ARABY James Joyce

What is the theme of the story “Araby”?

Ans. The theme of the story “Araby” is that the subjective feelings of a person and the objective
world are two opposing things. There is no agreement between them. First, we do not understand
this disagreement, but later we come to understand that, and we are disillusioned. Then we are
sad and dejected.

When we read the story carefully, we see the subjective feelings of a schoolboy. He is in love
with his fried’s sister. To him his subjective feeling of love is the only reality. All other things
have no importance for him. To him the serious work of life is child’s play. He keeps on thinking
about her all the time. Even when he goes to market, he thinks about her. In the classroom, he
cannot pay attention to his studies. Nothing is important for him now. He usually weeps without
knowing why he is weeping. These are the subjective feelings of the boy. This is his illusion.

His objective world is that he is just schoolboy. Perhaps he is an orphan too. His uncle is his
patron. He should not have promised the girls that he would bring something or her. He cannot
bring anything for her, because he is himself dependent on his uncle.

We see that is a great disagreement between his subjective feelings and the objective world.
First, he does not understand this disagreement, but later he comes to understand that and he is
disillusioned. Then he is sad and dejected.

It happens to all of us. Sometimes we wish for such things as are out of our reach. We keep on
thinking about them, but at the end, we are disillusioned.

Q.“Araby” describes a conflict between the subjective feeling of the protagonist and the objective
world.-Discuss.

Discuss the narrator’s mental condition and the gap between his hopes and their fulfillment.

Ans. Conflict is a state of disagreement between opposing ideas. When we read the story
“Araby” carefully, we find that two opposing ideas have been presented. The first idea is
schoolboy’s subjective feelings and the second idea is his objective or real world. There is a
conflict between the personal feelings of a person and the real world.

The boy falls in love with his friend’s sister. To him his subjective feeling of love is the only
reality. All the other things have no importance for him. To him the serious work of live is a
child’s play. He keeps on thinking about her all the time. Even when he goes to market, he thinks
about her.
In the classroom, he cannot pay attention to his studies. Nothing is important for him now. He
usually weeps without knowing why he is weeping. He promises to buy a gift for the girl. These
are the subjective feelings of the boy. This is his illusion. His objective world is that he is just a
schoolboy. Perhaps he is an orphan too. His uncle is his patron. He should not have promised the
girls to bring something for her. He cannot buy anything for her because he himself is dependent
on his uncle.

Therefore, we see that there is a big disagreement between his subjective feelings and objective
world.

It is only at the end of the story that he comes to know what he is and what he should not have
done. He is disillusioned. With his little money, he cannot buy anything for her. It was his vanity
when he promised to bring something for her. It is the sense of reality that makes his eyes burn
with anguish and anger.

Q.What are symbolic meanings of the deserted train and dark bazaar in the story
“Araby”?

Ans. The deserted train and the dark bazaar have great symbolic meanings in the story “Araby”.

The deserted train is one of the means that can take him to his most serious place ‘Araby’. It also
symbolizes gloom and a kind of disappointment that the schoolboy is going to face.

Writers always set the situation for the end of the story. The setting of story always foretells the
end of the story. If the end is pleasant, the writer always talks about light, day, and good things.
If the end is tragic, the writer always talks about night, darkness, cold, gloom, death and other
bad things. Therefore, the desertedness of the train, its delay, and slowness all symbolize the
tragic end and the disappointment that the boy is going to face.

The dark bazaar symbolizes the narrator’s ignorance. He promises to the girl that he will bring
something for her from “Araby”. He does not know that he cannot buy a gift for the girl with his
little money. Therefore, the darkness of the bazaar shows his ignorance. The darkness of bazaar
also symbolizes the bitter realities of life. It is a reality that he is immature and inexperienced and
does not know anything about the power of money. Therefore, by looking into the darkness, he
realizes his foolishness. This darkness also symbolizes that we cannot fulfill all wishes. Various
things that are out of our reach and we cannot get them.

Therefore, we see that the deserted train and the dark bazaar are highly symbolic
 THE LAGOON

Q.What is the role of the white man in The Lagoon?

Ans.In The Lagoon, the white man's character is contrasted with that of Arsat, his Malay friend.
Conrad is as much a master at presenting the many facets of the white Anglo-Saxon as he is at
presenting variances in the native Malay psyche. To that end, Conrad's white man (Tuan) and
Arsat typify the ambivalence of cross-cultural male bonding.

‘No, Tuan,’ said Arsat softly. ‘I shall not eat or sleep in this house, but I must first see my road.
Now I can see nothing—see nothing! There is no light and no peace in the world; but there is
death—death for many. We were sons of the same mother—and I left him the midst of enemies;
but I am going back now.’

