ENGL 250

20th Century Irish Literature in English

ENGL 25020th Century Irish Literature in English

During the twentieth century, Ireland produced four Nobel Prize winners for Literature(Shaw, Yeats, Beckett, Heaney), and a host of other writers of the highest quality (Wilde,Synge, O'Casey, Joyce). This paper examines this phenomenon against the background ofthe "Troubles" as Ireland gained its independence. Two major themes will be (1) theestablishing of a national theatre (and voice), and (2) the ambivalence of (Irish) identity.Although the emphasis in this course will be on the Anglo-Irish writers of the first half of thecentury, many of whom were opposed to the platitudes of patriotism, their writings will beseen to embrace (often bitterly, ironically) the issues of nationalism and the forging of adistinctive Irish identity.

Co-ordinator: Professor Chris Ackerleychris.ackerley@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

Tutors: TBA

Lecturers: Chris Ackerley, Nicola Cummins, Peter Kuch

Lectures: TBAWeekly tutorials to be arranged.

Texts (in approximate order of teaching)Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest (Dover).Shaw, G. B. Mrs Warren's Profession. In Plays Unpleasant (Penguin).Synge, J. M. The Playboy of the Western World and Riders to the Sea. In J. M. Synge,

The Playboy of the Western World and Other Plays (Oxford World Classics)Joyce, James. Dubliners (Penguin).Beckett, Samuel. More Pricks than Kicks (Grove Press),O'Casey, Sean. Juno and the Paycock and The Plough and the Stars. In Sean

O'Casey: Three Dublin Plays (Faber and Faber)Yeats, W. B. Selected Poetry (Penguin)Friel, Brian. Translations (Faber and Faber)O'Brien, Flann. At Swim-Two-Birds (Picador)Beckett, Samuel. Krapp's Last Tape [video, in the Library; no text required]

Films or videos of many of these texts can be viewed at the Library Audio-visual centre.

PAPER : ENGL 250  WeekBeg inn ing Tuesday Thursday Tuto r i a l s Exe rc i ses

Introduction Shaw No Tutorials

Wilde Wilde No TutorialsSynge, Riders to

the Sea Synge, PlayboyThe well-made

play Wilde

Joyce JoyceSynge, Playboy ofthe Western World Synge

Joyce Joyce Joyce, 'Araby' Joyce

Beckett: MPTKBeckett: 'Fingal'& 'Ding-Dong'

Beckett, 'Dante andthe Lobster' Beckett

Beckett,‘Yellow’ Beckett, KLT No Tutorials

MID-SEMESTER BREAK

O’Casey, Juno O’Casey, P&S O'Casey, P&S O'Casey

Yeats Yeats Yeats, Prosody Prosody

Yeats Yeats 'Easter 1916' Imagery

Yeats YeatsMeditations‘My Table’

Poeticargument

O’Brien O’Brien O’Brien O’Brien

Fr ie l F r ie l Revision Fr ie l

Internal Assessment: 30% of the final mark, based on tutorial-related weekly assignments,the best six of ten, @ 5% each. Students may do as many of these as they wish; the best sixwill count. However, those taking the course are strongly advised to do all the exercises, as(a) marks will improve, (b) this will reflect commitment (important should unforeseencircumstances necessitate an aegrotat pass), (c) the later ones will be much harder if the earlierones are not attempted, and (d) skills tested in the weekly exercises will also be tested in thefinal examination (concepts taught in relation to one author in the tutorials and/or exercises willbe asked of others in the final examination). No extensions will be granted; if you miss thedeadline for a given exercise you will need to rely on doing the others.

Final Examination: 70% of the final mark. The final examination (marked out of 100,reduced to 70%) will comprise: (a) a choice of six (from perhaps ten) short passagestesting essential skills and knowledge (including at least one on Yeats), @ 10% of theexamination each; (b) two essays, one on the drama and one on the fiction, from a range ofquestions on individual authors or wider themes, @ 20% of the examination each.

Tutorial 1THE WELL-MADE PLAY

Aim: To examine the first acts of Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession and Wilde's TheImportance of Being Earnest, to consider the structural principles of the exposition.

a. Structure refers to the identifiable means by which a dramatist relates the parts of a playto each other and to the whole, and keeps before our attention what is most central tothe action.

(S.W. Dawson, Drama and the Dramatic, London: Methuen, 1970, p.89)

b. The problem of dealing with the past, faced by all writers of narrative, becomesspecialized when the sole medium is dialogue. This is the problem of "exposition";that is, of acquainting us with the background facts and the starting situation fromwhich the main action moves forward. Fiction-writer and narrative-poet can begin withdirect exposition or interpose it later, and fiction and cinema can both utilize differentkinds of flashbacks. In drama the characters themselves must let us know what is what,and they must do it while they are talking about something else. They cannot informus directly lest they speak for the author instead of themselves and thus get "out ofcharacter". What any person says must be consistent with his character generally, andwith what he knows and what his auditor or auditors know. If characters are to beplausible, they cannot say things that to them would be stale or superfluous in orderthat the reader may secure certain information. The information must be implied inlines which are looking ahead rather than back; the dramatist must constantly keep twopurposes in mind.

