Prose Brief Suggestion Masters 2019-20
The American Scholar Brief Suggestion
Q.1. What philosophy of Emerson does the essay embody?
Ans. It embodies Emerson’s philosophy of what an American Scholar’s profession should be like. It introduces the concept of One Man divided into many with different duties and functions.
Q.2. What does Emerson mean by the “sere remains of foreign harvests”?
Ans. He means the withered or useless knowledge acquired by other countries, especially the European countries.
Q.3. What does Emerson compare the emerging American poetry with?
Ans. Emerson compares American poetry with Vega which belongs to the constellation Lyra, and is the fourth brightest star of the heavens. Poetry, like Vega, will shine very bright in the heavens of American literature for a thousand years.
Q.4. What is the Root of both Nature and the human mind?
Ans. The Root of both Nature and human mind is the soul of soul.
Q.5. Why is the pleasure from books remarkable?
Ans. The pleasure from reading books is remarkable because books impress us with the conviction that one nature wrote and the same reads.
Q.6. What is pre-established harmony?
Ans. Pre-established harmony is a philosophical doctrine expounded by Leibniz. It states that God from the very beginning of His creation ensured the harmony of each monad’s development with that of others.
Q.7. What is the traditional notion about a Scholar?
Ans. The traditional notion about a scholar is that he should be a recluse, a valetudinarian, as unfit for any handiwork or public labour as a penknife for an axe.
Q.8. What does the writer mean by the “dumb abyss”?
Ans. The writer means the wide world around us when he mentions the words “dumb abyss”.
Q.9. Who has the richest return of wisdom?
Ans. The man who has put forth his total strength in fit actions has the richest return to wisdom.
Q.10. What do you understand by the principle of Undulation in Nature?
Ans. The principle of Undulation in Nature is the law in Nature which makes the opposite phenomena in Nature like the ebb and flow of the sea, day and night, etc occur repeatedly.
Q.11. What should be the shame of the Scholar?
Ans. It would be a shame to the scholar if his tranquillity, amid dangerous times, arises from the presumption that like children and women, he is a protected class.
Q.12.What notion is mischievous?
Ans. The notion that we come late into nature, and that the world was finished a long time ago, is mischievous.
More Brief
Q.1. How does Emerson assess Swedenborg’s philosophy?
Ans. Emerson thinks that Swedenborg showed the mysterious bond that allies moral evil to the foul material forms, and has given a theory of insanity, of beasts, of unclean and fearful things.
Q.2. What is the remedy for the deplorable conditions of the youths of America?
Ans. The remedy is that the young man should plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and should abide there.
Q.3. What was the occasion on which Emerson gave his speech “The American Scholar”?
Ans. He gave the address “The American Scholar” on the occasion of the recommencement of the college year which usually began at Harvard College on 1 September.
Q.4. What is the main job of an American Scholar?
More: Tree without Roots Bangla Summary (বাংলা সামারি)
Ans. The main job of an American Scholar is to develop unflinching self-trust and a mind that will be a repository of wisdom for other people.
Q.5. What is a scholar in the right state of society? American Scholar
Ans. In the right state of society, a scholar is the Man Thinking.
Q.6.What is the “Other me”?
Ans. The wide world around us is the other me.
Q.7. What is neoclassicism?
Ans. Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the “classical” art and culture of classical antiquity.
Q.8 What must the Scholar read?
Ans. The scholar must read history and exact science.
Q.9. “There is one man of genius” – Who does Emerson say this about?
Ans. Emerson refers this quotation to Emanuel Swedenborg.
Q.10, What is the office of the scholar? Ans. The office or of the main job scholar is to cheer, to raise, and to guide men by showing them facts amid appearances.
Civil Disobedience Brief Suggestion
Q.1.What is the logical corollary or conclusion of the motto, “That government is best which governs least”?
Ans. The logical corollary of the motto, “That government is best which governs least” is “That government is best which governs not at all.”
Q.2.What was happening with the American government of Thoreau’s time?
Ans. The American government of Thoreau’s time was losing integrity every moment.
Q 3.Why are the majority permitted to rule for a long time?
Ans. The majority are permitted to rule and continue to rule for a long time not because they are in the right, or fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest.
More: In My Craft or Sullen Art Bangla Summary (বাংলায়)
Q.4. How do heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers serve the state, according to Thoreau?
