MOLIERE: The Imaginary Invalid
1. Comment on the relationship between Argan and Beline. What lessons do you learn from their relationship?
2. Describe the character of Toinette and show her dramatic significance in the play.
HENRIK IBSEN : A Dolls House
3. Describe the character of Dr. Rank and show his contribution to the play, A Doll’s House.
4.What is the role of Mrs. Linde in the development of the play, A Doll’s House?
OKOIT OMTATAH : Lwanda Magere
5. ‘This is my due harvest! Everyman reaps what he sowed…’ Discuss the truth of this statement with close reference to the character of Lwanda Magere.
6. What role do the female characters play in the play, Lwanda Magere?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE : King Lear
7. How does the playwright use disguise in the play, King Lear?
8. Discuss the importance of the storm as presented in the play, King Lear.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE : Romeo and Juliet
9. Discuss the Shakespeare’s use of contrast in Romeo and Juliet.
10. How does Shakespeare use physical setting in the play, Romeo and Juliet.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE : Julius Caesar
11.. Discuss any three major techniques that Shakespeare uses in Julius Caesar.
12. How effectively does Shakespeare use irony in the play, Julius Caesar?
13. GEORGE BERNARD SHAW : The Devil’s Disciple
JUDITH. I want to stay; but (suddenly raging at him like an angry child) it is not because I like you.
RICHARD. Indeed!
JUDITH. Yes: I had rather you did go than mistake me about that. I hate and dread you; my husband knows it. If you are not here when he comes back, he will believe that I disobeyed him and drove you away.
RICHARD (ironically): Whereas, of course, you have really been so kind and hospitable and charming to me that I only want to go away out of mere contrariness, eh?
Judith, unable to bear it, sinks on the chair and bursts into tears.
RICHARD. Stop, stop, stop, I tell you. Don’t do that. ( Putting his hand to his breast as if to a wound). He wrung my heart by being a man. Need you tear it by being a woman? Has he not raised you above my insults, like himself? (She stops crying and recovers herself somewhat, looking at him with a scared curiosity.)
There: that’s right. (Sympathetically) You’re better now, aren’t you? (He puts his hand encouragingly on her shoulder. She instantly rises haughtily, and stares at him defiantly. He at once drops into his usual sardonic tone) Ah, that’s better. You are yourself again: so is Richard. We, shall we go to tea like a quiet respectable couple, and wait for your husband’s return?
JUDITH. (rather ashamed of herself). If you please, I –I am sorry to have been so foolish. (She stoops to take up the plate of toast from the fender).
RICHARD. I am sorry, for your sake, that I am – what I am. Allow me. (He takes the plate from her and goes with it to the table).
JUDITH. ( following with the teapot). Will you sit down? (He sits down at the end of the table nearest the press. There is a plate and knife laid there. The other plate is laid near it, but Judith stays at the opposite end of the table, next the fire, and takes her place there, drawing the tray towards her). Do you take sugar?
RICHARD. No: but plenty of milk. Let me give you some toast. (He puts some on the second plate, and hands it to her, with a knife. The action shows quietly how well he knows that she has avoided her usual place so as to be as far from him as possible).
JUDITH. (consciously). Thanks. (She gives him his tea.) Won’t you help yourself?
RICHARD. Thanks. (He puts a piece of toast on his own plate; and she pours out tea for herself).
JUDITH. (observing that he tastes nothing). Don’t like it? You are not eating anything.
RICHARD. Neither are you
JUDITH. (nervously) I never care much for my tea. Please don’t mind me.
RICHARD.(Looking dreamily round) I am thinking. It is all so strange to me. I can see the beauty and peace of this home; I think I have never been more at rest in my life than at this moment; and yet I know quite well I could never live her. It’s not in my nature, I suppose, to be domesticated. But It’s very beautiful; It’s almost holy. (He muses a moment, and then laughs softly).
JUDITH. (quickly). Why do you laugh?
RICHARD, I was thinking that if any stranger came in here now, he would take us for man and wife.
JUDITH. (taking offence) You mean, I suppose, that you are more my age than he is.
RICHARD. (staring at this unexpected turn) I never thought of such a thing (Sardonic again). I see there is another side to domestic joy.
