VMOU
B.A. English -2020-21
EG -04
Prose and Fiction-II
Max Marks: 30
Note: The Question paper is divided
into three sections A, B, and C. Write Answer as per the given instruction.
Section ‘C’
(Long Answer
Questions)
Note: Answer any two questions. You
have to delimit each answer maximum up to 400 words. Each question carries 06
marks.
7. Why do political economists feel
helpless when there is a conflict between the employer and the employed?
Discuss in detail.
John Ruskin has a very negative opinion
of the theories advanced by the nineteenth century political economists. These
economists believe that an advantageous code of social action can be created
without taking into consideration the influence of social affection. They are
of the opinion that avarice and the desire of progress are constant elements in
the processes of social action while social affections are accidental. John
Ruskin rejects this idea. He says that these forces do not operate
mathematically, but chemically. Ruskin criticizes the political economists
because they believe that the interest of masters and workmen are antagonistic.
He believes that balance of justice is more important and it includes human
affection, something which one man owes to another. Relationships between
masters and workmen depend on these. He believes that motive power is a soul
which enters into all the political economist’s equations without his
knowledge. Thus, Ruskin creates an emotional, and an ethical angle as opposed
to the mechanical angle put forward by political economists. John Ruskin
affirms that human-beings are not automations or engines. They are not
motivated with steam, magnetism and gravitation. They are motivated with a
spirit. So, they must be treated with consideration and sympathy and balance of
justice. Ruskin also knows that kindness and sympathy will be frequently
abused. He asserts that workmen should be treated with kindness without any
economic purpose and, in return, our economic purposes will be answered.
Masters need not be selfish but cautiously considerate. Further, Ruskin
suggests that unlike a soldier or a servant, a workman operates at a rate of
wages which varies according to the demand of labour. He can be thrown out at
any time. He raises two questions: one, how the rates are to be regulated in a
way that they do not vary with demand of labour. Second, how bodies of workmen
may be engaged or maintained without enlarging or diminishing their numbers.
The answer to the first question is that it should be paid at a fixed rate on a
regular basis. Secondly, the number of the workers may not be enlarged or
diminished at will. They should be given some permanent interests in the
establishment. To conclude, John Ruskin does not look at the master-worker
relationship only from the mercantile angle. He wants it to have a character
with human, emotional, and ethical angle.
8. Is ‘Emma’ a realistic novel? Give
your opinion and justify it.
Realism is one of the most important
modes seen in 19th century literature, and Austen’s Emma exhibits qualities
that place it among other realist novels. Through the character of Emma, we can
see where Austen adds realist elements to the novel. In Realism, George Levine
argues no definition of realism can be quite satisfactory. However, Levine
attempts to describe realism and its qualities, claiming that, “despite its
appearance of solidity, realism implies a fundamental uneasiness about self,
society, and art”. Emma’s character best shows the implications of each of these
qualities through her wishy-washiness. Emma, through indirect discourse with
the narrator, contemplates her opinion of Frank. She “continued to entertain no
doubt of her being in love,” but by the end of the paragraph, “it struck her
that she could not be very much in love.” Emma changes her mind so quickly
that, although she has appeared to favor Frank up to this point, she is not as
firmly planted in her opinion of him as she might have thought. Additionally,
Emma gives us an idea of the uneasiness that existed in society during the
time. Her dislike of Miss Hawkins begins when she first learns about her
existence. Emma guesses that her father, a merchant, “to be the drudge of some
attorney, and too stupid to rise”, which is why the family has no real
connections. Although Emma thinks Miss Hawkins below her, she does not reserve
the same judgment for everyone. Emma steers Harriet away from Mr. Martin,
deciding that because Harriet has become Emma’s friend, “there can be no doubt
of Harriet’s being a gentleman’s daughter” and, as a result, a marriage to Mr.
Martin would only lower her position. While class structure and etiquette seem
to be permanent, Emma still bends the rules to suit her.
Emma spends much time on Jane Fairfax’s
faults, but she concedes that Jane’s “performance … was infinitely superior to
her own”. While she acknowledges this, she does not take it well, as, “with
mixed feelings, she seated herself a distance from the … instrument”. Whereas
Emma appears confident in her artistic abilities, because of Jane she seems to
become aware that she’s not the most talented all-around artist.