Ans. According to Thoreau, heroes, patriots, martyrs, and reformers serve the state with their conscience.
Q.5.How do feelings about sins progress from one state to another?
Ans. After the first blush of sins comes its indifference, and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to life that we have made.
Q.6. When does a man meet an everlasting death?
Ans. When conscience is wounded, that should be regarded as bloodshed. Through this wound a man’s real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death.
Q.7. How many years did the author not pay the poll-tax?
Ans. He did not pay the poll-tax for six-years.
Q.8. Why was the author imprisoned for one night?
Ans. He was imprisoned for one night as he did not pay the poll-tax.
Q.9. Why does the writer refuse to pay the tax-bill?
Ans. He refuses to pay the tax-bill not because of any particular item in it, but because he simply wishes to refuse allegiance to the state, to withdraw and stand aloof from it.
Q.10. What is the author’s opinion about those who pay the tax?
Ans. In the author’s opinion, those who pay the tax rather abet injustice to a greater extent than the state requires.
Q.11. What does Thoreau say about legislators of genius?
Ans. Thoreau says that no man with a genius for legislation has yet appeared in America.
Q.12. What kind of a state is the author pleased to imagine?
Ans. The author is pleased to imagine a state which can afford to be just to all men and to treat the individual with respect, and not to interfere with individuals who wanted to live aloof from it, and who fulfill all the duties of neighbours and fellowmen.
More Brief
Q.1. How do the reformers serve the state?
Ans. Reformers at times disagree with the conventional ideals and decisions of the state. They want change for the betterment of the masses.
Q.2. When is a minority powerless?
Ans. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority.
Q.3. Who uses their conscience to serve the state?
Ans. Very few people such as heroes, patriots, martyrs, and reformers use their conscience to serve the state.
Q.4.What is the result of an undue respect for law?
Ans. In undue respect for law is the creation of a fete of soldiers,
Q.5. Who, according to Thoreau, are the enemies of the state?
Ans. Heroes, martyrs, patriots, and reformers are regarded as enemies of the state colonel, captain, etc. marching towards warfield.
Q.6. What kind of state does Thoreau dream of?
Ans. Thoreau dreams of a state which can afford to be just to all men and to treat the individual with respect, and not to interfere with his freedom.
Q.7. In Thoreau’s opinion, what action is essentially revolutionary?
Ans. Action from principle, the perception and performance of right changes of things and relations; are essentially revolutionary.
Q.8. What is Thoreau’s opinion regarding voting?
Ans. Thoreau regards voting as a sort of gaming like checkers and backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it. It is playing with right or wrong.
Shakespeare’s Sister Brief Suggestion
Q.1. Why does the author say that fiction (imaginative work) is like a web?
Ans. A spider’s web is a complicated structure. It has to be attached to any place at four points. Fiction is likewise, a very complicated thing, and has to be connected with deep recesses of life.
Q.2. What kind of an affair was marriage during the Elizabethan age in England?
Ans. Marriage was an affair of family avarice, particularly in the chivalrous upper classes.
Q.3. What was the position of women during the time of the Stuarts?
Ans. Women’s position did not change even during the next two hundred years. Still the women of the upper and middle class were not allowed to choose their own husbands.
Q.4. What intellectual status of woman is found in fiction and in reality?
Ans. In fiction some of the most inspired words fall from her lips, and some of the most profound thoughts come from her, but in reality she could hardly read and spell words.
Q.5. What did an old bishop remark about women?
Ans. An old bishop remarked that it was impossible for any woman, past, present, or future, to have the genius of Shakespeare.
Q.6. Why does the writer think the genius of woman could not be born during the Elizabethan age?
Ans. The writer thinks that a woman genius could not be born during the Elizabethan age because genius is not born among the labouring, uneducated, and servile people, and because Elizabethan women were forced to marry and start family life very early in life..
Q.7. What does the author say about Shakespeare’s state of mind when he wrote his dramas?
Ans. The author says that Shakespeare never said anything about his state of mind when he wrote his dramas.
Q.8. What were the things that a girl was debarred from?
Ans. She was debarred from such alleviations as a walking tour, or a little journey to France or a separate lodging which could shelter her from the claims and tyrannies of her family.
Q.9. What was the experiment of the dairy company?
