UPSC Mains ENGLISH-LITERATURE-PAPER-I 2025

Write short notes on the following. Each should be written in about 150 words:

• Major literary developments of the Renaissance
• Representation of the supernatural in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama
• Key characteristics that define Metaphysical poetry
• Function of satire in mock-epic
• Factors contributed to the emergence of novel as a literary form in the 18th century

What is the significance of Satan's journey through Chaos in Book II of Paradise Lost? Discuss.

How does Wordsworth represent the impact of childhood and innocence in the poem Ode on Intimations of Immortality?

Justify your views that the play A Doll's House challenges traditional views on marriage and family.

Read the given poem critically and answer all the questions that follow:

Myself

I have to live with myself and so
I want to be fit for myself to know.
I want to be able as days go by,
always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
and hate myself for the things I have done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
a lot of secrets about myself
and fool myself as I come and go
into thinking no one else will ever know
the kind of person I really am,
I don't want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect
I want to deserve all men's respect;
but here in the struggle for fame and wealth
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know that
I am bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself and so,
whatever happens I want to be
self respecting and conscience free.

• What is the main message or moral lesson of the poem? How does the speaker emphasize this throughout the poem?
• How does the speaker define self-respect, and why is it so important to him?
• How does the poet use repetition to emphasize key ideas of the poem?
• Which lines stand out the most to you, and why? How do they contribute to the overall theme of the poem?
• How would you relate the message of this poem to modern society, especially in a world influenced by social media or public image?

Substantiate your understanding of Tom Jones as a bildungsroman and a picaresque novel.

Consider The Mill on the Floss interrogates the theme of education, particularly in relation to gender and class, through the contrasting experiences of Tom and Maggie.

Interpret how Mark Twain's portrayal of race and slavery reflects the attitudes of his time in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.