UPSC Mains ENGLISH-LITERATURE-PAPER-I 2014

The Elizabethan playhouse: Structure, audience and impact.

Augustan literature and its relationship with "Polite Society".

Transitional poets and their contribution to a change in poetic sensibility.

Democratisation of poetry during the Romantic Movement.

The influence of the reading public on the Victorian writer.

What are the conflicting passions at work in King Lear and how do they generate tragic experience ?

Examine critically the relationship of Prospero with Caliban and Ariel in the light of emerging European Colonialism.

Account for the revival of interest in Donne's poetry in the 20th century.

Do you agree with the view that Milton was "of the Devil's party without knowing it"? Give your opinion illustrating from the text.

How does Pope achieve a mock-heroic effect in treating a trivial theme ?

If the poetry of Milton and Donne spring from the personal, Augustan poetry is centred in society. Discuss.

Which poems of Wordsworth do you consider to have a special relevance to the present-day reader? Explain your choice.

In Memoriam is Tennyson's attempt to come to terms with the main conflict of his times. Discuss.

A Doll's House addresses the question of a Woman's place in society. Has any substantial change taken place since ?

I'm nobody! Who are you?

What sort of person do you think, is the speaker of the poem?

Do you think self-effacing persons are popular in society ?

What is the speaker's attitude towards fame and publicity?.

Why does the speaker of the poem want not to be "somebody"?

Comment critically on the image of the frog in the bog.

What aspects of contemporary British life does Jonathan Swift satirise in Gulliver's Travels?

Pride and Prejudice is on the surface a novel depicting genteel life, but the motive force is a desperate man-hunt for social survival. Examine.

Describe your response to Tom Jones, a leisurely novel of a by-gone era.

"Chockful of faults and falsity" is how a critic found Tess of the d'urbervilles. Consider this statement and give your opinion.

Would you consider the course that Maggie Tulliver's life takes, an inevitable consequence of her circumstances ? Did she have choice ?

Hard Times was condemned by Macaulay for its "sullen Socialism". In the next century it became more popular. How do you account for this?

Elizabeth Bennet, Maggie Tulliver and Tess were strongly constrained by the society they lived in. Do you think they passively accept life as it comes or do they exercise choice ?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is more than a boy's tale. What are the serious issues it addresses ?

E.M. Forster described Dickens's men and women as "flat characters". Which of the characters from Hard Times do you find conforming to or deviating from this description?