Mulla Nasrudin's wife was giving her
daughter a few interesting facts about married life. "I hope," she told
the young girl, "that your lot in life is going to be easier than mine
was. For the fifty-five years I have been married, I have carried two heavy
burdens, your father and the fire. EVERY TIME I HAVE TURNED AROUND TO LOOK
AFTER ONE OF THEM, THE OTHER HAS GONE OUT."
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00761--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-189
Mulla Nasrudin and his young son were
driving in the country one winter. It was snowing. Their bullock-cart broke
down. They finally reached a farmhouse and were welcomed for the night. The
house was cold, and the attic in which they were invited to spend the night was
like an icebox. Stripping to his underwear, the Mulla jumped into a featherbed
and pulled the blankets over his head.
The young man was slightly embarrassed.
"Excuse me, Dad," he said, "don't you think we ought to say our
prayers before going to bed?"
The Mulla stuck one eye out from under
the covers. "SON," he said, "I KEEP PRAYED UP AHEAD FOR SITUATIONS
JUST LIKE THIS ONE."
00760--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-188
The situation was desperate. Mulla
Nasrudin had been bitten by a rabid dog and the doctors were not certain that
he had begun treatment in time to save him.
After a consultation on the matter,
they came into the room and told him the plain truth -- that he might develop
hydrophobia -- that his chances were pretty bad.
Instead of seeming to be upset at the
news, Mulla Nasrudin asked for a pen and paper and began to write at great
length. After an hour of steady writing, his nurse said to him, "What are you
writing, Mulla? Is it your will or a letter to your family?"
"NO," said Nasrudin,
"IT'S A LIST OF PEOPLE I AM GOING TO BITE."
00759--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-187
"My wife used to play the
piano," a friend told Mulla Nasrudin, "but since the children came,
she has not had time to touch it."
"CHILDREN SOMETIMES ARE A COMFORT,
ARE THEY NOT?" said Nasrudin.
00758--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-186
Mulla Nasrudin was sitting on his cot
in a flophouse.
"You know," he said to the
fellow on the next cot, "when I was seventeen years old, I made up my mind
that nothing was going to stop me from getting rich."
"Well, how came you never got
rich?" his friend asked.
"OH," said Nasrudin, "BY
THE TIME I WAS NINETEEN, I REALIZED IT WOULD BE EASIER TO CHANGE MY MIND."
00757--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-185
Mulla Nasrudin was telling a friend his
future through palmistry. He said, "You will be poor and unhappy and
miserable until you are sixty."
"Then what?" asked the man
hopefully.
"BY THAT TIME," said
Nasrudin, "YOU WILL BE USED TO IT."
00756--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-184
"I am going to get a
divorce," a friend told Mulla Nasrudin. "My wife has not spoken to me
in three months."
"I'D THINK TWICE IF I WERE
YOU," said the Mulla. "WIVES LIKE THAT ARE HARD TO FIND."
00755--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-183
Mulla Nasrudin was obviously envious of
the rich man who had just given him a dollar.
"You have no reason to envy
me," said the rich man, "even if I do look prosperous. I have my
troubles, too, you know."
"YOU HAVE PROBABLY GOT PLENTY OF
TROUBLES," said Nasrudin, "BUT THE DIFFERENCE IS, I AIN'T GOT NOTHING
ELSE, SIR."
00754--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-182
Mulla Nasrudin's son, studying
political science, asked his father, "Dad, what's a traitor in
politics?"
"Any man who leaves our
party," said the Mulla, "and goes over to the other one is a
traitor."
"Well, what about a man who leaves
his party and comes over to your's?" asked the young man.
"HE'D BE A CONVERT, SON,"
said Nasrudin, "A REAL CONVERT."
00753--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-181
The editor tried hard to read Mulla
Nasrudin's handwriting. "Mulla, this handwriting is so bad I can hardly
read it," he said.
"Why didn't you type out these
poems before you brought them in?"
"TYPE THEM!" cried Nasrudin.
"DO YOU THINK FOR A MOMENT THAT IF I COULD TYPE, I WOULD BE WASTING MY
TIME TRYING TO WRITE POETRY?"
00752--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-180
Mulla Nasrudin, carrying a chair,
walked up to the owner of a secondhand store and asked how much it was worth.
