

• Jimmy - Alison relationship - III

• character-sketch of Jimmy

• Discuss the Romantic and Modernist conceptions of character in the presentation of Jimmy as the play's protagonist. 

• ’Notes - Alison

Block-9 Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot - 5 RTC

• Theatre of Absurd - IIII // Absurd Play

• existentialist play - III // existentialist crisis of modern man

• Title

• Tragicomedy 

• Structure - III

• the irrationality of human experience is transferred to the stage.

• interaction of the two tramps, Estragon and Vladimir 

• changes that Lucky and Pozzo undergo during the course of the play  - I

• 
  

• "Beckett rejects the received logic of form and conventional structure."

• analyze Lucky's speech

• Notes - Lucky-IIII, Estragon , Time in Waiting for Godot

Questions not related to a specific Drama - 

1. Aristotle's tragedy in Elizabethan drama
2. Elizabethan tragedy (Features) - III
3. Elizabethan tragedy focuses on character, not circumstance. Comment. 
4. What do you understand by the 'modernity' of Elizabethan tragedy
5. Examine the concept of tragic flaw with reference to Elizabethan tragedy. 
6. Revenge tragedy in Elizabethan England.
7. Renaissance spirit in Elizabethan comedy // role of the Renaissance in the growth of 
8. senecan influence over the Elizabethan tragedy
9. Discuss the formulation of Elizabethan tragedy with reference to the prescribed plays. 
10. unity of time, place and action in Elizabethan comedy.
11. Elizabethan drama - III
12. Religious beginning of Elizabethan drama

1. Renaissance Comedy
2. Characterization in the comedy of Humours.
3. Romantic Comedy - I // basic plot of romantic comedy//Why does it end in feasting and dancing
4. How is a Romantic comedy different from a comedy of humor ?
5. Comic Spirit in Modern Drama
6. The Comedy of Humours
7. Discuss the differences between Shakespearean comedy and Jonsonian comedy with reference to the prescribed plays in your course.

1. the tradition of the English Morality play -I
2. Miracle Plays
3. Theatre of Realism
4. The concept of character in modern drama  
5. Experimentation in Modern Drama 
6. Examine the concept of the hero in modern drama with reference to the prescribed plays
7. Eliot's 'The Three Voices of Poetry' 
8. Poetic Drama // Eliot's views on Poetic Drama  - I

For All prescribed Play-

Structure of the Play 

 themes and issue

Title

character-sketch of ___

NOTE - I - Each “ I “ denotes +1 - for the number of times the question was asked in the exam.