UPSC Mains ENGLISH-LITERATURE-PAPER-II 2022

Too long a sacrifice Can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?

I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

But someone told me he got two lines in an inside column of a Madras newspaper

About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters : how well they understood Its human position : how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

Always too eager for the future, we Pick up bad habits of expectancy.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has been interpreted in multiple ways; but it still remains an elusive poem. Discuss.

John Osborne brought authenticity into contemporary English theatre through the effective use of the vernacular and naturalistic characterisation. Comment.

A. K. Ramanujan has earned praise for his craftsmanship. What features of his writing style mark him out as one of the most talented in Indo-Anglican poetry?

Analyse the major themes discussed in the play Look Back in Anger.

Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is often mentioned as a play that falls into both the modern and post-modern genres. Evaluate.

Nostalgia for earlier Britain and its pastoral ways of life dominate the spirit of Movement Poetry. Substantiate with reference to the poetic collection of Philip Larkin.

W. H. Auden's poems deal with a wide variety of themes that enrich his poetic style. Discuss with reference to the poems prescribed in the syllabus.

Does the play Waiting for Godot create hope or hopelessness in the readers? Substantiate your answer with suitable examples from the play.

In the poem The Second Coming, W. B. Yeats integrates history and mythology into an organic whole. Substantiate your answer with suitable examples from the poem.

Evaluate how Sons and Lovers is a suitable title for D. H. Lawrence's novel.

The theme of innocence and experience is central to the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Discuss.

How terrible it would have been...to have lived and died as one had been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated.” How does this sentence throw light upon the troubled mind of the protagonist in A House for Mr. Biswas?

One of the striking features of Lord Jim is its narrative style. Analyse.

Shakespeare is a central motif in the novel Mrs. Dalloway. Elaborate.

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the author makes extensive use of the stream of consciousness technique to represent the fluid and turbulent nature of the human mind. Elaborate.

Comment on how V. S. Naipaul in his A House for Mr. Biswas views the colonial world with post-colonial views.

Achakka, in the novel Kanthapura, is not an individual; she is the voice of the entire group of Brahmin women she represents. Elucidate.

Sons and Lovers examines the emotional dynamics of the Morel family. Analyse.

Discuss how Joseph Conrad narrates the saga of Jim's lifelong search to regain his honour.

Bring out the dynamics of relationship between Dr. Aziz and Fielding in A Passage to India.

In the novel A Passage to India, E. M. Forster analyses the possibility of Indians and Englishmen becoming friends in the colonial context. Discuss.

In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa and Septimus never meet; but the connection between them plays an important role in the novel. Do you agree?

Kanthapura is a reminder of the effect of British colonialism in India and why Gandhism was so appealing. Substantiate.