1. “Fielding is one of the most pro-woman writers in English.” Do you agree with this view?

Justify
your answer with illustrations from the text of Tom Jones.

Fielding is an English author and translator whose novels were among the earliest in the English
language and the first to examine the interior lives of women and children. Sarah Fielding was the
younger sister of the novelist Henry Fielding, whom many readers believed to be the author of
novels she published anonymously, although he denied these speculations in print. She lived with
her brother following the death of his wife in 1744. That year she published her first book, The
Adventures of David Simple, a novel whose comic prose style imitated that of both her brother and
his chief literary rival, Samuel Richardson, who was also one of her close friends. With the
sequel, The Adventures of David Simple, Volume the Last: In Which His History Is Concluded (1753),
she developed a style more distinctly her own, which shows greater intricacy of feeling, fuller
development of character, and a reduced reliance on plot.

2. Discuss how Pride and Prejudice engages with the theme of love and marriage.

Jane Austen is famous for talking about love relationships. Her novels start with love and ends with
marriage. She gives every novel a happy ending. “Love and Marriage” is a common theme of her
novels including family life and class besides other themes of “Pride and Prejudice”. She depicts good
and bad marriages in this novel.

Jane Austen shows theme of love and marriage in “Pride and Prejudice” through five types of
marriages. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas, Wickham and Lydia, Bingley and
Jane and Darcy and Elizabeth. Every love relationship and marriage depicted in “Pride and Prejudice”
is distinct. First marriage is old, second is based on compulsion, third is based on disrespectful love
affair, fourth is settled and fifth is based on pure love.

Mrs. Bennet is a lady who is portrayed by the writer as absurd and ridiculous. She lacks manners. She
is a humourless and a mean kind of woman. Mr. Bennet on the other hand has a good sense of
humour. His nature is entirely opposite to her in every manner. It seems that he married her for
beauty expecting that she would become a good wife with the passage of time. Soon, he realizes that
he has committed a mistake. Therefore, he tries to veil his disillusionment through books. He enjoys
cracking jokes on her wife. Jane Austen is of the view that no man wants this type of enjoyment
through marriage. Cracking jokes and teasing life partner are alien to love relationship. In her eyes,
respect is necessary for love. Nonetheless, this is the worst kind of love and marriage that she has
shown in “Pride and Prejudice”.

Elizabeth flatly rejects the proposal of Mr. Collins. Thereafter, he proposes Charlotte Lucas and she
accepts him as her husband. This marriage is also not based on love. Charlotte accepts proposal
because she is coming of age. She has no other choice. Hence, this marriage is based on oppression
of not finding any other suitable husband in future. Charlotte is a good and intellectual lady. She
understands human behaviour better than Elizabeth. Mr. Collins is not a suitable husband for her. She
deserves better but she is victim of circumstances. Jane Austen through this couple shows a strange
type of love relationship and marriage in “Pride and Prejudice”. Lydia is a teenage girl who meets
Wickham and falls in love with him. He is not serious about her. Lydia shares attributes of her mother
to the extent of intellectuality. She elopes with Wickham without realizing that it would bring shame
to her family. Wickham on the other hand does not want to marry her. He just flirts with her. Jane
Austen in clear words rejects it. It is one of the most important premature love relationship and
marriage in “Pride and Prejudice”.

Jane is deeply in love with Bingley but this relationship seems one sided as Bingley cannot take
decisions. He follows Darcy’s orders. He can cheat her as anyone can create misunderstanding
between them. So, this marriage is more settled and less based on love. Main story is of the novel is
about love between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Their relationship starts with pride and prejudice.
Initially, Darcy proposes Elizabeth in an arrogant manner or perhaps, his first impression was not
good. Jane Austen shows that a girl should reject such kinds of proposals as Elizabeth does. She
knows that Darcy’s proposal is a golden opportunity for her even then she rejects it. She wants at
least respect (at most love) before marriage. Jane Austen shows that without respect there is no
love and without love marriage is just a commitment. Second time when Darcy proposes her, she
accepts it. It is because he realizes Elizabeth’s importance in his life. He starts giving her respect. It is
a lesson that he learns well from rejection of proposal. It is best love relationship and marriage in the
eyes of Jane Austen. Their marriage is neither based on compulsion nor on the basis of settlement
but on true love.
Although it is said that real life starts after marriage yet Jane Austen shows that marriage should be
based on love. Furthermore, without respect love is not possible. If a couple respects and loves each
other then they can solemnize marriage. It would be the best marriage in the eyes of Jane Austen.

