00251--The Best 10 Quotes of Mark Twain


1. Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

2. A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

3. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

4. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

5. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

6. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

7. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.

8. Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

9. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

10.        Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.

00250--RASA/Indian Aesthetics/Literary Term



Indian aesthetics has borrowed highly from the myths and legends related to Krishna.  Krishna is the archetypal rasika . Indian philosophers  emphasis on the importance of rasa in understanding and appreciating the arts in general, and the theatre arts in particular. 
1.      The rasa theory was originally formulated by BHARATHA in his treatise NATYASHASTRA.
2.      Rasa is not of one kind but of many, it is the total of many ingredients.  Guna or Value is one of the ingredients.
3.      From  BHARATHA  onwards the term signified the aesthetic pleasure or thrill, invariably accompanied with joy that the audience/spectator/reader, experience while witnessing/hearing the enactment or reading of a drama or poem.
4.      In Sanskrit aesthetics, the term employed initially in the context of drama and later poetry.
5.      For BHARATHA the main purpose of dramatic performance is to create and enact the rasas.  He clarifies his point by using an analogy: just as rasa (flavor) issues from the combination of many spices, herbs and other dravyas, so does rasa in drama, as it comes from the combination of many bhavas.


00249-- ugc-net objective type question answers links


I see that visitors find it difficult to get all the ugc-net posts due to the complex display.  Here I am giving you links to all the 8 posts on ugc-net.  Just click on each link below.  Good luck!

post one
post two
post three
post four
post five 
post six
post seven
post eight

00248--OF STUDIES/ESSAY/FRANCIS BACON [English literature free notes]







                      OF STUDIES

The word ‘essay’ was first used by the French writer Montaigne from whom Bacon adopted it. Bacons essays are in a class apart from those of the other essayists like Lamb, Macaulay and Addison.  He himself called them “pithy jottings, rather apt than curious’.  The description exactly fits his writings, especially earlier essays like “Of Studies”.


In “Of Studies”, the sentences are nearly all short; crisp and sententious.  There are few connectives.  Each sentence stands by itself, expressing briefly and precisely his weighty thought.  The epigrammatic terseness and the sharp antithesis and balance are seen as found in all his writings.  But in, “Of Truth”, Bacon imparts warmth and colour to his style.  Illustrations abound, metaphors and similies crop up.  In “Of Studies” each sentence is a concentrated expression of his idea, and most of them have acquired the universal currency of proverbs.


Bacon speaks at length of the value of study.  According to him, three purposes are served by studies. 

1.  They give delight.
2.  They are an ornament to man.
3.  They add to the ability of man.

In retirement and in aloofness reading gives pleasure.  As an ornament, one’s study adorns one’s conversation.  The ability of a learned man is seen in his judgment and in the way he carries out his business.  Even experienced men turn to learned people for advice and guidance.  Yet to spend too much time in studies is a sort of idleness, and to use one’s knowledge too much in conversation is nothing short of affectedness. To judge wholly by the rules one has studied is the tendency of a scholar.  Studies perfect the inborn talent of man, which is further completed by experience.  In this respect studies are like natural plants which require pruning.  Reading should not tempt one to contradict others.  Neither should one believe all that is stated in books.  What is absorbed from books should be weighed well before introducing them in one’s talk.


Bacon speaks of different types of books in his essay entitled “Of Studies”.

1.     Some books are to be tasted  [just enough to go through the book]
2.     Others to be swallowed  [read with great attention]
3.     Few to be chewed and digested  [each word must be meditated upon]


Condensed or abridged books are like distilled water, bright but tasteless.  Books on history add to the wisdom of man, for they are authentic account of the plots and plans made by the leaders of men who have gained tremendous success in life or failed miserably.  Reading of poetry makes man intelligent and imaginative, for poets present an imaginary world in their works.  The study of mathematics makes men clever and quick in grasping.  The study of natural science increases the depth of mind.  Morality makes men grave and the study of logic enables men to argue well. 


Reading, according to Bacon, makes a man well-informed while conversation makes him quick-witted, and writing makes him impeccable.  To write well he needs a good memory, for a writer should be careful not to repeat his ideas. 