(Cleanth Brooks and Robert B. Heilman, Understanding Drama,New York: Holt, 1945, p. 30)

Tasks:Here are six principal functions of the introduction of a play. From the openings of MrsWarren's Profession and The Importance of Being Earnest, answer the attached questions,and (more important) note how the necessary information is conveyed.

1. The exposition establishes the settingDescribe the social and physical setting. What conventions are implied? You mightconsider what aspects of traditional well-made plays the setting makes reference to.

2. We are introduced to many of the charactersIdentify some characters who are talked about by the other characters before they appear.What do we learn about them? Consider the usefulness of a butler (Wilde) for this

3. The current situation from which the action will develop is outlined

(a) Shaw: What is Vivie's current position, and what challenges to it are implicit?

(b) Wilde: Describe the situation in which Jack and Algernon find themselves. How is thename 'Ernest' insinuated into the action?

4. Important prior and future events are related or intimated in a plausible wayIdentify one such important past and future event in each of the plays, noting the numberof times it is drawn to the attention of the audience.

5. The central issue of the play is establishedEach play introduces a potentially problematical subject:

(a) Shaw: the source of Vivie's money and privilege. What complications or expectationsdoes Shaw arouse?

(b) Wilde: Jack's orphan status and Lady Bracknell's domination of her daughter. Jackwishes to marry the daughter. What complications or expectations does Wilde arouse?

6. The exposition introduces the main theme or themes of the playShaw uses recognisable theatrical practices, whereas Wilde's point is very much thesending-up of well-worn social and theatrical conventions. Define the "conventional"theatrical elements in Shaw's exposition, and identify the elements of parody of these inWilde's nevertheless immaculate use of the well-made play.

Discussion:1. The Exposition comes to a close when a new action or force (already prepared for) comesto bear on and changes the existing situation now defined for us. What is this new situation,how was it created, and on what note does the exposition end?

2. Briefly define the way that the complication and development of the dramatic action arisesfrom the exposition, and how the climax is created.

3. Comedy is both delicate and tensile. Choose one detail (e.g., Vivie's success in themathematical tripos, or the cucumber sandwiches in The Importance of Being Ernest), andshow precisely what structural care has gone into its making.

Tutorial 2Synge, The Playboy of the Western World

LANGUAGE AND TONE

Aim: Playboy from its first performances to the present day has been controversial,particularly with respect to its handling of things Irish and in its implicit mockery of Irishcliches. The aim of this tutorial is to determine the tone of the play, by identifying thecomplex mingling of poetry and poison in Synge's handling of detail.

Tasks: Re-read closely Act III of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, andconsider the following questions (page references to the Oxford edition):

1. Define the salient qualities of Jimmy's dialogue, and consider how the passing of OldMahon by the window (130) and his subsequent entrance complicates the effect.

2. Consider what motivates the Widow Quin (131) in what she says; the effect (132) of OldMahon's "slightly emotional" response; and the impact (133) of the commentary by Jimmy,Philly and the Widow Quin on the off-stage race.

3. Old Mahon recognises Christy (134) "by his way of spitting and he astride the moon".Find other instances of (a) obliquely derogatory comment phrased as praise, and (b) highlypoeticised imagery that invokes the everyday. What is the effect of this extravagance?

4. What does Old Mahon mean (135) by "going to the Union beyond", and why is he soproud of doing so?

5. How does the Widow Quin get him to leave (135)?

6. Define the tone and comment on the imagery (especially the poetry) of Christy's language(136-37) when he claims Pegeen as his own.

7. Note any hints of blasphemy in the images used by Christy, and comment upon these.

8. Evaluate Pegeen's response (137-38).

9. Analyse the contradictions, blasphemies and extravagances of Michael's words (138-40),and the reasons why he finds favour for Christy over Sean (notably his final blessing).

10. What is the effect of Old Mahon's return, particularly on the way that Christy (the manthat killed his da) is regarded by those present? Why do they now jeer (141)?

11. Comment on the language used by Christy to his father.

12. Why do the crowd turn on Christy (143-44) when they believe that he has now reallykilled his father? Why was this not their reaction earlier?

13. In the film, and often in performance, the detail of Pegeen burning Christy's leg with afiery sod is omitted. Why? What difference does it make to her final words?

14. In what sense is Christy now "a likely gaffer", and what ironies attend this?

Tutorial 3STRUCTURE AND DETAIL

Text: James Joyce, 'Araby', in Dubliners.

Aims:1. To see by examples how significant details operate as part of structure.2. To see how a fictional work may be structured around a focus of interest to work for a

central effect.

Tasks: Read the story and carry out the following tasks in the spaces provided:

1. Detaila. From the first paragraph, list two adjectives that usually apply to human beings.

b. From the second paragraph, list details suggestive of:(i) decay

(ii) shabby romanticism

(iii) religious insufficiency

c. From the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs, list details suggestive of:(i) romantic mystery

(ii) romantic Ireland

(iii) religious adoration

d. From the above paragraphs, list details of crude reality.