Ans. They experimented the effect of ordinary milk and Grade A milk upon the rats. They fed ordinary milk to one rat and Grade A milk to another.
Q.10. What was Mr. Oscar Brwning’s opinion about women?
Ans. Mr. Oscar Browning’s opinion about women was that the best woman was intellectually inferior to the worst man.
Q.11. What did Lady Bessborough write to Lord Granville Leveson-Gower?
Ans. She wrote that no woman had any business to meddle with that or any other serious business, further than giving her opinion.
Q.12. What are the modern girl students likely to say?
Ans. They are likely to say that genius should disregard any disparaging opinion, and that genius should be above caring what is said of it.
Q.13. What is feminism?
Ans. Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal to establish and achieve equal political, economic, personal and social rights for women.
Q.14. What is the name of Shakespeare’s imaginary sister?
Ans. Judith Shakespeare is an imaginary sister of Shakespeare, created by Virginia Woolf in her Shakespeare’s Sister.
Q.15.. How does Mr. Oscar evaluate a woman’s intellect?
More Brief
Ans. Mr. Oscar Browning’s opinion about women was that the best of women was intellectually inferior to the worst man.
Q.1. What does Virginia Woolf want to know from the historians?
Ans. She wanted to know under what conditions women lived, not throughout the ages, but in England in the Elizabethan period.
Q.2. Women of what particular period does Virginia Woolf attack in ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’?
Ans. In “Shakespeare’s Sister”, Virginia Woolf attacks the women of Period.
Q.3. How were women treated by men in the essay ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’?
Ans. In reality, women were treated most ignominiously; she was locked up, beaten and flung about the room.
Q.4. What does Virginia Woolf refer to by the phrase “that extraordinary literature”?
Ans. By the phrase “that extraordinary literature”. The writer refers to the literature of the Elizabethan period of England.
Q.5. What question does Virginia Woolf raise about the Elizabethan age?
Ans. Virginia Woolf raises the question why the Elizabethan women did not write poetry or fiction in the Elizabethan age.
Tradition and Individual Talent Brief Suggestion
Q.1. What does every nation and every race have?
Ans. Every nation and every race has its own creative, as well as critical turn of mind.
Q.2. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance than what?
Ans. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance than merely following the immediate predecessors blindly.
Q.3. How does the writer define the historical sense?
Ans. To the writers, the historical sense is a sense of the timeless as well as of the temporal, and of the timeless and the temporal together.
Q.4. What must the poet be conscious of?
Ans. The poet must be conscious of the main current, which does not at all flow invariably through the most distinguished reputations, or famous writers.
Q.5.What does Eliot call this theory of poetry?
Ans. Eliot calls this theory “impersonal theory of poetry”.
Q.6. How does the mind of the mature poet differ from that of the immature one?
Ans. The mind of the mature poet differs from that of the immature one, not in any valuation of personality, but in the capacity for becoming a medium for expression of feelings and emotions.
Q.7. What is the mind of a poet?
Ans. The mind of a poet is a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together.
Q.8. What does the author comment on Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale”?
Ans. He says the ode contains a number of feelings, which have nothing to do with the nightingale, but which the nightingale served to bring together because of its name and fame.
Q.9. What is the business of the poet?
Ans. The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones, and in working them up into poetry, to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all, and emotions never experienced, will serve his turn as well as his familiar emotions.
Q.10. “Emotions recollected in tranquility” whose poetic theory is it?
Ans. It is the poetic theory of William Wordsworth, who heralded the Romantic Age, and is one of the greatest Romantic poets.
Q.11. What does Eliot comment on a bad poet?
Ans. Eliot says that a bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be unconscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.
Q.12. How does Eliot define his theory of the creation of poetry?
Ans. He defines his theory of the creation of poetry by saying that “poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.’’
More Brief
Q.1. How can tradition be obtained?
Ans. According to Eliot, Tradition cannot be inherited. It must be obtained by hard labour, meaning by serious study and research.
Q.2. How is the emotion of art according to Eliot?
Ans. The emotion of art is impersonal.
Q.3.What is ‘impersonal theory of poetry”?
Ans. Personal feelings and emotions of a poet should be absent in composing poems.
Q.4. What is the function of a catalyst?
Ans. A catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction. but is not consumed by the reaction; hence a catalyst can be recovered chemically unchanged at the end of the reaction it has been used to speed up, or catalyze.