The white man's response is one of bland resignation; he understands Arsat's plight but does not
fully enter into Arsat's sorrow. In other words, the white man likes his friend the way a man
values an important tool: necessary in difficult circumstances, but expendable in others.

He liked the man who knew how to keep faith in council and how to fight without fear by the
side of his white friend. He liked him—not so much perhaps as a man likes his favorite dog—but
still he liked him well enough to help and ask no questions...

Arsat tells Tuan that the Malay and Anglo-Saxon positions are similar; they belong to races who
take what they want, when they want it. However, he is under no illusion about Anglo-Saxon
fidelity:

'After the time of trouble and war was over and you went away from my country in the pursuit of
your desires, which we, men of the islands, cannot understand...'

So, the role of the white man is one of illumination: he represents colonial attitudes toward
natives and all the prejudices inherent in the western psyche toward the colonial world. The
white man also highlights colonial insensitivity toward typically Malay attitudes and beliefs. His
native servants are suspicious and sulky in their chores. They do not relish the idea of getting too
near a man like Arsat, even though he is a fellow Malay. After all, his proclamation that "he is
not afraid to live amongst the spirits that haunt the places abandoned by mankind," smacks to
them of spiritual heresy. Again, the white man's response is one of apathy. It does not touch his
well-being and so the matter does not interest him in the least.

White men care not for such things, being unbelievers and in league with the Father of Evil, who
leads them unharmed through the invisible dangers of this world. To the warnings of the
righteous they oppose an offensive pretence of disbelief. What is there to be done?

Q.Do you consider the character of Arsat as a tragic one?

Ans. I would consider Arsat a tragic character. On one hand, Arsat is tragic because at a critical
moment, he is faced with equally desirable, but ultimately incompatible courses of action. At the
most essential instant of his life, Arsat is faced with defending his brother and the honor that
goes along with it or lose the women he loves. Both are desirable, and the choice is constructed
in a manner where only one can be chosen. Both cannot be had at this instant. It seems that
either choice made is one out of sadness. Arsat will be miserable with either choice. The reality
is that his tragedy lies in having to choose, but facing agony regardless of it. The indication that
Arsat is not complete when he ie with Diamelen is reflective of the agonizing level of choice and
the pain that was intrinsic to such a choice. It is here where I think that Arsat is a tragic
character. It is inconceivable to see if anyone else would want to be in such a position and in
reflecting to this point, I think that tragedy becomes evident. One does not envy Arsat because
one does not envy the choice he had to make, one in which tragedy is evident. The nothingness
that is reflected when Diamelen dies helps to only enhance such a tragic condition.

Q.what is the significance of the title of the modern short story "The Lagoon" by
Joseph Conrad?

Ans.The deep and mysterious lagoon in the forlorn and ancient Malayan forests primarily serves
as a symbol for Arsat's life of loneliness and alienation. Arsat, after having eloped his beloved,
Diamelen, lives in a hut beside the lagoon. But his sense of moral default for having betrayed his
brother in order to escape with Diamelen to another world where 'death is unknown', alienates
Arsat. As the white man visits Arsat's clearing, Diamelen is on the brink of death, and the Malay
on the verge of disillusionment.

The weird-looking lagoon with its mysterious depth lying lurking in the midst of dark forests
may also symbolise the evil and the uncanny. It may also be seen as a metaphor for human
existence, its tragic disillusion and moral isolation.

Conrad's story that deals with a moral dilemma, a faulty choice leading to stagnation, has rightly
been called 'The Lagoon'.
 LOOK BACK IN ANGER

Q.who is alison in look back in anger?

ANS.Alison Porter is Jimmy's wife. She comes from Britain's upper class, but married into
Jimmy's working class lifestyle. The audience learns in the first act that she is pregnant with
Jimmy's child. Jimmy's destructive anger causes her great strain and she eventually leaves him.
Her child miscarries and she comes back to Jimmy to show him that she has undergone great
suffering.

Q.Why could Jimmy be called ‘a hero of his time’?

ANS.He is not a hero in the classical sense, he's a modern day anti-hero. He's the angry, young
man fighting against society and challenges the limitations of his own life and place in the world.
His anger is destructive...... his actions would often be considered pure violence; thus, he is the
anti-hero.

Q.What themes of the play are represented by Osborne’s meticulous description of the
Porter’s attic apartment?

ANS.Look Bak in Anger is considered to be a “Kitchen Sink drama.” This means that it is a play
that delves into the deep meanings and psychology of ordinary British characters and their
everyday working class lives. Osborne’s description of the Porter’s attic apartment is meant to
express the theme of tranquil domesticity and working class life. In effect, Osborne is attempting
to frame the Porter’s lives as simple and ordinary. This is contrasted, however, by JImmy’s deep
anger. This theme in the play suggests that nothing is as ordinary as it might seem on the surface.