2. Structurea. Define in one sentence the central epiphany of the story.

b. How do the details noted above (1.a and 1.b) anticipate the central epiphany?

Discussion:1. What is the effect of suffusing details of romantic mystery, romantic Ireland and religiousadoration (as noted in 1.c) with those of crude reality (as noted in 1.d)? What does it suggest about theenvironment, and about the small boy's state of mind?

2. What, then, is the effect upon him (romanticism reverting to reality) in the final paragraph?

3. Why did Joyce entitle the story 'Araby'?

4. To what extent does the author judge the main character? (Is it altogether a negative experience?Does it retain any romantic touches? What might an adult perspective be?)

5. Apply the same approach (significant detail leading to revelation as a structural principle) to:(a) 'The Sisters'

(b) 'A Painful Case'

(c) 'Ivy Day in the Committee Room' [consider the "Pok!" of the corks]

(d). 'The Dead'

Tutorial 4NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Aim: to recognise variation of point of view and changes of narrative perspective.

Text: Samuel Beckett, 'Belacqua and the Lobster' (Grove Press, pp. 20-21)

Tasks:1. Identify or comment on the significance of the following details:

a. the name 'Belacqua'

b. Jonah and the gourd (Nineveh)

c. "cruciform"

d. "Take into the air my quiet breath" (Keats)

2. Identify specific instances of cruelty or a lack of pity (perhaps 5 or 6 instances).

3. Comment on the phrase, "Have sense".

4. Identify the narrative perspective (and shifts of perspective) in relation to:a. Belacqua drew near to the house of his aunt.

b. Let us call it winter.

c. At the corner of the street…

d. I know, thought Belacqua…

e. Why not pity and piety both…

f. …tending whatever flowers die at that time of year.

g. 'They assured me it was fresh' said Belacqua.

h. In the depths of the sea it had crept into the cruel pot.

i. "Take into the air my quiet breath."

j. "Well, thought Belacqua…"

k. "It is not."

Discussion: When More Pricks Than Kicks was reprinted, Beckett considered changingthe final line of 'Dante and the Lobster' ("It is not.") to "Like hell it is." What differencewould this have made? Would it have been an improvement?

Tutorial 5DRAMATIC DIALOGUE

Aim: To look at some of the ways dialogue is used in a dramatic context by examining ActIII of The Plough and the Stars.

Tasks: Answer the following questions.1. Indicate two passages, at the outset of Act III, which convey information about events thathave taken place off-stage in the interim since Act II. What events are referred to?

2. Identify the characteristic qualities of Mrs Gogan's speech, in the passage beginning "Godgrant it".

3. Identify the characteristic qualities of Nora's speeches, and consider the means by whichthe language is rhetorically heightened. Give examples of:

a. rhetorical repetition

b. emotive metaphor

c. metrically stressed language

d. grammatical parallelism.

4. Compare the language of Peter, Fluther and the Covey with the Woman, in terms of:

a. rendition of accent

b. social register

c. dramatic appropriateness.

5. Consider the language of Bessie Burgess, in terms of:a. dialect

b. metaphors (religious and political)

c. logic

d. similarities with/differences from that of Mrs Gogan.

6. Contrast the language of Lieut. Langan with that of Capt. Brennan, in terms of:a. rhetoric

b. imagery

c. emotive power

d. reasons for the difference.

7. Compare & contrast the language of Nora with that of Jack, pp. 194-96, in terms of:

a. romantic sentiment

b. patriotic sentiment

c. honesty of feeling

d. reasons for Jack's change of tone.

Discussion:1. How does dialogue establish relations among characters?

2. How does variation of dialogue, metaphor and tone contribute to dramatic effect?

3. How do apparently random exchanges of views help to advance the plot?

4. Is the language of The Plough and the Stars "realistic"? (Recall the Joycean differencebetween 'realism' and 'naturalism'). In what sense might O'Casey here called 'surrealistic'?

Tutorial 6PROSODY

Aim: to analyse closely a sonnet by W. B. Yeats, 'The Folly of Being Comforted', with aview to determining (a) its particular prosodic effects [meter, rhyme, rhythm, lineation,tone], and (b) the relationship of these to the poem's effect.

Text:One that is ever kind said yesterday:'Your well-belovèd's hair has threads of grey,And little shadows come about her eyes;Time can but make it easy to be wiseThough now it seems impossible, and soAll that you need is patience.'

Heart cries, 'No,I have not a crumb of comfort, not a grain.Time can but make her beauty over again:Because of that great nobleness of hersThe fire that stirs about her when she stirsBurns but more clearly. Oh, she had not these waysWhen all the wild summer was in her gaze.'

Oh heart! Oh heart! if she'd but turn her head,You'd know the folly of being comforted.

Preliminaries:(a) identify the two voices in the poems, and determine what you can about each.

(b) identify as best you can the person who is the subject of their dialogue.

(c) identify the more obvious qualities that suggest that this poem is a sonnet; then notesome of the features that make this attribution (a sonnet) problematic.

Tasks:

1. Identify the rhyme pattern. Is this typical of the sonnet form?

2. Mark the main structural divisions. Are these typical of the sonnet form?

3. Scan the poem, noting both the passages of metical regularity and the departures fromthis. [Can you begin to sense a correlation between tone, meter and content?]