"Three dollars," said the
secondhand dealer.
The Mulla seemed surprised. "Isn't
it worth more than that?" he said.
"Three dollars is the limit,"
the owner said. "See that? Where the leg is split? And look here where the
paint is peeling."
"OKAY THEN," said Nasrudin.
"I SAW IT IN FRONT OF YOUR STORE MARKED $10, BUT I THOUGHT THERE MUST BE A
MISTAKE. FOR $3 I WILL TAKE IT."
00751--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-179
Mulla Nasrudin finally bought a parrot
at an auction after some rather spirited bidding.
"I assume the bird talks," he
said to the auctioneer.
"TALKS?" the auctioneer said.
"WHO DO YOU THINK HAS BEEN BIDDING AGAINST YOU FOR THE PAST HALF
HOUR?"
00750--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-178
Mulla Nasrudin had just returned a
sheaf of poems to the budding young poet.
"Do you think it would help if I put
more fire into my poetry, Sir?" the young man asked Nasrudin.
"NO," said the Mulla. "I
WOULD RECOMMEND THE REVERSE."
00749--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-177
Mulla Nasrudin was visited by a boyhood
friend whom he had not seen for years. The man told him a long story of
misfortune: bankruptcy, death of wife and children, personal illness. He ended
by asking for a loan.
The Mulla called his son and a big,
athletic-type walked in. "Son," said Nasrudin, "THROW THIS POOR
FELLOW DOWNSTAIRS; HE IS BREAKING MY HEART."
00748--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-176
"You have got to have more
recreation and relaxation," said Mulla Nasrudin to the overworked friend.
"But I am too busy," said the
friend.
"THAT'S SILLY," replied
Nasrudin. "ANTS HAVE THE GREATEST REPUTATION FOR BEING BUSY ALL THE TIME,
YET THEY NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND A PICNIC."
00747--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-175
Mulla Nasrudin always said: "Oh,
well, it might have been worse."
One day an acquaintance stopped him and
said, "I dreamed last night that I died, went to hell, and was doomed to
everlasting torment."
"Oh, well," said Nasrudin,
"it might have been worse."
"What do you mean, Mulla!"
cried the man. "How could it have been worse?"
"IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRUE,"
said Nasrudin.
00746--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-174
A drunk cowhand rushed into a bar
waving and firing his guns at random and shouting, "All you dirty, lousy
skunks get outta here."
Within a minute everybody had scattered
and disappeared except Mulla Nasrudin, who sat at the bar finishing his drink.
"Well," barked the cowhand,
waving his smoking gun. "What about it?"
"My," said the Mulla,
"THERE WERE CERTAINLY A LOT OF THEM, WEREN'T THEY?"
00745--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-173
A guest at a concert turned to Mulla
Nasrudin sitting next to him and criticised the voice of the woman who was
singing.
"What a terrible voice," he
said. "Do you know who she is?"
"Yes," said the Mulla.
"She's my wife."
"Oh," said the embarrassed
guest, "I beg your pardon. Of course, it is not her voice that is bad, it
is that awful song she has to sing. I wonder who wrote it."
"I DID," said Nasrudin.
00744--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-172
"This sure is a lousy party,"
a guest at a cocktail party said to Mulla Nasrudin, who was next to him.
"I am going to finish this one and then
get out of here."
"I WOULD TOO," said Nasrudin,
"BUT I HAVE GOT TO STAY. I AM THE HOST."
00743--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-171
The editor of the local newspaper was
beside himself. He said to Mulla Nasrudin in the teahouse: "What are we
going to do for our front page tonight? Nothing scandalous has happened in town
for almost twenty-four hours!"
"TAKE IT EASY " said
Nasrudin. "SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN. YOU SHOULDN'T LOSE FAITH IN HUMAN
NATURE, SIR."
00742--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-170
"It certainly is hard," said
the sad individual "to love one's relatives."
"HARD? " said Nasrudin.
"HARD? IT IS PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!"
00741--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-169
It was the 'better part of town' and
the lady who came to the door said to Mulla Nasrudin: "I should think
you would be ashamed to beg in this
neighborhood."
"DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR IT,
LADY," said Nasrudin, "I HAVE SEEN WORSE."