Q.What does Jimmy and Alison’s playful game of bear and squirrel represent?

ANS.Alison describes their game of bear and squirrel as the only way the two have found to
cope with the anger and viciousness that both direct towards each other. The closing lines of the
play is the best representation of this: Alison has returned to show Jimmy that she has suffered
greatly after losing their child to miscarriage. Both have now undergone intense suffering in their
lives. They find that the real world is harsh and unforgiving and so they create a fantasy world to
live in. This is also Osborne’s self-referential moment; the playwright engages in this same work
of the creation of fantasy worlds. Theater, no matter how realistic, is also an escape from the real
world.

Q.Why or why not is Helena Charles the moral compass of the play?

ANS.Helena Charles is the play’s moral compass. Though her behavior might suggest otherwise,
Helena’s strong sense of right and wrong allows her to make a final judgment in the play’s last
act that her relationship with Jimmy is an illusion of love. Helena’s morality is contrasted with
Jimmy’s moral subjectivity. Jimmy sees a moral bankruptcy in the modern world and is nostalgic
for a time when previous generations were able to make firm judgments on the right and the
wrong.

Q.Do you believe that Osborne is misogynistic in the play?

ANS.Critics have been divided over whether Look Back in Anger is a misogynistic work of art.
Those that believe that it is see Jimmy’s intense anger directed at both his wife and older women
as being proof that Osborne blames the malaise of modern society on the growing place and
influence of women in society. Jimmy’s extreme language, especially in his depictions of the
ways in which he wishes Alison’s mother would die, seem to suggest that the play harbors and
deep mistrust for women. It should be noted, however, that it is Helena that proves to be the most
principled character in the play. This suggests that Osborne saw a complicated relationship
between British society and women’s influence.
 MUSEE DES BEAUX ARTS

Q.In "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden, who are the Old Masters refered to in
line 2?

ANS. The term "Old Masters" which appears in the second line of W.H. Auden's poem "Musee
des Beaux Arts" - refers to skilled painters of Europe who worked before 1800. The Old Master
who was "never wrong" about suffering is Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a Flemish painter whose
painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus constitutes the allusion of the second stanza of the
poem.

Q.What does the "it" refer to in line 3 of "Musée des Beaux Arts?"

ANS. The word "it" in the third line refers directly to that human suffering: "It" is the human
suffering that is emblematic of the human condition itself

Q.In mythology, who was Icarus? What part did he play in the poem "Musee des Beaux
Arts?"

ANS. In W.H. Audens's poem "Musée des Beaux Arts," one section of the painting contains the
deathly dive of Icarus into the sea. Icarus is the son of Daedalus, the architect who had formed
the Labyrinth and who showed Ariadne how Thesus could escape from it.

When King Minos learned that the Athenians had found their way out, he was convinced that
Daedalus had been instrumental in their escape. Therefore, he imprisoned Daedalus and his son
Icarus in this very Labyrinth. Not even the maker could find his way out without his clues, so
Daedalus told his son,

Escape may be checked by water and land, but the air and the sky are free.

So, Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings for them. When they put them on, Daedalus warned
his son not to fly too close to the sun because the wings were held by wax. But, as is the case so
often, the son did not heed his father's warning, and as they left Crete, Icarus delighted so in his
power of flight that he rose so high in the sky that he was too close to the sun. The wax holding
the feathers together melted, and he crashed into the sea. This final moment is depicted in the
painting, but the other people in it do not heed the tragedy.

Q.How do the other people in the poem react to Icarus' death in "Musee des Beaux Arts"
by W.H. Auden?

ANS. The second stanza of this excellent poem is where you will find the answer to your
question. In this stanza, the speaker, who we imagine strolling through a museum leisurely
looking at a variety of masterpieces, contemplates suffering and the indifference with which it is
often met. He uses one painting in particular to demonstrate his point: Bruegel's Icarus, which
depicts Icarus falling out of the sky having soared too close to the sun. He plummets to his death
whilst those around him remain either unaware or choose to ignore his death. The poem says that
"everything turns away / Quite leisurely from the disaster." Although the "plowman may / Have
heard the splash" it was not "an important failure" for him. However, both the plowman and the
ship had more pressing business to complete:

...and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Thus the profound indifference to human suffering is characterised by this painting and the way
that the death of Icarus is variously ignored or not noticed.

Q.What’s happening during “dreadful martyrdom”?W. H. Auden's "Musee de Beaux

Arts"

ANS. In W. H. Auden's poem, "Musee des Beaux Arts," the speaker points out how irrelevant
individual momentous events are to many but those involved in them. And, it is Auden's
allusion to "dreadful martyrdom," the Crucifixion of Christ, that pointedly underscores the
insignificance given to even such occurrences as Christ's dying for mankind.