3. To what extent is the line the "unit of sense"? To what extent is it not?

4. Comment on the effect of the final couplet.

Discussion:1. Why might Yeats have chosen the sonnet form for a poem like this?

2. Why, then, having chosen that form, does he deviate from the expected norms?

3. How do the deviations you have noted contribute to the poem's dramatic effect?

4. In one sentence, sum up the relation between content and form in this poem.

Tutorial 7POETRY AND RHETORIC

Aim: to distinguish between these two modes of poetic discourse by a close analysis oflanguage and tone.

Text: W.B. Yeats, 'Easter 1916', considered in the light of Yeats's comment, that out of thequarrel with others we make rhetoric, out of the quarrel with ourselves poetry.

Preliminaries: Find out what you can about the Easter Uprising: those alluded to in thepoem; Yeats's relation to them and to the Irish Republican Brotherhood; and his feelings, thenand later, about the events. Names to consider: Connie Markiewicz; Major John MacBride;Maud Gonne; Thomas MacDonagh; Padraic Pearse; James Connolly.

Tasks:1. In the first stanza, comment on the following words and phrases:

a. vivid faces

b. polite meaningless words

c. polite meaningless words [the repetition thereof]

d. the club

e. motley

f. A terrible beauty

2. Identify those alluded to in the second stanza:a. That woman

b. This man

c. This other

d. This other man

e. some who are near to my heart

3. In stanza 3:a. comment on the contrast between the stone and the other things mentioned

b. comment on the variation in the final two lines, in which the "terrible beauty"is not mentioned

4. In stanza 4:a. comment on the word 'sacrifice'

b. evaluate the appropriateness of the image of mother and child

c. is death but nightfall?

d. comment on the awkwardness of the line: "No, no, not night but death."

e. comment on the word 'bewildered'

Discussion:a. how might you read the last six lines?

b. what differences of tone do you identify in these lines?

c. in what sense are they rhetorical?

d. how, then, can they be said to be poetry?

Tutorial 8THE PARADOX OF SIMPLICITY

Aim: to examine a deceptively simple piece of poetry, the selection entitled 'My Table' in thelonger sequence, Meditations in Time of Civil War, with a view to identifying the basicelements from which the verse is formed and the way that these "simple" elements arehandled by a master craftsman.

Tasks: to examine this poem in terms of some of the basic prosodic elements.

1. rhyme: identify the basic rhyme scheme, and comment briefly upon its simplicity.Having done this, identify specific "rhymes" that don't quite meet the criteria that you havedefined, and comment briefly upon this complexity. In particular, note apparent rhymes thatare not phonetically exact, others that are exact but deviate in spelling, and those apparentlyalike yet different in sound. What is the effect of such dissonance?

2. meter: scan as much of the poem as you care to. You will note (a) a certain predictabilityin terms of the number of primary stresses in most lines (but also many exceptions); and (b)a distinct irregularity in terms of any dominant meter. Note any lines that seem quite regular,and ask yourself why these should be so; but equally note the lines that are irregular, and tryto sense the effect of these.

3. lineation: working from the principle that the individual line is the basic "unit ofsense", identify any lines which achieve closure. You will find that these prove to be theexception rather than the rule. Note perhaps six exceptions, and consider the precisedeviation from the unit of closure, and the effect of such deviation. In particular, note howthe rhyme scheme and the syntax so often work not in harmony but against one another.Why?

4. metaphor:a. identify the major metaphors

b. note any words ('changeless' or 'drawn') that link different images

c. consider how the items mentioned relate to Yeats's vocation as a poet

d. how do "men and their business" take "the soul's unchanging look"?

e. explain: "Juno's peacock screamed."

Discussion: consider, in the context of both this poem and the wider Meditations, thepertinence of the Japanese samurai sword as an emblem of Yeats's art.

Tutorial 9Narrative Complexity

Aim: to examine the various threads that make up the text (L. textum, "that which is woven")of Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds.

One beginning and one ending for a book was a thing I did

not agree with. A good book may have three openings

entirely dissimilar and inter-related only in the prescience of

the author, or for that matter one hundred times as many

endings.

Tasks:1. In one sentence, identify the "three openings" associated with the following:

a. the narrator

b. the Pooka MacPhellimey

c. Mr John Furriskey

d. Finn MacCool

2. Comment on the relationship between:

a. the narrator and his uncle

b. Dermott Trellis and John Furriskey

c. Mr William Tracy and the physical world of Dublin

e. The Pooka Fergus MacPhellimy and the Good Fairy

3. Consider the legend of Sweeny in relation to:a. the title of the novel

b. the stanzas of verse cited throughout the work

c. the interweaving of the various narrative threads

d. Jem Casey

e. the vocation of the narrator

Discussion: Conclusions / inconclusions:1. How well do the various narratives play out? Is this a triumph or failure of artistry?

2. In what respects, and with what consequences, is Trellis's dominion over his charactersimpaired by his addiction to sleep?