00740--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-168
"Why are you so down in the mouth,
Mulla?" asked someone in the tavern.
"Aw," said Mulla Nasrudin,
"I just heard a guy call another fellow a liar. And that fellow said that
if he didn't apologize, he would whip
him."
"Well, why should that make you so
sad?" asked the first.
"BECAUSE," said Nasrudin,
"THE GUY APOLOGIZED."
00739--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-167
The young daughter of Mulla Nasrudin
heard a tapping on her window in the early hours of the
morning. There on a ladder was her
boyfriend. Their elopement was going according to plan.
"Are you all ready?" her
boyfriend asked.
"Yes," whispered the girl,
"but don't talk so loud, you might wake up my father."
"WAKE HIM UP?" her boyfriend
asked. "WHO DO YOU THINK IS HOLDING THE LADDER?"
00738--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-166
"Why don't you stop picking on
me?" said Mulla Nasrudin to his wife. "I am trying to do everything
possible to make you happy."
"There's one thing you haven't
done that my first husband did to make me happy," she said.
"What's that?" asked the
Mulla.
"HE DROPPED DEAD," she said.
00737--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-165
Mulla Nasrudin was visiting his
psychiatrist. Among the many questions the doctor asked was: "Are you
bothered by improper thoughts?"
"NOT AT ALL," said Nasrudin.
"THE TRUTH IS I RATHER ENJOY THEM."
00736--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-164
Mulla Nasrudin was being selected as a
juror in a murder trial. The attorney for the defense was
challenging prospective jurors. He
questioned Mulla Nasrudin, "Are you married or single?"
"Married for ten years," said
the Mulla.
"Have you formed or expressed an
opinion?" asked the attorney.
"NOT FOR TEN YEARS," replied
Nasrudin.
00735--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-163
A man was chatting to Mulla Nasrudin
who was a rabid fisherman.
"I notice," he said,
"that when you tell about the fish you caught you vary the size of it for
different listeners."
"YES," replied Nasrudin,
"I NEVER TELL A MAN MORE THAN I THINK HE WILL BELIEVE."
00734--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-162
Mulla Nasrudin was coming to after a
serious operation. He was just conscious enough to feel the softness of the
comfortable bed and the warmth of gentle hands on his forehead.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"In Heaven?"
"NO," said his wife, "I
AM STILL RIGHT HERE WITH YOU."
00733--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-161
"Young man," said the angry
father, Mulla Nasrudin, "didn't I hear the clock strike four when you brought
my daughter home?"
"Yes, Sir," said the boy.
"It was going to strike ten, but I grabbed the gong and held it so it
wouldn't disturb you."
"I WILL BE A SO-AND-SO," said
Nasrudin. "WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT IN MY YOUNGER DAYS?"
00732--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-160
Mulla Nasrudin and one of his friends
were thinking one day to join the army.
"What makes you think to join the
army?" asked the Mulla.
"Well, I don't have a wife and I
love war," said the friend. "And why you are thinking to join
it?"
"ME?" said Nasrudin. "I
HAVE A WIFE AND I LOVE PEACE."
00731--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-159
Mulla Nasrudin was on his first ocean
voyage and was deathly ill. Trying to comfort him, the steward said,
"Don't be so down-hearted, Sir, I have never heard of anyone dying of
sea-sickness."
"OH, DON'T TELL ME THAT,"
moaned Nasrudin. "IT HAS ONLY BEEN THE HOPE OF DYING THAT HAS KEPT ME
ALIVE."
00730--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-158
Mulla Nasrudin told his psychiatrist
that he had the same nightmare over and over again, night after night.
"And what do you dream
about?" asked the doctor.
"I dream that I am married,"
said the Mulla.
"And to whom are you married in
this dream?" the doctor wanted to know.
"TO MY WIFE," said Nasrudin.
"THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT A NIGHTMARE, SIR."
00729--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-157
Mulla Nasrudin walked into a
psychiatrist's office, opened a tobacco pouch, and stuffed his nose with tobacco.
"Man, I can see that you need
me," the psychiatrist said. "Come on in and tell me your
problem."
"MY ONLY PROBLEM IS," said Nasrudin, "I
NEED A LIGHT."