Prior to this line, the reader is told that the "miraculous birth" was as casually ignored by
children

...who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood

Cleverly, Auden employs the word specially rather than especially, suggesting the innocent
vocabulary of the children which is in conflict with the disturbing emotions that are felt by the
poet. The reference to ice skating in Palestine is an incongruity with reality,too, which further
calls attention to something that is wrong. For, the people act much like the dogs who simply go
on "with their doggy life."

Certainly, there is a blurring of the lines between life and art as Auden employs ekphrasis.
While art mitigates the horror of some occurrences in life, such as the Spanish Civil War and the
ascendancy of Fascism in Germany about which Auden was dismayed, it is this "amoral
insouciance" that also much disturbs Auden both in life and in art such as the painting
"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus."

Q.Explain the relationship between art and life in this poem.

ANS. W. H. Auden's poem "Musée des Beaux Arts" establishes a relationship of incongruity
between the classical and monumental recorded by art against the mundane.
The second half of the poem refers, through the poetic device of ekphrasis, to the
painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by describing graphically the theme of the fall
of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. The painting is placed within a humble, more modern
setting of a peasant farmer, who is plowing his field and who gives no notice of what happens
just below his field, and a ship, which is passing in sight of the plunge of Icarus into the sea
without steering off course.

Auden's poem presents the conundrum of art's ability to be significant in a world of mundane
apathy.

...how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster...

In a momentous fall, Icarus is unnoticed and unmourned as the sun, which melted his wax wings,
continues to shine without any qualms. Thus, Auden underscores what Belgian painter Pieter
Bruegel has done; namely, attempt to draw attention to universal disregard.
 PIED BEAUTY

What is Gerard Manley Hopkins praising in "Pied Beauty?"

Overall, Gerald Manley Hopkins offers praise to God in "Pied Beauty." (Pied refers to something which is
patchy or speckled in color.) The opening line openly defines where the poem places its praise: "Glory
be to God for the dappled things." Therefore, not only is praise given to God, it is given to the things
which God has created.

Oer the course of the poem, praise is given to the sky, trout, and finches. Then the poem becomes less
specific. Instead of creating a laundry list of things which deem praise, the poet lists the characteristics
of the things which deserve praise: all which is original, strange, fickle, freckled, fast, slow, sour, sweet,
lit, or dim.

Describe the tone of religious devotion in the poem "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins was a priest and teacher. His poetry always portrayed God’s presence in every
aspect of nature. Hopkins did not write his poetry for his own personal gratification. In fact, his poems
were not published until thirty years after his death. His purpose was to glorify God in every word that
he wrote.

His poem “Pied Beauty” venerates the aspects of life that are multi-colored or different. The tone of his
poem gives voice to his praise of God and all of the things that are a part of the natural world. He
lovingly calls to the reader’s attention the unusual images of nature. The poet writes with awe for the
beauty of the world and God’s creations.

Dividing his poem into two stanzas, the poet does not follow any set form for the poem. He does
follow the rhyming pattern of every other line end word rhymes—cow-plough/swim-trim/and dim/him.

One of the most important literary devices used by Hopkins is alliteration. For example, he emphasizes
the “c” sound in the second line: couple-color as a brinded cow. In the fourth line, he stresses the “f”
sound: fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings.

His imagery is lovely with his alliterative words choices. The reader can imagine the land with its
possibilities of being “fold, fallow, and plough.”

The poem becomes Hopkins’ sermon to the “pied” things in life. The word pied means "freckled,
dappled, or variegated."

The first stanza illustrates the many unusually colored things in nature:

Dappled horses

Motley colored skies

Brindled colored cattle

Rose colored spots on the swimming trout

Chestnut falling open looking like hot embers of coal

Underside of the finches’ spotted wings

He further illustrates the different kinds of English landscapes separated into sections:

fold is an area for penning up sheep; fallow is a section left untouched; and plough is a tool used to turn
over the dirt to plant seed.

The last image is built around the types of tools that are used by different types of craftsmen: gear,
tackle, and trim.

The second stanza changes its emphasis to opposites. The poet uses the word counter. Things that are
original, not heavy, or odd. He calls to mind the aspects of life that are fickle or freckled [The poet
makes a comment that he does not know how freckles come about.]

His opposites

Fast/unhurried; sugary/tart; bright/ dull;

He, [God] who has brought these things into existence, never changes. His beauty stays the same. Glory
to God.

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

The poem is a lovely tribute to the oddities that are found in the world. The poet stands in wonderment
of the God’s beautiful world.
 THE FLY

Q.We cling to our last pleasure …..last leaves’. —Explain.