3. Compare the narrator's attitude to his uncle at the end of the book with that at the outset.What are the implications of this change?

4. The Good Fairy says that it is a great art that can evolve a fifth Excellence from FourFutilities. Consider this in relation to the narrative structure of At Swim-Two-Birds.

Tutorial 10Revision

The intention of this tutorial is to offer practice for the final examination, specifically bylooking at some of the short passage questions used in previous years, and developing atechnique for answering them. Prepare to discuss the following passages:

1. SET TEXTS: Discuss six of the following passages, making sure that you include at leastone on Yeats (i, j or k). Each passage is worth 10%. The marks in parenthesis reflect theweighting of the parts. Bonus marks may be given for answers of exceptional quality.

(a) Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession

VIVIE. Put the rifle away, Frank: it’s quite unnecessary.FRANK. Quite right, Viv. Much more sportsmanlike to catch him in a trap. [Crofts,

understanding the insult, makes a threatening movement]. Crofts: thereare fifteen cartridges in the magazine here; and I am a dead shot at thepresent distance and at an object of your size.

CROFTS. Oh, you needn’t be afraid. I’m not going to touch you.FRANK. Ever so magnanimous in the circumstances! Thank you!CROFTS. I’ll just tell you this before I go. It may interest you, since youre so fond

of one another. Allow me, Mister Frank, to introduce you to your half-sister,the eldest daughter of the Reverend Samuel Gardner. Miss Vivie: your half-brother. Good morning. [He goes out through the gate and along the road].

(i) Why is Frank threatening Crofts with the rifle? [2](ii) What is the insult that Crofts understands? [1](iii) What is the point and effect of Croft’s introduction of Vivie to Frank? [5](iv) Contrast Vivie’s immediate reaction after this with that of Frank. [2]

(b) Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

GWENDOLEN: Ernest! My own Ernest! I felt from the first that you could have noother name!

JACK: Gwendolyn, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all hislife he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?

GWENDOLEN: I can. For I feel that you are sure to change.

(i) In one sentence, indicate how Jack has discovered who he is. [2](ii) How (specifically) has he confirmed that his name is indeed Ernest? [2](iii) Identify two social and/or theatrical conventions implicit in this exchange, and

indicate how Wilde has subverted these. [6]

(c) Synge, Riders to the Sea

MAURYA. [Raising her head and speaking as if she did not see the peoplearound her.] They’re all gone now, and there isn’t anything more the sea can doto me ... I’ll have no call now to be up and crying and praying when the windbreaks from the south, and you can hear the surf is in the east, and the surf is inthe west, making a great stir with the two noises, and they hitting one on the other.I’ll have no call now to be going down and getting Holy Water in the dark nightsafter Samhain, and I won’t care what way the sea is when the other women will

be keening. [To Nora] Give me the Holy Water, Nora; there’s a small sup still onthe dresser.

(i) Briefly place this passage in context. [3](ii) Explain the references to ‘Holy Water’, ‘Samhain’ and ‘keening’.

[3](iii) Identify and discuss briefly two instances where Maurya’s language has been

influenced by Gaelic syntax or idiom.[4]

(d) Synge, The Playboy of the Western World

[Old Mahon comes in behind on all fours and looks on unnoticed]MEN. [To Pegeen.] Bring the sod, will you?PEGEEN. [Coming over.] God help him so. [Burns his leg.]CHRISTY. [Kicking and screaming.] Oh, glory be to God!

[He kicks loose from the table, and they all drag him towards the door.]JIMMY. [Seeing Old Mahon.] Will you look what’s come in?

[They all drop Christy and run left]CHRISTY. [Scrambling on his knees face to face with old Mahon.] Are you

coming to be killed a third time, or what ails you now?

(i) Briefly place this passage in context. [3](ii) Explain “Are you coming to be killed a third time”.

[2](iii) Comment on the stage instruction, “Burns his leg”, given that a number ofproductions (and the film) have chosen to ignore it.

[5]

(e) Joyce, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’

They had their way: they laid him low. But Erin, list, his spirit mayRise, like the Phoenix from the flames, When breaks the dawning of the day,

The day that brings us freedom’s reign. And on that day may Erin wellPledge in the cup she lifts to Joy One grief—the memory of Parnell.

Mr Hynes sat down again on the table. When he had finished his recitationthere was a silence and then a burst of clapping: even Mr Lyons clapped. Theapplause continued for a little time. When it had ceased all the auditors drank fromtheir bottles in silence.

Pok! The cork flew out of Mr Hynes’ bottle, but Mr Hynes remained sittingflushed and bareheaded on the table. He did not seem to have heard the invitation.

‘Good man, Joe!’ said Mr O’Connor, taking out his cigarette papers and pouchthe better to hide his emotion.

‘What do you think of that, Crofton?’ cried Mr Henchy. ‘Isn’t that fine? What?’Mr Crofton said that it was a very fine piece of writing.