3. Heathcliff, in Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights is often referred to in derogatory terms by
the other characters, as being ‘the evil beast’, ‘uncivilised’, ‘without refinement’ and so on. Do you
agree with such a judgement of Heathcliff?

Wuthering Heights centres around the story of Heathcliff. The first paragraph of the novel provides a
vivid physical picture of him, as Lockwood describes how his “black eyes” withdraw suspiciously
under his brows at Lockwood’s approach. Nelly’s story begins with his introduction into the Earnshaw
family, his vengeful machinations drive the entire plot, and his death ends the book. The desire to
understand him and his motivations has kept countless readers engaged in the novel.

As a reader, I agree with the fact that Heathcliff is character who is an evil beast. He, however, defies
being understood, and it is difficult for readers to resist seeing what they want or expect to see in
him. The novel teases the reader with the possibility that Heathcliff is something other than what he
seems—that his cruelty is merely an expression of his frustrated love for Catherine, or that his
sinister behaviours serve to conceal the heart of a romantic hero. We expect Heathcliff’s character to
contain such a hidden virtue because he resembles a hero in a romance novel. Traditionally, romance
novel heroes appear dangerous, brooding, and cold at first, only later to emerge as fiercely devoted
and loving. One hundred years before Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights, the notion that “a
reformed rake makes the best husband” was already a cliché of romantic literature, and romance
novels centre around the same cliché to this day.

However, Heathcliff does not reform, and his malevolence proves so great and long-lasting that it
cannot be adequately explained even as a desire for revenge against Hindley, Catherine, Edgar, etc.
As he himself points out, his abuse of Isabella is purely sadistic, as he amuses himself by seeing how
much abuse she can take and still come cringing back for more. Critic Joyce Carol Oates argues that
Emily Brontë does the same thing to the reader that Heathcliff does to Isabella, testing to see how
many times the reader can be shocked by Heathcliff’s gratuitous violence and still, masochistically,
insist on seeing him as a romantic hero.

It is significant that Heathcliff begins his life as a homeless orphan on the streets of Liverpool. When
Brontë composed her book, in the 1840s, the English economy was severely depressed, and the
conditions of the factory workers in industrial areas like Liverpool were so appalling that the upper
and middle classes feared violent revolt. Thus, many of the more affluent members of society beheld
these workers with a mixture of sympathy and fear. In literature, the smoky, threatening, miserable
factory-towns were often represented in religious terms, and compared to hell. The poet William
Blake, writing near the turn of the nineteenth century, speaks of England’s “dark Satanic Mills.”
Heathcliff, of course, is frequently compared to a demon by the other characters in the book.

Considering this historical context, Heathcliff seems to embody the anxieties that the book’s upper-
and middle-class audience had about the working classes. The reader may easily sympathize with
him when he is powerless, as a child tyrannized by Hindley Earnshaw, but he becomes a villain when
he acquires power and returns to Wuthering Heights with money and the trappings of a gentleman.
This corresponds with the ambivalence the upper classes felt toward the lower classes—the upper
classes had charitable impulses toward lower-class citizens when they were miserable, but feared
the prospect of the lower classes trying to escape their miserable circumstances by acquiring
political, social, cultural, or economic power.
4. Comment on the symbolism of the title Heart of Darkness.

Heart of Darkness, novella by Joseph Conrad that was first published in 1899 in Blackwood’s
Edinburgh Magazine and then in Conrad’s Youth: and Two Other Stories (1902). Heart of
Darkness examines the horrors of Western colonialism, depicting it as a phenomenon that tarnishes
not only the lands and peoples it exploits but also those in the West who advance it. Although
garnering an initially lacklustre reception, Conrad’s semiautobiographical tale has gone on to become
one of the most widely analysed works of English literature.