Ans. Old Woodifield,the speaker, is at his last pins. He realizes that death is knocking hard at the
door. He, therefore, likes to suck pleasure as much as he can. He is allowed to enjoy freedom
only Tuesday by his wife and daughters so with great delight he wishes to enjoy pleasure,
however, brief it might have been. Katherine compares Woodifield’s preference to a tree which,
it is thought, clings to its last leaves in the Autumn though it knows perfectly that the leaves will
fall one day. It is universally true that we human being always casts a longing lingering look for
that which we can not hold back.
Q.‘Only a quiver in his eyelids…….heard’.—Explain
.
Ans. In course of the conversation Woodifield informed the boss about his daughters’
visit to Belgium where they had paid a visit to their brother’s grave as well as the boss’s son. The
boss heard it but he made no verbal reply. Woodifield thought that perhaps the boss paid no
attention to his information but the fact was otherwise. The reference of his son’s grave caused a
great stir in him. The sore that he kept concealing got a prick and it started bleeding. Its stunning
effect pained him beyond expression and this is clear from the quivering of his eyelids. The
silence is more colloquial than words. It also suggests that while old Woodifield was able to get
over the shock the boss could not.
Q.‘Ten Francs! Robbery, I call it’ —Who is the speaker? What was called a robbery and why?
—Explain.

Ans. Old Woodifield is the speaker here.

The daughters of old Woodifield paid a visit to Belgium to have a visit to their brother’s
grave. In one of the hotels in Belgium when Gertrude, one of Woodifield’s daughter took only a
spoonful of jam from a jam-pot which was no bigger than a half-crown the hotel keeper charged
her ten francs. The charging was too expensive for such a little amount of jam. To Woodifield it
is nothing but a nasty trading on our feeling. The businessmen of Belgium know it very well that
as the visitors come here due to sentimental reason they are ready to pay whatever they are to be
charged without any bargain, without judging pros and cons. So Gertrude brought the pot away
with her to teach them a proper lesson.

Q.Bring out the symbolism in the short story “The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield.

Ans. The fly in the story “The Fly” symbolizes helplessness of man before fate. Man may try
hard to escape his death, but he is not given a chance to escape. Just like the fly, man tries hard
and gets out of the grip of death for the time being, but fate again captures him. He has no power
to defy fate and fall an easy prey to it. When we read the story, we find that the writer and all the
characters in the story stand for the fly.
To convey this idea, the writer tells a brief incident. A fly falls into an inkpot. The boss sees it,
puts it on a blotting paper, and enjoys its struggle. Just when the fly is able to escape death, drops
a drop of ink onto the fly and enjoys its struggle again. At last, the fly dies of those drops of ink.
This incident of the fly is highly symbolic. The writer herself died of T. B that was incurable at
that time. Many people were dying at that time. Later, man discovered a cure for the disease. He
thought that he had escaped death and had defied fate. However, just like the boss, fate dropped
another drop – the drop of AIDS. Now many people are dying of it. Now it is the last drop. Just
like the fly, people cannot survive it. We hope that man will discover a cure for it. However, who
knows what the next drop is like.

Q.“As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport”Discuss.

Ans. One of the themes of the story “The Fly” is “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;
they kill us for their sport.”
When we read the story carefully, we find that the fly in the story symbolizes helplessness of
man before fate. Just like the fly, man tries hard and gets out of the grip of death for the time
being, but fate captures him again. Man has no power to defy fate and fall an easy prey to it.
When we read the story, we find that the writer and all the characters in the story stand for the
fly.
To convey this idea, the writer tells a brief incident. A fly falls into an inkpot. The Boss sees it,
puts it on a blotting paper, and enjoys its strength again. At last, the fly dies of those drops of ink.
This incident of the fly highly symbolic. The writer herself died of T.B that was incurable at that
time. Many people were dying at that time. Later, man discovered a cure for the disease and
thought that he had escaped death and had defied fate. However, just like the Boss, fate dropped
another drop – AIDS. Now many people are dying of it. Now it is the last drop. Just like the fly,
people cannot survive it. We hope that man will discover a cure for it. However, who knows
what the next drop is like.
Therefore, we are just like the fly in the story and the Boss is just like a god who kills it just for
his sport. This is the second theme of the story.

Q.Draw the character portrayal of the Boss.

Ans. The Boss is introduced through a conversion with his friend Woodifield. Woodifield is old,
retired, physically weak, and financially not very well off. Boss is presented through the method
of contrast. The Boss is stout, rosy, healthy, although five year senior to him, but still going
strong and in control of affairs. He has a comfortable office with new carpet, new furniture,
electric heating and with all the physical comforts that would give him ‘solid satisfaction’.