JUDITH. (angrily) I would rather have a husband whom everybody respects than – than –
RICHARD. Than the devil’s disciple. You are right; but I daresay your love helps him to be a good man, just as your hate helps me to be a bad one.
JUDITH. My husband has been very good to you. He has forgiven you for insulting him, and is trying to save you. Can you not forgive him for being so much better than you are? How dare you belittle him by putting yourself in his place?
RICHARD. (listening) Sh!
A VOICE (outside) Halt! Four outside; two in with me.
Judith half rises, listeninig and looking with dialted eyes at Richard, who takes up his cup prosaically, and is drinking his tea when the latch goes up with a sharp click, and an English sergeant walks into the room with two privates, who post themselves at the door. He comes promptly to the table between them.
THE SERGEANT. Sorry to disturb you, ma’am. Duty! Anthony Anderson: I arrest you in King George’s name as a rebel.
JUDITH. (pointing at Richard) But that is not – (He looks up quickly at her, with a face of iron. She stops her mouth hastily with the hand she has raised to indicate him, and stands staring affrightedly).
THE SERGEANT. Come, Parson: put your coat on and come along.
Questions:
- What events lead to this passage?
- Describe the character of Richard Dudgeon as revealed in this passage.
- Discuss the effectiveness of the dramatic techniques used in this passage.
- What is the significance of this extract to the rest of the play?
14. R.B. SHERIDAN : The School for Scandal
JOSEPH: Gentlemen, I beg your pardon, I must wait on you downstairs. Here is a person come on particular business.
CHARLES: Well, you can see him in another room. Sir Peter and I have not met a long time, and I have something to say to him.
JOSEPH [aside]: They must not be left together. [Aloud] I’ll send this man away and return directly. [Apart to SIR PETER and goes out] Sir Peter, not a word of the French Milliner.
SIR PETER [Apart to JOSEPH]: I? Not for the world. [Aloud] Ah, Charles, if you associated more with your brother, one might indeed hope for your reformation. He is a man of sentiment. Well, there is nothing in the world so noble as a man of sentiment.
CHARLES: Pshaw, he is too moral by half – and so apprehensive of his good name, as he calls it, that I suppose he would as soon let a priest into his house as a girl.
SIR PETER: No, no! Come, come, you wrong him. No, no Joseph is no rake, but he is no such saint either in that respect. [Aside] I have a great mind to tell him; we should have a laugh.
CHARLES: Oh, hang him, he’s a very anchorite, a young hermit.
SIR PETER: Hark’ee, you must not abuse him: he may chance to hear of it again, I promise you.
CHARLES: Why, you won’t tell him?
SIR PETER: No. But this way. [Aside] Egad, I’ll tell him [Aloud] Hark’ee, have you a mind to have a good laugh at Joseph?
CHARLES: I should like it of all things.
SIR PETER: Then I’faith, we will! [Aside] I’ll be quit with him for discovering me. [Aloud] He had a girl with him when I called.
CHARLES: What! Joseph? You jest.
SIR PETER: Hush! A little French milliner. And the best of the jest is – she’s in the room now.
CHARLES: The devil she is!
SIR PETER: Hush! I tell you. [Points to the screen]
CHARLES: Behind the screen!’ Slife, let’s unveil her.
SIR PETER: No, no, he’s coming – you shan’t indeed.
CHARLES: Oh, egad, we’ll have a peep at the little milliner.
SIR PETER: Not for the world! Joseph will never forgive me.
CHARLES: I’ll stand by you.
SIR PETER: Odds, here he os!
[Joseph enters just as CHARLES throws down the screen.]
CHARLES: Lady Teazle – by all that’s wonderful!
SIR PETER: Lady Teazle, by all that’s damnable!
CHARLES: Sir Peter, this is one of the smartest French milliners I ever saw. Egad, you seem all to have been diverting yourselves here at hide and seek – and I don’t see who is out of the secret. Shall I beg your ladyship to inform me? Not a word! Brother, will you be pleased to explain this matter? What, is morality dumb too? Sir Peter, though I found you in the dark, perhaps you are not so now? All mute. Well, though I can make nothing of the affair, I suppose you perfectly understand one another, so I’ll leave you to yourselves.[Going] Brother, I am sorry to find you have given that worthy man cause for so much uneasiness. Sir Peter, there’s nothing in the world so noble as a man of sentiment!
[Exist CHARLES. They standf or sometime looking at each other.]