Bacon concludes his essay “Of Studies” by suggesting remedies for deficiencies in some of the mental faculties.  He believes that there is scarcely any frailty in human mind which cannot be dispelled by the study of a subject fit for such a mind.  Just as physical exercises can cure the diseases of the body, the imperfections of the mind can be expelled by study. 


Bowling is considered good for curing the stones in the kidney; shooting is good exercise for lungs and breast; gentle walking is good for the stomach and riding is prescribed for any illness associated with the head.  Similarly, if a man’s mind lacks concentration he should study mathematics in which if his mind wanders from the subject, he will have to start again from the beginning.  If one is unable to discover the fine distinctions, he should study the works of the medieval philosophers who were skilled in subtle debates, and in the case of men who cannot argue well, Bacon recommend the study of the lawyer’s cases.  Thus every defect of the mind can be cured by the study of the proper subject.

                                                         END



00247--The Best 10 Quotes of George Bernard Shaw [English literature free notes]






1.  England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

2.  Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

3.  A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.

4.  The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

5.  Martyrdom is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

6.  The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

7.  We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

8.  Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

9.  Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

10.  A happy family is but an earlier heaven.

00246-- Eliza Doolittle/Character Sketch/Pygmalion/Bernard Shaw [English literature free notes]

                                                     
                                             
                                             Eliza Doolittle

In the beginning Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl from the slums of London.  She is ignorant, dirty and full of terrible Cockney dialect which even the taxi driver can't understand.  After six months this same girl becomes a young beautiful Duchess who charms everyone at the Ambassador's garden party. 


Even in the first scene on the portico of St.Paul's church, on that rainy night we get the impression that Eliza is not just an ordinary flower girl.  She is bold, confident and even a little impudent.  There she confronts Freddy, the people standing there.  She calls Higgins a man stuffed with nails.  When Pickering and Higgins sing a song with various rhyming names she asks them not to be silly.  Prof.Higgins develops her this self confidence and transforms her into a lady.  But even then she can lose her temper and even throw his slippers at Higgins' face. 

The girl who walked into the Wimpole Street was a poor nervous girl, but at the same time one who had determined to become a lady or at least an assistant in a flower shop.  The fact that she was prepared to pay Higgins the fee for this work shows her individuality.  In a short time Eliza becomes so indispensable that when she threatens to leave, Higgins complains that he can't find anything and can't remember his appointments.  She becomes an efficient personal assistant to Higgins and Pickering. 

Higgins training turns out to be a bitter battle for Eliza.  Higgins was a severe master he bullied and hectored her.  He threatened to drag her around the room three times by her hair if she made a mistake twice.  Eliza was a keen intelligent student. She absorbed everything and was very sharp.  She learned easily and made rapid progress.  In fact for both Higgins and Eliza the process of teaching and learning was a hard task.  Later on she confesses that while Higgins taught her how to speak it was Pickering who unknowingly taught her good manners. At Mrs.Higgins' house both the gentlemen are lavish in their praise of Eliza.

Happiness is an elusive thing for Eliza.  as soon as she is big enough to earn her own living she is sent out of her home.  As a flower girl she struggles to make a living.  She lives in a dingy room in a dirty locality.  Even after she becomes a lady she is far from being happy.    She expected Higgins to like her and propose to her.  But for Higgins she was only an object of an experiment.  

Higgins' bullying reaches a point where Eliza in desperation hits back.  This happens only after she suffers enough.  Only Pickering's gentle attitude helps her to carry on.  Even after she marries Freddy she depends on Pickering's financial support.

Eliza's relationship with Higgins seems unnatural.  But Shaw made it intentionally so.  After she becomes Higgin's pupil she comes to know that her master is too strong to be involved emotionally with her as a woman,as he told Pickering a pupil was only a block of wood for him.  When she discovers that Higgins can never be a husband she is much chagrined.  But she becomes strong enough to find love in Freddy who needed her more than she needed him.  In the end Eliza earns the appreciation or even the admiration of Higgins himself.  He had made a flower girl a duchess and then changed a duchess into a real woman.

                                                               END






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