The Boss in this story represents the irony of human life. Irony consists in the difference between
appearance and reality. The existence of boss is a sort of caricature or parody of the actual
reality. In fact his life is a deception with himself. The Boss has been dreaming of building up an
empire for his son so that he could step into his shoes. But he is a victim of what Aristotle called
“perepetia” or reversal of situation. He hoped that his son would replace him as his successor.
But it changed with news of his son being killed in the battlefield. Mr. Woddifield had accepted
his son’s death and could talk about it freely. While the boss, before the exit of the Woodifield
from his chambers, is for an instance of a tragic father who has been trying hard to forget the
bitter memory through material pre-occupation. That is why he is found to be quite complacent,
confident and at ease with himself.

The tragedy of the boss’s life is of course a generalization of human existence. It gives an extra
dimension to his character i.e. his realization of the futility and fragility of human endeavour. He
has been endeavouring for the last six years to forget the memory of his dead son. But a casual
remark by Woodifield brings him back to reality. What he has been successful so far has been
destroyed by the whims of a moment. The boss surrenders to the inevitability of human fate. He
develops a kind of pessimism and nihilism.

The Fly episode projects the Boss as the Caprious God who kills small fly not for sport but for
negative pleasure. From this point onwards the Boss starts paralleling the plight of the fly with
that of his son. Perhaps his son too had struggled like that on the battlefield. But the killing of
the Fly by the boss is a kind of self killing. The Boss negates possibilities and promises of new
life. It is very simplistic to describe the boss as a tragic figure. He minimizes the tragic greatness
by resulting to uncontrollable despair and depression. The final impression of boss character that
emerges at the end of the story is that of insignificance, helplessness and denial of life. The boss
thus has the streak of Dostoyevsky’s resignation of death.
 THE LOVE SONG OF J ALFRED PRUFROCK

Q.why do you suppose prufrock would compare a sunset to some hospital patient who has
been anesthetized and is waiting for an operation?

Ans.The allusion to anesthesia has nothing to do with surgery itself, but rather as a form of
painless exploration. Prufrock wishes to explore the city, and the exploration is compared to the
intricate makings of the human body.

Q.In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to whom is Prufrock speaking?

Ans.There is no real answer to this question - we are left to infer the identity of the audience to
whom this poem is addressed. This is an internal monologue of someone who is addressing
himself, or he is referring to a friend with whom he is able to share his feelings.

Q.What is the narrator trying to express when he thinks "I should have been a pair of
ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas"?

Ans. The speaker of Eliot's poem is expressing his sense of isolation and loneliness, and his
inability to fit into a world that he perceives as hostile. Better for him, he thinks, to be a creature
like a crab who is protected by a thick outer armor and better still, that he does not have to truly
interact with anyone or care about what they think of him, or he of them.

Q.‘I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.’Explain

Ans. The author is referring to the normal occurance of coffee or tea during social situations
during the time period. When Prufrock says he has measured his life in coffee spoons, he is
alluding that he has spent a lot of time participating in social coffee or tea. If his life can be
measured in coffee spoons, then he has done little else to provide a unit of measure; he has spent
much of his time simply being social. It is insinuated that he had little to contribute to these
occasions. The image of a spoon makes a dull and not very enticing picture of how one's life has
been spent.

The reference to coffee spoons means that Prufrock is living his life in carefully measured doses.
He is not a man prone to extremes or one who would do anything out of the ordinary or
unexpected; spontaniety is not his way of life.

Yes, coffee spoons can refer to the fact that he uses coffee spoons at all of the teas he has been
to, but moreso it creates an image of one who is precise and exact--Prufrock would never just
dump the sugar into his tea! Each and every decision he makes is carefully weighed and
measured.

Q.Trace a few images throughout the poem and explore how they contribute to the poem's
meaning and effect.
T.S. Eliot uses striking images to support his meaning in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
Some of the more memorable images are recounted below.

"When evening is spread out against the sky / like a patient etherised upon a table." This image
of the night sky spreading out, senseless, above the city corresponds to the other people in
Prufrock's social circle, the ones who will say, "that is not it at all," not realizing that they are the
ones who are lulled and drugged by a shallow understanding of life.

"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes" as described in the entire third stanza
is way of comparing the settling smog of the city with a cat that curls up and falls asleep. This
image gives the poem a sleepy, non-urgent air, which is reflected in line 23: "And indeed there
will be time." The poem's mood is one of time dragging by slowly and unproductively until the
speaker laments, "I grow old, I grow old" before he has accomplished anything momentous.

When lines 57 - 58 state, "And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned
and wriggling on the wall," they compare the way people make judgments about the persona
with an entomologist mounting an insect for study. This reinforces the persona's feeling of
insignificance as well as his self-consciousness in social settings.

Another powerful image is when the persona says, "I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat
and snicker." This is a poignant picture of approaching old age and the realization that one's best
days are behind him, and that those did not amount to much. Again, this image reinforces
Prufrock's low self-esteem and dissatisfaction with aging because he believes he has contributed
nothing of great import to the world.