Questions:
- What happens before the incident that is portrayed in the passage?
- Briefly discuss the themes portrayed in the extract.
- Show the effect of the dramatic techniques used in the passage.
- What important lessons do you learn from this extract?
- How significant is the extract to the development of the plot of the play?
15. ROBERT BOLT: A Man for all Seasons
Cromwell Nothing. (He lectures, pacing pedantically up and down) It isn’t like that, Rich. There are no rules. With rewards and penalties – so much wickedness purchases so much worldly prospering – (he breaks off and stops, suddenly struck) Are you sure you’re not religious?
Rich Almost sure.
Cromwell Get sure. (Resumes pacing) No, it’s not like that, it’s much more a matter of convenience, administrative convenience. The normal aim of administration is to keep steady this factor of convenience – and Sir Thomas would agree. Now normally when a man wants to change his woman, you let him if it’s convenient and prevent him if it’s not – normally indeed it’s of so little importance that you leave it to the priests. But the constant factor is this element of convenience.
Rich Whose convenience? ( Cromwell stops)
Cromwell Oh ours. But everybody’s too. (Sets off again)
However, in the present instance the man who wants to change his woman is our Sovereign Lord, Harry, by the Grace if God, the Eight of that name. Which is a quaint way of saying that if he wants to change his woman he will. So that becomes the constant favor. And our job as administrators is to make it as convenient as we can. I say ‘our job’, on the assumption that you’ll take this post at York I’ve offered you?
Rich Yes… yes , yes (But he seems gloomy.)
Cromwell (sits, Sharply) It’s a bad sign when people are depressed by their own good fortune.
Rich (defensive) I’m not depressed!
Cromwell You look depressed.
Rich (hastily buffooning) I’m lamenting. I’ve lost my innocence.
Cromwell You lost that some time ago. If you’ve only just noticed, it can’t have been very important to you.
Rich (much struck) that’s true! Why that’s true, it can’t!
Cromwell We experience a sense of release do we, master Rich? An unfamiliar freshness in the head, as of open air?
Rich (takes wine) Collector of Revenues isn’t bad!
Cromwell Not bad for a start. (He watches Rich drink) Now out present Lord Chancellor – there’s an innocent man.
Rich (puts down glass. Indulgently) The odd thing is – he is.
Cromwell (looks at him with dislike) Yes, I say he is, (The light tone again.) The trouble is, his innocence is tangled in this proposition that you can’t change your woman without a divorce, and can’t have a divorce unless the Pope says so. And although his present Holiness is – judged even by the most liberal standards a strikingly corrupt old person, yet he still has this word ‘Pope’ attached to him. And from this quite meaningless circumstance I fear some degree of…
Rich (pleases, waving his cup) Administrative inconvenience.
Cromwell (nodding as to a pupil word perfect) Just so, (Deadpan) This goblet that he gave you, how much was it worth? (Rich puts doen cup, looks down. Quite gently) Come along, Rich, he gave you a silver goblet. How much did you get for it?
Rich Fifty shillings.
Cromwell Could you take me to the shop?
Rich Yes
Cromwell Where did he get it? (No reply) It was a gift from a litigant, a woman, wasn’t it?
Rich Yes
Cromwell Which court? Chancery? (Restrains Rich from filling his glass.) No, don’t get drunk. In which court was this litigant’s case?
Rich Court of Requests.
Cromwell (grunts, his face abstracted. Becoming aware of Rich’s regard he smiles) There, that wasn’t too painful was it?
Question:
- Briefly describe what precedes this extract.
- Explain the themes depicted in the extract.
- Describe the character of Cromwell as portrayed in the extract.
- Show the significance of this extract to the plot development of the play A Man for all Seasons.
SECTION D
JOHN RUGANDA: Echoes of Silence
16. Discuss the theme of social injustice as portrayed in the play, Echoes of Silence.
17. How relevant is the play, Echoes of Silence, to your contemporary society?
DAVID MULWA: Inheritance
18. What important lessons do you learn from the play, Inheritance?
19. Discuss any three major themes in the play, Inheritance?
FRANCIS IMBUDA: Aminata
20. What is the contribution of the conflict between Jumba and Pastor Nguya to the development of the play, Aminata?
21.Discuss theme of male domination in the play, Aminata.
END