Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
1. Justify Doctor Faustus as an embodiment of the Renaissance /Renaissance elements
2. What is the function of the comic senses of Dr.Faustus
3. Evaluate Macbeth as a tragic hero.
4. To what extent do the witches influence Macbeth's decision and action
5. Analyse the role of Portia in the play, the Merchant of Venice
6. Narrate the trail scene of The Merchant of Venice
7. Justify Volpone as a beast fable
8.Volpone is a satire on the contemporary English society
9. Discuss "The Duchess of Malfi' as a revenge tragedy
10. How has the personality of the Duchess been glorified through her untold suffering
16th and 17th Century Poetry
1.'The Faerie Queene,Book-1 is blended with epic and romantic qualities
2. Write a discourse on Spenser's treatment of good and evil in 'The Faerie Queene,Book-1
3. What is the allegorical significance of the fight between the Monster of Error and the Red
Cross Knight.
4. How does Donne blend passion and thought in his poems
5. What is meant by wit and conceit? Write a note on the use of wit and conceit in john Donn's
poem
6. Critically comment on Marvell's treatment of love with reference to his poems
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7. what is “carpe-Diem “ theory? How does Andrew Marvell use this theory in his poem” to his
Coy mistress”?
8. Discuss the relationship of Herbert with God.
9. what qualities of an epic do you find in the book 1 of John Milton's "Paradise Lost"
10. Do you consider Satan the hero of epic similes in "Paradise Lost"
17th and 18th Century Prose
1. Write a note on Bacon's prose style with reference to his essays.
2. Discuss Bacon as a practical moralist full of worldly wisdom
3.How would you explain the fact the Bacon's essays never fail to attract the readers.
4. Write a note on Addison as a social satirist.
5. Addison is the pionner of English Novel.
6. Comment on Steele's art of characterization with reference to the spectators club
7. Consider Johnson 'The life of Cowley ' as a literary criticism
8. Comment on Johnson's views of Metaphysical poetry in his 'The life of Cowley'
9. How does Burke criticize Hastings and Lieutenants in his speech "On the East India Bill"
10. Comment on Burke's oratory skill and style as found in his 'Speech on the East India Bill"
Restoration and 18th century Fiction
1.Make a study of the horrors of slavery and the harse attitude of the European colonists in
Oroonoko.
2. Give an account of the major themes of "Oroonko"
3. Write a note on the allegorial significance of Defoe's novel 'Robinson Crusoe'
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4.Comment on the spiritual regeneration of Robinson Crusoe.
5. Tom Jones is a faithful representation of Mid-eighteenth century England.
6. Evalute Henry Fielding's art of characterization in Tom jones
7.Sketch the character of Imoinda
8. Compare and contrast between the king of Lilliput and the king of Brobdingnag
9.Swift was a great humanist in spite of his being a misanthropist
10.Examine Swift's use of Lemuel Gulliver as a narrator and an observer.
Restoration and 18th Century Poetry and Drama
1.Evaluate Dryden as a satirist in the light of his poem "Abasalom and Achitophel".
2. In 'Abasalom and Achitophel ' Dryden is both typical and universal.
3.Write a note on the Biblical and Political allusions in Abasalom and Achitophel
4. How does Congreve satirize the contemporary aristocratic English society in' The Way of the
World '
5. Discuss Congreve's use of wit and humour in 'The Way of the World'
6. Discuss Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock' as a mock -epic.
7.What picture of the contemporary society of London do you find in The Rape of the Lock?
8.'She stoops to Conqier' is a comedy of intrigues
9. Comment on the theme of dual identities in She Stoops to Conquer
10. Comment on the supernatural machineries in the 'The Rape of the Lock'
Victorian Poetry
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1. Write a critical appreciation of Tennyson's poem "The Lotos Eaters"
2. What romantic elements do you find inTennyson's poems that you have studied?
3. How does Tennyson handle myth and legend in the poems you have read?
4.How does Browning reflect the Renaissance temper in his poems?
5. Robert Browning as a writer of dramatic monologues
6. Discuss Arnold's treatment of nature in his poems
7. Discuss Arnold's poetry as criticism of life with with reference to the poem you have read.
8.Evaluate Hopkin's appreciation of nature
9.write a note on the symbols used in Hopkin's poem
10.Write how ' Tennyson highlights the victorian spirit in his poems.
Literary Criticism
1. What are Aristotle's arguments in favour of tragedy over epic poetry.
2. Write a note on Aristotle's concept of unity of action with reference to his theory. Did
Aristotle insist on three unities of drama
3. On what grounds does Sydney object to contemporary English Drama
4. How does Sydney establish the superiority of the poet over Philosophers and Historians
5. How does Johnson defend Shakespeare's mixing of comic and tragic elements.
6.How does Johnson defend Shakespeare against the charge of the violation of the three unities
7. Why is Wordsworth's " Preface to Lyrical Ballads " considered the manifesto to the
Romantic Movement.
8. How does Wordsworth appear as a poet of common man in his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads"
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9.Discuss critically Coleridge's concept of fancy and imagination.
10.How does Coleridge define prose,poetry and poem in "Biographia Literaria".
Linguistics:
1. What is Linguistics? To what extent can Linguistics be considered as a science
2. Discuss the different branches of phonetics
3. Describe English consonants according to manner of articulation.
4. What is morphology? Classify the morphemes in detail
5. What do you understand by morpheme? Discuss the features of free morphemes and bound
morphemes
6.What is IC analysis?Exemplify IC analysis through a tree diagram
7.What is the cooperation principle?Discus with reference to Gricean maxims
8. What is pragmatics? How is pragmatics different from Semantics
9.Discuss the relationship between language and culture
10.What is a dialect? Discuss the standardization process of a language.
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