These powerful images and many others in the poem help to create a mood of pensive
introspection and reinforce Prufrock's social anxiety and desire for meaning in life.

Q.What is the "overwhelming question" in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," in

reference to the epigram of Dante's Inferno?

Ans. Scholars and critics alike agree that the "overwhelming question" that is the focus of all of
Prufrock's ponderings in the poem is most likely a marriage proposal, or a question of a woman's
feelings for him. He obviously cares for a woman, is intimidated by her, has spent time with her,
and wants to speak his heart to her. He either wants to propose and get an answer, or to reveal
his love for her and have her reveal how she feels for him. If anyone has been in a situation
where they care deeply for someone but are unsure of that person's feelings for them, they can
relate to his paranoia, obsession and fears in regards to the subject.
The poem opens up with a reference to Dante's Inferno; it speaks of a man asking for forgiveness
before he commits the crime that he has in mind. This can be tied to Prufrock's question,
because he wants to be able to guess the woman's answer before he ever asks the question. He
doesn't want to ask the question unless he can be reassured of her positive response; if he asks,
and gets a negative response, it will be too devestating for him to handle. He wouldn't recover.
Just as Dante's lines states "since no one has ever returned alive from this depth," Prufrock fears
that he won't ever be able to return alive after receiving a negative answer from her. He fears her
answer; the entire poem is him trying to get up the courage to ask her, but he fears that once he
has "disturbed the universe" she will just, as he puts in the poem, sigh, and say, "That is not what
I meant at all/that is not it, at all," referring to his supposition that she cared for him.

In the end, he decides it's not worth asking. It's not worth risking a no from her, a rejection of
him. He chickens out, and resolves himself to the fact that he is a bit of a coward, and that he
will forever be one of those people who looks on and longs from afar, but never partakes of the
joys that he craves. I hope that those thoughts helped a bit; good luck!

Q. Some critics say Eliot was making a general statement about the modern human
condition in the 20th century.discuss.

Ans. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” indeed represents the challenge of modernity to
human connection and relationships through its portrayal of its middle-aged protagonist. Like the
protagonist of Matthew Arnold's "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse", Prufrock is "wandering
between two worlds, one dead,/ The other powerless to be born."

Eliot began writing the poem in 1910 and it was first published in 1915. As Prufrock is middle-
aged, this means that Prufrock is not a fully "modern" man, but rather a product of the Victorian
era (Victoria reigned from 1 May 1876 – 22 January 1901) who now is embedded in the modern
world but does not quite belong to it.

Prufrock is a member of the upper middle classes, who dresses conservatively and follows social
conventions. He comes from an era when a man of his class, before proposing marriage would
make an appointment with the prospective bride's father to formally ask permission to address
his daughter. The father, before the appointment, would normally consult his daughter. By the
time the suitor actually proposed, he already knew the answer. Although Victorian customs may
now seem stifling to us, what they provided was certainty and structure, whether in terms of
social hierarchies or intimate relationships. Although we do not know if Prufrock's question is a
proposal, a proposition, or something else, we do get a sense of his discomfort at asking an
important question without knowing the answer beforehand.

In the period after the death of Queen Victoria, social and sexual relationships became freer, with
less fixed conventions or certainties. Prufrock, a character of the Victorian era caught up in the
shifting modern world is beset with uncertainty, as one can see in the lines:

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” ...

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Although Prufrock speaks in the past tense, saying "for I have known them all already", the
future of the modern world, of his place in it, and of his relationships to its denizens remain
terrifyingly uncertain, and Prufrock is a meticulous, but not courageous, man, who is constantly
second-guessing himself.

The women in his social circle seem to him to be going through motions which appear similar to
those he understood from the conventions of his youth, but he is afraid not only that he does not
understand what lies underneath these actions, but is also afraid that his very discomfort and
unfamiliarity with the new modern world make him appear absurd in the eyes of younger
women.

At the end of the poem, we see Prufrock come to accept an identity, acknowledging that he is
growing old and that the "mermaids" will not sing to him.
 THE OX

Q. What is the symbolic importance of bi cycle in The Ox ?

ANS: The bi-cycle is the symbol of sole companionship for Mrs. Thurlow . She dreams about it
and cannot walk without it. The bi-cycle is an object that externalizes the sway of emotions that
lie suppressed in her.

Q. Do you find any symbolic meaning of Mr. Thurlow's silver plate?

Ans: Mr. Thurlow's silver plate in the head is another sad emblem of a lost self-hood and it is the
assertion of its material value that creates the self-sustaining fantasy for him. His last image in
the story in that oversize shirt beautifully symbolizes his flight.

Q. what was the sole entertainment for Mrs. Thurlow's?

Ans .Mrs.Thurlow was quite cut-off from the world. Her only entertainment was the old news
papers which she read in the evening. She was thick headed and unimaginative.
Her relentless hard word made her mechanica

Q.How did the story,"The Ox" end ?