Heart of Darkness is replete with symbols. In Heart of Darkness every person and everything means
more than what we are likely to find on a superficial level. The novel is based on both the historical
facts and the facts of Conrad’s own experiences. But Conrad has tried to convey the deeper truths
underlying both facts. Through the novel he certainly tries to reveal obscure truth which lies
underneath. Almost all characters in Heart of Darkness have some symbolic significance. The
very title of the novel is also symbolic. The literal meaning of the phrase “heart of darkness” is the
inmost region of the dry country known as Congo; but symbolically it means the inmost region of
a man’s mind or soul. So, the incursion into the heart of darkness also means a descent
by Marlow into the depths of his own soul. As Marlow stands for Conrad himself so the novel
also becomes a kind of the exploration of Conrad’s own mind during his visit to Congo.

The central figure in the novel, Mr. Kurtz is highly symbolic. First, he symbolises the greed
and the commercial mentality of the white people of the western countries. Mr. Kurtz’s desire to
collect the maximum quantity of ivory shows the exploitation of the backward people by the white
colonizers. Second, he symbolizes the white man’s excessive love of power. Third, the change which
comes in him during his stay, among the savages, symbolizes the influence of barbarism upon a
civilized man. The role of Marlow is also highly symbolic. Firstly, he symbolizes the spirit of
adventure and a love of knowledge. His boyhood dream of travelling to Congo and sailing upon the
river Congo is translated into reality only because of his inborn spirit of adventure. He also
symbolises philosophical approach to human life by his constant brooding and meditation upon what
he sees. The Manager of the Central Station symbolizes spiritual emptiness. He is unable to inspire
respect or love or fear because he is spiritually barren. Though he has no originality and no solid
ideas in his head yet he can do his manager’s work like a machine. Then there is the brick-maker who
acts as the manager’s spy and informer. Marlow calls him as a “papier-mache
MephistopheIes” means cunning and trickery. Then there are a number of white agents who keep
loitering around the Central Station because they have nothing to do. Marlow calls them “faithless
pilgrims”.

The “Heart of Darkness” told us story within a story Critics have not always treated Heart of
Darkness favourably, rebuking its dehumanizing representation of colonized peoples and its
dismissive treatment of women. Nonetheless, Heart of Darkness has endured, and today it stands as
a Modernist masterpiece directly engaged with postcolonial realities.

5. Write a critical essay on the narrative technique adopted by Muriel Spark in The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie.

In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark renders the tale of a group of six young girls who are
very close to their teacher Miss Brodie. The techniques like flashback, reminiscing, stream of
consciousness and narrative-within-narrative help readers scrutinize the personality and character of
Miss Brodie who has such an inexplicable hold over her students. Her ability to hypnotize is what the
readers are trying to understand throughout.
There is no storyline as such as it is the portrayal of the subjects that Muriel Spark is more concerned
about. Therefore, the interaction between these characters in the small world of Marcia Blaine
School becomes more important than the plot. Miss Brodie is specially attached to the six young girls
out of all her students and the way she grooms them has lifelong effects on their life. Readers will
definitely note how the education Miss Brodie imparts in different from the orthodox system of
education. This is the reason she is always found suspicious in a conventional setup like that of
Marcia Blaine School. She describes her distressing love-life to the Brodie set, her susceptibility to
art and music, her disobedience of social norms and is quite confident that none of the girls will
betray her by exposing her style of teaching.
One of the Brodie girls named Sandy, however, finds how they were betrayed by Miss Brodie
throughout. After finding that her teacher was in love with Mr. Lloyd and not Mr. Lowther as she
would claim, she feels betrayed and decides not to conform to Miss Brodie's future plans. It is from
here that Brodie's ill fate takes over as Sandy finally realizes that Miss Brodie was practicing the
power of God over these girls and was directing their lives throughout. She even apprehends that
Brodie was responsible for the death of Emily Joyce, another of her students, as she sent her to fight
for General Franco in Spanish Civil War.
In the so-called revolutionary methods of Miss Brodie that the girls were awed with, Sandy found
distressing flaws. As a result, she betrays Brodie by apprising Miss Mackey about her fascination for
fascism, something completely unacceptable in an era where Mussolini and Hitler were seen as evil
forces of society. Miss Brodie was forced to retire and till the end of her life she is always engaged in
finding her betrayer. It is Miss Brodie's negative impulses and the abuse of power that brings her fall.