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OLLSCOIL NA hÉIREANN, GAILLIMH
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY
SECOND SITTING EXAMINATIONS, 2009/
FIRST ARTS EXAMINATION
EN124 Introduction to English 1
Professor A. Minnis
Professor S. Matterson
Professor S. Ryder
Dr F. McCormack
Dr L. Pilkington
Dr P. Lonergan
TIME ALLOWED: TWO HOURS
This exam paper has two Parts: Part 1 Drama and Part 2 Poetry.
You must answer questions in both Parts.
Use separate answerbooks for each Part.
PART 1: DRAMA
Answer one question from Section 1 (Contemporary Drama) AND one question from Section 2 (Classical Drama).
Section 1: Contemporary Drama (50 marks). Spend no more than 25 minutes on this section.
Choose one of the passages on the following page. Explain in some detail how the passage would affect the audience’s understanding of this moment in the play and of the play in its entirety.
Contd./…
a) Angels in America ROY: This is… this is gastric juices churning, this is enzymes and acids, this is intestinal is what it is, bowel movement and blood-red meat – this stinks, this is politics , Joe, the game of being alive
b) Blasted IAN: This isn’t a story anyone wants to hear […] SOLDIER: “Tell them you saw me
c) The Weir JACK: Down in the garage. Spinning small jobs out all day. Taking hours to fix a puncture. Stops you thinking about what might have been and what you should have done. It’s like looking away. Like I did at that reception. You should only catch someone’s eye for the right reason. And I’ll tell you – there’s not on morning I don’t wake up with her name in the room.
d) By the Bog of Cats MRS KILBRIDE: If Carthage will be as good a son to Caroline as he’s been a husband to me, she’ll have no complaints.
Section 2: Classical Drama (50 marks). Spend no more than 25 minutes on this section.
Choose one of the passages below. Explain in some detail how the passage would affect the audience’s understanding of this moment in the play and of the play in its entirety.
a) Oedipus OEDIPUS. Jokasta? This is the same man? JOKASTA. Don’t ask. It’s gossip. Not important. Leave it. OEDIPUS. It could tell me who I am.
b) Everyman FELLOWSHIP. Sir, I must needs know your heaviness; I have pity to see you in any distress. If any have you wronged, ye shall revenged be, Though I on the ground be slain for thee, Though that I know before that I should die.
c) Doctor Faustus FAUSTUS. How I am glutted with conceit of this! Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, Resolve me of all ambiguities, Perform what desperate enterprise I will? I’ll have them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient-pearl, And search all corners of the new-found world For pleasant fruits and delicates.
d) The Duchess of Malfi BOSOLA. O, she’s gone again: there the cords of life broke. O sacred innocence, that sweetly sleeps On turtles’ feathers, whilst a guilty conscience Is a black regrister, wherein is writ All our good deeds and bad, a perspective That shows us hell! That we cannot be suffer’d To do good when we have a mind to it! This is manly sorrow: These tears, I am very certain, never grew In my mother’s milk. Contd./…
Section 2 (80 marks). Spend no more than 40 minutes on this section.
Answer one of the following questions, making reference to at least three poems from the course. Each poem must be by a different poet.
- Write an essay assessing the importance of ‘tradition’ in the writing of poetry.
- How may poetry and politics relate to each other?
- ‘Poetry depends upon sound effects as well as the meaning of words.’ Discuss this opinion.
END EN
