IGNOU BEGC-133 December 2023 Previous Year Question Paper

Q1.Explain any four of the following passage s with reference to the context ( in around 150 words each) : 4×8=32

(a) “And Pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven’s Cherubins, hors’d Upon the sightless couriers of the air, [ 2 ] BEGC–133 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only, Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’ other.”

(b) “He child the sisters, When first they put the name of king upon me, And bade them speak to him, then, prophet- like, They hail’d him father to a line of kings : Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown, And put a barren sceptre in my gripe.” [ 3 ] BEGC–133

(c) “He did it like an operatic tenor –a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war -cry and charging like Don Quizo te at the windmills. We nearly burst with laughter at him; but when the sergeant ran up as white as a sheet, and told us they’d sent us the wrong cartridges, and that we could’nt fire a shot for the next ten minutes, we laughed at the other side of our mouths.”

(d) “So flash’d and fell the brand Excalibur; But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm Clothed in wh ite samite, mystic, wonderful, [ 4 ] BEGC–133 And caught him by the hilt, and brandished him, Three times and drew him under, in the mere.”

(e) “For now I see the true old times are dead, When every morning brought a noble chance And every chance brought out a noble knight. Such times have been not since the lig ht that led The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.”

Q2.Write short notes on any four of the following (in around 100 words each) : 4×6=24

(a) Elizabethan theatre

(b) The dramatic significance of the soliloquy in Macbeth [ 5 ] BEGC–133

(c) The three phases of Thomas Hardy’s writing

(d) The character of Bathsheba Everdene in Far from the Madding Crowd

(e) Bernard Shaw’s depiction of class distinctions in the play Arms and the Man.

Q3.Write short essays on any two of the following (in around 200 words each) : 2×12=24

(a) Why is Tennyson considered a true representative of the Victorian age ?

(b) The character of Bluntschli in Arms and the Man.

(c) The significance of the title of Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd. [ 6 ]

Q4.Answer any one of the following in around 300 words :

Q5.What, in your opinion, is the role played by the witches in bringing about the tragedy of Macbeth ? Consider Arms and the Man as an anti - romantic comedy.