Q.5. What does Eliot mean by ‘tradition”?
Ans. By ‘tradition’, Eliot does not mean to follow ways of the immediate generation before us”. “Tradition is a matter of much wider significance”, says the writer. It involves the historical sense which in its turn, “involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past, but of its presence.”
Q.6. What does Eliot mean by a continual extinction of personality?
Ans. By ‘a continual extinction of personality’, Eliot means depersonalization.
Q.7. When should ‘tradition’ be positively discouraged?
Ans. ‘Tradition should be positively discouraged if it meant blindly following the ways of the immediately preceding generation for their success.
Q.8. How is the mind of a poet like a catalyst?
Ans. The mind of a poet is a receptacle for seizing and storing up numberless feelings, phrases, images, which remain there until all the particles which can unite to form a new compound are present together.
Literature and Society Brief Suggestion
Q.1. What does all of Mr. Eliot’s early prose lay stress on?
Ans. Mr. Eliot’s early prose lays stress on other things besides individual talent and originative impulse from within.
Q.2. Who formulated the idea of Tradition?
Ans. T.S. Eliot formulated the idea of Tradition.
Q.3. Which phrase used by Leavis might be called misleading?
Ans. The phrase “the Romantic attitude”, used by Leavis may be called misleading.
Q.4. What did the Augustan tradition originate in?
Ans. The Augustan tradition originated in the great changes in civilisation that made the second part of the 17th century look so unlike the first, the conventions, standards and idiom of its confident maturity, that laid heavy stress on the social.
Q.5. Whom does Leavis regard as such a genius in the late 18th century?
Ans. Leavis regards William Blake as such a genius the late 18th century.
Q.6. What did Blake essentially do?
Ans. Blake essentially reversed for himself the shift of stress that occurred at the Restoration.
Q.7. What did not make Blake prosperously self-sufficient?
Ans. The measure of collaboration and support represented by The English language did not make Blake prosperously self- sufficient; he needed something more, something that he did not get.
Q.8. What was Bunyan’s aim in The Pilgrim’s Progress?
Ans. Bunyan’s aim in The Pilgrim’s Progress was to preach his Puritan religious outlook.
Q.9. How did the Southern Appalachians acquire the culture?
Ans. Their culture, their language, wisdom, manners, and many graces of life was handed down to them generation after generation.
Q.10. does Bunyan himself show?
Ans. Bunyan himself shows how popular culture could merge with literary culture at the level of great literature.
More Brief
Q.1. How does Wordsworth differ from Blake? Or, In which respect are Wordsworth and Blake different?
Ans. Blake and Wordsworth are different from each other in respect of the kind of interest they had. Blake showed interest in the people or “folk”, whereas Wordsworth showed interest in something felt as external to the world.
Q.2. What can only the trained frequentization of literature bring?
Ans. Only the trained frequentization of literature can bring the sensitizing familiarity with the subtleties of language, and the insight into the relations between abstract or generalizing thought and the concrete of human experience.
Q.3. What are the “Other things” that Leavis say “were present in Literary history and criticism”?
Ans. The “Other things” are influences, environments and the extra-literary conditions of literary production and we are not fully conscious of the influence of ideas and attitudes. These are important
to understand any significant achievement in art.
Q.4. What did the romantic critical tradition lay stress on?
Ans. The Romantic critical tradition laid stress on inspiration and individual genius.
Q.5. What is “The Pilgrim’s progress”?
Ans. The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most widely read book in English, and the greatest work of John Bunyan.
Q.6. What should the poet be alert of?
Ans. He must be aware of the obvious fact that art never improves, but that the material of art is never quite the same, and the mind of Europe and of his own country changes by way of development which abandons nothing en route, and which does not superannuate any author.
Q.7. Who is the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress”?
Ans. John Bunyan was the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Q.8. What did romantic poets lay stress on, according to Leavis?
Ans. The Romantic critical tradition laid stress on inspiration and individual genius.
Q.9. What was Mr. Eliot’s early prose directed against, according to F.R. Leavis?
Ans. According to Leavis, Mr. Eliot’s early prose was directed against the Romantic tradition.
Q.10. What does F.R. Leavis call the Romantic tradition of criticism?
Ans. He calls the Romantic tradition of criticism an atmosphere of the unformulated and vague.