Levine’s description of realism seems
to be in line with certain aspects of Emma’s character. In this way, Austen
displays elements of realism throughout the novel, through Emma’s everyday life
9. Who is the writer of “The Mother of
a Traitor” and how does he justify the tittle? Elucidate with examples from the
text.
The Mother of a Traitor is written by
Maxim Gorky, the great figure in modern Russian literature. Maxim Gorky was the
pen name of Alexi Maximovich Peshkov. He was the great central name of the
modern Russian literature.
The story is based on a maxim which
says “God cannot be everywhere so He created the mother.”
‘The Mother of a Traitor’ is a story of
the Mother. It is a story of a conflict in her mind. She is puzzled which to
prefer – her love for her nation or her love for her son but ultimately, she
resolves it and proves herself both a citizen and a mother. The traitor is the
son of this mother Monna Marianna. When he finds his mother in his camp with
him, he decides to ruin the city. When the mother fails to stop her son, she
kills her son and proves herself a good citizen, who has saved her country by
killing him. After killing his son, she plunged the same dagger into her own
heart.
This story is about the mother and the
motherhood. The writer portrays a touching picture of a mother. In the story
there are numerous passages which tell us about the motherhood – “for all
weapons are abhorant to mothers save those that protect life”, “she stood
before whom she had known him nine month before his birth, whom she had never
felt apart from her own heart”, “a mother creates, she protects and to speak to
her destruction means to speak against her”, “a mother is always oppose to
death and the hand that brings death into the house of men is hateful and
abhorrent to mothers”, “a mother can be as clever and ruthless as she is
fearless when the life she creates and cherishes is in question”.
In the story the writer has taken a
great interest in describing the situation of the city and for this he makes
many concrete images drawn from nature – “over the black ridges of the
mountains rose the moon like a lost shield dented by sword blows”, “and in this
darkness like a fish stirring in the depths of a river a woman moved
soundlessly”. ‘The Mother of a Traitor’ is a story of that mother who
represents all mothers. In other words, it is a story of The Mother.
10. “A Passage to India” examines the
racial misunderstanding and cultural hypocrisies. Discuss in detail.
Many of Forster’s observations and
experiences figure in his fiction, most notably A Room with a View (1908). After
two years, the novel, Howards End (1910) criticized the class divisions and prejudices
of England, and solidified Forster’s reputation as a social critic and a master
of incisively observational fiction.
Forster began tutoring Syed Ross Masood
and Masood introduced Forster to several of his Indian friends. Forster spent
time with both Englishmen and Indians during his visit, and he quickly found he
preferred the company of the latter. He was troubled by the racial oppression
and deep cultural misunderstandings that divided the Indian people and the
British colonists, or, as they are called in A Passage to India, Anglo-Indians.
The prevailing attitude among the British in India was that the colonists were
assuming the “white man’s burden”—novelist Rudyard Kipling’s phrase—of
governing the country, because the Indians could not handle the responsibility
themselves. Forster, a homosexual living in a society and era largely
unsympathetic to his lifestyle, had long experienced prejudice and
misunderstanding firsthand. It is no surprise, then, that Forster felt
sympathetic toward the Indian side of the colonial argument. Indeed, Forster
became a lifelong advocate for tolerance and understanding among people of
different social classes, races, and backgrounds.
Forster began writing A Passage to
India in 1913, just after his first visit to India. A Passage to India examines
the racial misunderstandings and cultural hypocrisies that characterized the
complex interactions between Indians and the English toward the end of the
British occupation of India. Forster’s style is marked by his sympathy for his
characters, his ability to see more than one side of an argument or story, and
his fondness for simple, symbolic tales that neatly encapsulate large‑scale
problems and conditions. These tendencies are all evident in A Passage to India.
It is a traditional social and political novel. A Passage to India is concerned
with representing the chaos of modern human experience through patterns of
imagery and form. A Passage to India was the last in a string of Forster’s
novels in which his craft improved markedly with each new work. After the
novel’s publication, however, Forster never again attained the level of craft
or the depth of observation that characterized his early work. In his later
life, he contented himself primarily with writing critical essays and lectures.
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