Ans. After the trial and execution, the boys of Mrs. Thurlow chose to stay with their uncle.
Devastated, Mrs. Thurlow struggled up the hill to her home, with a flat tire in her bicycle and "an
impression that she would never reach it."

Q.Discuss the title of Bate’s story “The Ox”.

The title of the H.E. Bate’s short story ‘The Ox’ is a fine example of what is known as ‘the art of
suggestion’. He aims to present the bare essentials of action and dialogue, leaving the reader to
form his own responses. The title ‘The Ox’ illustrates not only the qualities of Bate’s style and
his attitude but also a characteristic theme—‘an obsession with pain. Pain stretched to breaking
point, pain prolonged beyond all seeming endurance’ – yet not by any means, beyond all
seeming enduranced’ – yet not by any means, beyond the bounds of possibility. One of
H.E.Bate’s great strengths is to show a mainly and unsentimental pity for those that suffer alone.

“The Ox” is really the story of Mrs. Thurlow who suffers discomfort towards the limits of
endurance and bears hers discomfort in addition to her existence using the fortitude of the ox.
Several time Mrs. Thurlow continues to be in compassion for an ox. Mrs. Thurlow is a versatile
women. At half-past seven everyday she pushed her great rusty bicycle lower the hill and at six
every evening she pushed it back, loaded with gray bundles of washing, oilcans, sacks, cabbages,
old newspapers. She never rode the bicycle but always dragged it. Her relationship to it was that
of a beast to cart. She was the ox tugging the trolley. Slopping along its side, her flat heavy feet
pounding shatteringly along under mud-stained skirt. Her face and the body ugly with lumpy
angles of bones, she was just like a animal of burden.

Mrs. Thurlow is represented as a work machine. All day long she laboured for several people,
washing and cleaning. She never went beyond her regular boundary. Even at home she had no
respite from work. In the field, Mrs. Thurlow pined up her skirt so that it struck out behind her
like a thick stiff tail making her look like bony ox. She did washing from five to six in the
morning, and again from seven to nine in the evening. She worked by candlelight. At eleven she
went to bed. She fell asleep almost at once, but throughout the night her mind seemed to work
on. She even dreamt of pushing her bicycle and cleaning. In a word, the burden of work, the
labour and suffering had all become a part and parcel of her existence. Mrs. Thurlow
transformed herself as it were into an allegorical figure-endurance.

Q. How does Bates in his story The Ox show obsession with pain?

‘The Ox’ illustrates not only these qualities of style and writer’s attitude, but also a characteristic
theme—what Henry Miller calls in his Preface to an excellent selection of Bates’s stories, Seven
by Five (1963), ‘an obsession with pain. Pain stretched to breaking point, pain prolonged beyond
all seeming endurance’—yet not, by any means, beyond the bounds of possibility. One of H. E.
Bates’s great strengths is to show a manly and unsentimental pity for those that suffer alone.

From the very beginning of the short story the author has not failed to show the analogue of the
ox in Mrs Thurlow’s physical feature--- she had a bulky and rather robust body, with her flat,
heavy feet, that ‘pounded painfully’ along ‘under mud-stained skirts’. Her face and body looked
unseemly with her lumpy angle of bone. She is appeared as ‘a beast of burden’. Moreover, when
she works in the field-to plant and pick potatoes and peas, to dig for cabbages and roots, she
pinned up her skirt on the back that seemed to be ‘a thick stiff, tail’. She appears like ‘some
bonny ox. Mrs Thurlow has a bicycle which is never ridden. It remains always well-loaded, and
she walks beside it like an ox. Her relation to this cycle reminds the relation of an ox to cart.
She is nothing exceptional or remarkable. She is very poor and her life is one of her
struggle and ceaselessly drudgery. Though not a beast she had the living of a beast. Like an ox
she works steadily and meticulously. Despite the strain of her daily duty she does her work
punctually, seriously and devotedly. She labours continuously, unquestioningly and rather
selflessly. She has to bear hardship and pain and that she does with the temperament of an ox.
Mrs Thurlow is basically a rational being. She has her hope and aspiration. She plans for
her two boys. She stores money for their better future. From this point she is a caring mother. she
tries heart and soul to fulfill her dream. She wants eagerly to raise her humble saving of 54
pounds and to one hundred pounds.
Mrs Thurlow inspite of her little emotional ambition has an impassivity. Money appears
more valuable than the life of Mr. Thurlow who was arrested and died in prison and her lost
money could not be restored. The two boys for whom she builds up a dream is totally collapsed
when they deny to come back. Mrs. Thurlow endows that also and carries on her daily drudgery
steadily and stolidly almost of the manner of an unresponsive, irrational animal, like an ox.