(i) Identify five instances of irony in this passage and discuss their effect (you shouldinclude at least one example from the poem). [10]

(f) Beckett, ‘Yellow’

Now events began to move more rapidly. First of all an angel of the Lordcame to his assistance with a funny story, really very funny indeed, it alwaysmade Belacqua laugh till he cried, about the parson who was invited to take asmall part in an amateur production. All he had to do was to snatch at his heartwhen the revolver went off, cry ‘By God! I’m shot!’ and drop dead. The parsonsaid certainly, he would be most happy, if they would have no objection to hisdrawing the line at ‘By God!’ on such a secular occasion. He would replace it, ifthey had no objection, by ‘Mercy!’ or ‘Upon my word!’ or something of that kind.‘Oh, my! I’m shot!~’, how would that be?

But the production was so amateur that the revolver went off indeed and theman of God was transfixed.

‘Oh!’ he cried ‘oh …! BY CHRIST! I AM SHOT!’

(i) Comment on the title, ‘Yellow’. [3](ii) Briefly place this passage in context [3](iii) Define the structural relationship between this jest and the story as a whole.

[4]

(g) O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock

Johnny (passionately). I won’t go! Haven’t I done enough for Ireland! I’ve lostme arm, an’ me hip’s desthroyed so that I’ll never be able to walk right agen!Good God, haven’t I done enough for Ireland!The Young Man. Boyle, no man can do enough for Ireland!

[He goes]. [Faintly in the distance the crowd is heard saying:Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee;

Blessed art Thou amongst women, and blessed, etc.]

(i) Briefly place this passage in context [3](ii) Who is the Young Man? [2](iii) In no more than four sentences discuss the rhetorical elements of this passage,

including the effect of the final Hail Mary. [5]

(h) O’Casey, The Plough and the Stars

Sergeant Tilney and Corporal Stoddart (joining in the chorus, as they sip thetea):

Keep the ‘owme fires burning,While your ‘earts are yearning;Though your lads are far awayThey dream of ‘owme;There’s a silver loiningThrough the dark cloud shoining,Turn the dark cloud inside out,Till the boys come ‘owme! CURTAIN

(i) What is the name of the song, and when is it sung? [2]

(ii) Who are Sergeant Tilney and Corporal Stoddart? [2](iii) Comment briefly on the various ironies of the passage. [6]

(i) Yeats, ‘Sailing to Byzantium’.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,A tattered coat upon a stick, unlessSoul clap its hands and sing, and louder singFor every tatter in its mortal dress.

(i) Paraphrase (ie, put into your own words) what Yeats is saying here. [4](ii) Identify the key image, and describe what happens to it in lines 3-4. [3](iii) In one sentence, relate this stanza to the rest of the poem. [3]

(j) Yeats, ‘My Table’

Two heavy trestles, and a boardWhere Sato’s gift, a changeless sword,By pen and paper lies,That it may moraliseMy days out of their aimlessness.A bit of an embroidered dressCovers its wooden sheath.Chaucer had not drawn breathWhen it was forged. In Sato’s house,Curved like new moon, moon-luminous,It lay five hundred years.

(i) Name the longer poem of which this is a part [1](ii) Explain “may moralise / My days out of their aimlessness”?

[2](iii) Identify a line of regular iambic trimeter. [1](iv) Identify a line of irregular trimeter (identify the irregularity). [2](v) Identify a line of regular iambic tetrameter. [1](vi) Discuss the analogy between the sword and the moon. [3]

(k) Yeats, ‘The White Birds’

I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,Has awaked in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.

(i) Scan the first line of this verse. [2](ii) Identify the dominant meter. [2](iii) Give an example of a different metrical foot, and discuss its effect

[3](iv) Briefly relate the choice of meter to the tone of the verse. [3]

(l) Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape

Write one well-structured paragraph, of not more than five sentences, in whichyou identify the different temporal and structural levels of the play and showtheir inter-relationship. Note: you will be marked equally forcontent and for quality of expression.

[10]

(m) Friel, Translations

MANUS: And they call you Roland! They both calll you Roland!OWEN: Shhhhh. Isn’t it ridiculous? They seemed to get it wrong

from the very beginning—or else they can’t pronounce Owen.I was afraid some of you bastards would laugh.

MANUS: Aren’t you going to tell them?OWEN: Yes—yes—soon—soon.MANUS: But they…OWEN: Easy, man, easy. Owen—Roland—what the hell. It’s only a

name. It’s the same me, isn’t it? Well, isn’t it?MANUS: Indeed it is. It’s the same Owen.Owen: And the same Manus. And in a way we complement each

other. [He punches MANUS lightly, playfully and turns to jointhe others. As he goes.] Alright—who has met whom? Isn’tthis a job for the go-between?

(i) Briefly place this passage in context [3](ii) Comment on the dramatic irony of Owen’s words [2](iii) At what point in the play does ‘Roland’ become ‘Owen’ again?

[2](iii) Briefly discuss one aspect of identity as revealed in this extract. [3]

(n) O’Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds

On the analogy of the questions set in (a) to (m) [above], design for yourself theprecise question that you wish you had been asked, with respect to thisnovel, and proceed to answer it. [10]

Assignment 1

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.

GWENDOLEN: Ernest, we may never be married. From the expression on mamma's faceI fear we never shall. Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children sayto them. The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out. Whatever influence Iever had over mamma, I lost at the age of three. But although she may prevent us frombecoming man and wife, and I may marry someone else, and marry often, nothing thatshe can possibly do can alter my eternal devotion to you.

JACK: Dear Gwendolen!GWENDOLEN: The story of your romantic origin, as related to me by mamma, with

unpleasing comments, has naturally stirred the deeper fibres of my nature. YourChristian name has an irresistible fascination. The simplicity of your character makesyou exquisitely incomprehensible to me. Your town address at the Albany I have. Whatis your address in the country?

JACK: The Manor House, Woolton, Hertfordshire.Algernon, who has been carefully listening, smiles to himself, and writes theaddress on his shirt-cuff.

1. In one sentence, define the major impediment to the marriage of Gwendolen and Jack.[3]

2. Why does Jack’s Christian name have such an irresistible fascination? [There is no rightanswer to this; you will be marked for wit and insight] [3]

3. Wilde's artistry may be defined as the unexpected inversion of the familiar. From thispassage, identify three such instances; identify for each the mechanics of the inversion; andcomment on the effect of the process [6]

.4. Give an instance of paradox from this passage, and define the effect. [3]

5. Consider Wilde's problem in Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest in terms ofAlgernon's determination to meet Jack's excessively pretty ward in the country, andJack's equal determination that he should not do so. Write one paragraph (perhaps 4or 5 sentences) in which you show how this problem arises, and how it is resolveddramatically in the first act (NOT the later resolution; the point is to focus upon theIntroduction of the play). You should make reference to the passage above.

[10]

6. For a bonus mark, name two works written by Wilde as a consequence of his time inprison. [1]

Assignment 2J.M. Synge, Riders to the Sea

BARTLEY: [Taking the halter]. I must go now quickly. I'll ride down on the

red mare, and the grey pony'll run behind me.... The blessing of God on

you.

[He goes out]MAURYA: [Crying out as he is in the door]. He's gone now, God spare us,

and we'll not see him again. He's gone now, and when black night is

falling I'll have no son left me in the world.CATHLEEN: Why wouldn't you give him your blessing and he looking round

in the door? Isn't it sorrow enough is on every one in this house without

your sending him out with an unlucky word behind him, and a hard word in

his ear?

[Maurya takes up the tongs and begins raking the fire aimlessly

without looking round]NORA: [Turning towards her] You're taking away the turf from the cake.

CATHLEEN: [Crying out] The Son of God forgive us, Nora, we're after

forgetting his bit of bread.

[She comes over to the fire]NORA: And it's destroyed he'll be going till dark night, and he after eating

nothing since the sun went up.

1. In your own words, explain what is happening at this point of the play. [5]

2. Comment briefly upon the following phrases or details, paying attention to their various shades ofmeaning or implication:

i. "the red mare, and the grey pony"ii. "The blessing of God on you"iii. "taking away the turf from the cake"iv. "we're after forgetting his bit of bread"v. "it's destroyed he'll be" [10]

3. Write one paragraph, in which you discuss the rhetorical and poetical power of the language usedin this passage. [10]

For two bonus marks, identify and comment upon two details from the play in which Syngehas integrated Irish and Greek myths and legends. [2]

Assignment 3James Joyce, The Dead.

Read the following passage, and answer the questions.

-- O, Mr Conroy, will you come for an excursion to the Aran Isles this

summer? We're going to stay there a whole month. It will be splendid out in

the Atlantic. You ought to come. Mr Clancy is coming, and Mr Kirkelly and

Kathleen Kearney. It would be splendid for Gretta too if she'd come. She's

from Connacht, isn't she?

-- Her people are, said Gabriel shortly.

1. In one sentence, place the extract within the story. [3]

2. Identify the Aran Isles, and comment briefly on their significance in the story. [4]

3. Describe Gabriel’s immediate reaction to Miss Ivors’s overture. [4]

4. Briefly, define the relationship at this point between Gabriel and his wife. [4]

5. Using the above information, and other details if you care to, write one paragraph (perhapsthree or four sentences) to show how the challenge Miss Ivors makes to Gabriel anticipatesthe later change in Gabriel’s relationship with his wife. [10]

6. For two bonus marks, (a) identify the task carried out by the archangel Gabriel, and (b) namethe archangel who represents symbolically all that Gabriel is not [1]

Assignment 4Beckett, "Fingal"

1. In one well-formed sentence, comment on the title ‘Fingal’. [3]

3. Explain six of the following details, noting (if appropriate) their ironic inflection:a. "a very sad animal"b. Mme de Warensc. "her sincerities"d. "sursum corda"e. "back in the caul"f. "the benevolence of the First Cause"g. "A motte"h. Stellai. "Dr Sholto"

[12]

4. Write one well-formed paragraph (perhaps four or five sentences) in which you clarify thereference to Dean Swift and Stella at the end of the story and identify its relevance toBeckett's tale. [10]

4. For two bonus marks, (a) identify the two women in Swift’s life, and (b) name the play byW.B. Yeats that deals with his relationship with them. [2]

Assignment 5O'Casey, Juno and the Paycock

Read carefully the final passage of the play (when Joxer and Boyle enter, both very drunk),and answer the following questions.

1. Identify five different ironies implicit in the scene, and comment in some detail upon eachof them. [10]

2. Imagine that you have been to a production of the play in which the final scene has beenomitted or cut. Write a short letter (perhaps two paragraphs) to the producer of the play,giving your reasons as to why you disagree with the decision to cut the scene (alternatively, ifyou agree with the cut, write a letter of support, arguing against those who think otherwise).

[15]

3. For two bonus marks, (a) comment upon the philosophical significance of the name'Bentham', and, taking this into account, (b) explain the irony of his being a Theosophist.

[2]

Assignment 6Imagery and Scansion

Yeats, 'Ancestral Houses'

Surely among a rich man's flowering lawns,

Amid the rustle of his planted hills,

Life overflows without ambitious pains;

And rains down life until the basin spills,

And mounts more dizzy high the more it rains

As though to choose whatever shape it wills

And never stoop to a mechanical

Or servile shape, at others' beck and call.

1. Write out the stanza, line by line, and scan it properly. [4]

2. Name the basic meter of the stanza, and cite a line that is perfectly regular [1]

3. Identify from your scansion two deviations from the metrical norm, and discuss theireffect (use the correct technical language). [4]

4. Name the basic verse-form used here, and describe its essential qualities. [2]

5. Cite two instances of half-rhymes:i. one based upon full stress but irregular consonance & assonanceii. another which depends upon the pairing of a strongly stressed with a more

weakly stressed syllable [2]

6. Identify and define the most striking instance of a caesura in these lines. [1]

7. What is the central image of this verse, i.e., what object or force, not explicitly named, isnevertheless there at the heart of the scene? (Use your visual imagination). [1]

8. In one paragraph, identify the essential relationship between the central image you havenoted, and the various metrical effects you have perceived. Note: if you do not have the rightanswer to Q.7 you will not be able to answer this properly. [10]

For two bonus marks, (a) identify the house which Yeats is implicitly describing in this poem,and (b) the name of the tower which is alluded to in the two poems that follow.

[2]

Assignment 7Imaginative Structure in PoetryYeats, 'Sailing to Byzantium'

Read 'Sailing to Byzantium', and answer the following questions.

1. Comment briefly (one or two sentences only) on the title of this poem. [3]

2. Explain why “That” is “no country for old men”. [4]

3. Paraphrase Stanza 3; that is, put it into your own words in such a way as to render the precisesense of what Yeats is saying (do not use, any more than is absolutely necessary, the words ofYeats himself), [4]

4. Explain in your own words (but this time do not paraphrase) what is happening in the finalstanza of the poem. [4]

5. Write one paragraph (perhaps four or five sentences), in which you identify the central imageof the final stanza, and indicate how that stanza embodies a response to what has been said instanzas 1 to 3. [10]

5. For two bonus marks, name (a) the town in which Yeats saw the mosaics which inspired thepoem, and (b) the Emperor who was responsible for them. [2]

Assignment 8Poetical Argument

Yeats, 'Among School Children'

1. In one sentence, identify the situation depicted in the first stanza of the poem. [3]

2. In stanza II, identify "a Ledean body" and "Plato's parable". [2]

3. In stanza IV, explain the "Quattrocento finger". [2]

4. Paraphrase (that is, explain in your own words) Stanza V. [3]

5. In your own words, define the difference between Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras, asexpounded in stanza VI of the poem. [3]

6. What does Yeats mean, in stanza VII, by "Presences" and "self-born mockers of man'senterprise". [2]

7. Write one paragraph (perhaps four or five sentences) in which you explicate the finalstanza of the poem, conveying how its poetical meaning is expressed in the images of thechestnut-tree and the dance. [10]

8. For two bonus marks, find from two other poems by Yeats two images that are similar tothe "marble and bronze" of 'Among School Children'; and comment briefly on their effect.

[2]

Assignment 9Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds

Passage for Discussion: the end of the novel ("Conclusion of the book, ultimate"):

1. Comment briefly (no more than 30 words) on five of the following: [15]

a. "Evil is even, truth is an odd number":

b. "the serial enigma of the night":

c. "the mad king":

d. "an inverted sow neurosis":

e. "The accepted principles of Behaviourism":

f. "One man will think he has a glass bottom":

g. "good-bye, good-bye, good-bye"

2. Write one well-formed paragraph in which you consider in what respects this final sectionof the novel is, indeed, a conclusion. [10]

3. For two bonus marks, (a) identify from near the beginning of the novel (p. 14) among thelist of birds the odd one out, and (b) comment on its wider importance to Flann O'Brien.

[2]

Assignment 10,Brian Friel, Translations

Please Note: because this assignment is due in the final week of teaching it may proveimpossible to record the mark on the notice-board before the final examination.

1. In one sentence, comment upon the title of this play. [3]

2. Identify, and discuss briefly, four moments in which linguistic ambiguities or difficulties oftranslation are critical. [12]

3. Write a well-formed paragraph in which you use the information defined in your answersto questions 1 and 2 to determine the central issue (or issues) at the heart of the play.

[10]