00728--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-156
A friend was visiting Mulla Nasrudin.
"My boy has just written me from jail," he said. "He says
they're going to cut six months off his sentence for good behaviour."
"MY," said Mulla Nasrudin.
"YOU MUST BE PROUD TO HAVE A SON LIKE THAT."
00727--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-155
"You sure do look downhearted,
Mulla? What's the matter?" asked a friend.
"It's my future that worries
me," said Nasrudin.
"What makes your future so
black?" the friend asked.
"MY PAST," replied Nasrudin.
00726--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-154
Mulla Nasrudin's wife was upset and was
confiding in her maid. "Do you know," she said, "I suspect my husband
is having an affair with the cook."
"OH," cried the maid.
"YOU CAN'T BELIEVE THAT. YOU ARE JUST SAYING THAT TO MAKE ME
JEALOUS."
00725--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-153
Mulla Nasrudin was called in the
election bribery case.
"You say," asked the judge,
"that you were given $10 to vote for the Democrats, and you got another
$10 to vote for the republicans?"
"Yes, Sir, Your Honour," said
the Mulla.
"And how did you vote?" asked
the judge.
"YOUR HONOUR," said Nasrudin,
"I VOTED ACCORDING TO MY CONSCIENCE."
00724--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-152
Mulla Nasrudin, the landlord of a
rather rundown rooming house, had led a prospective tenant to a third-floor
room with badly spotted wall paper.
Nasrudin: "The last man who lived
in this room was an inventor he invented some sort of explosive."
Prospect: "Oh, these spots on the
walls are chemicals?"
Nasrudin: "NO, THE INVENTOR."
00723--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-151
Mulla Nasrudin's wife used to give the
Mulla a regular inspection every night when he came home.
Every hair she discovered on his coat
would be cause for a terrible scene.
One evening, when she didn't find a
single hair, she screamed at him, "NOW YOU ARE EVEN RUNNING AFTER
BALD-HEADED WOMEN."
00722--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-150
Mulla Nasrudin kept begging the noted
pianist to play.
"Well, all right, since you
insist," he said. "What shall I play?"
"ANYTHING YOU LIKE," said
Nasrudin. "IT'S ONLY TO ANNOY THE NEIGHBOURS."
00721--Paraphrase of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
.
Paraphrase
of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
Introduction
The
poem was printed in ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ in August 1915, and was collected in
‘Mountain Interval’ (1916). It is an
important piece of poetry, as it explains the poet’s outlook of life.
Stanza
I
Two
roads went in two different directions in a pale forest, and the poet felt
sorry that he could not take both the roads, and couldn’t decide his path
immediately as he was the only traveller.
For a long time he stood there and watched one of the roads as far as he
could, to the farthest end where it took a curve toward the brushwood.
Stanza
II
The
poet, now, examined the other road which was equally fair and clean, and which
had perhaps a better claim since it was covered with grass and lacked
foot-marks. Both the roads were
travelled by people but the second one was less travelled by.
Stanza III
Both
the roads that day looked fresh and untrodden because the leaves (it was autumn
season) were not stepped on and not made black in colour. The poet chose the second one and kept the
first one reserved for some other day.
Nevertheless he knew that the way leads on to way, and thus a return is
not possible.
Stanza
IV
The
poet says that he will go on telling this incident with a sigh in the times to
come that there met two roads at a point in a wood, and that he took the less
travelled one, and this has made him a different individual altogether.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow
wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I
could
To where it bent in the
undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as
fair,
And having perhaps the better
claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted
wear;
Though as for that, the passing
there
Had worn them really about the
same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden
black.
Oh, I kept the first for another
day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to
way,
I doubted if I should ever come
back.
I shall be telling this with a
sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all
the difference.
00720--Paraphrase of the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost
Paraphrase of the poem Dust of Snow by
Robert Frost
In this very
small lyric, Frost combines nature and self-experience. He tells us that how the dust of snow has
given his heart a change of mood. That
dust of snow came from a Hemlock tree,
and it came to the poet in a way the crow shook down upon him. The dust of snow has saved some part of his
past, and belonged to a day when the poet had to rue.
Here Frost
narrates how even totally insignificant objects of nature, like dust of snow
helps him and us to forget the unhappy memory of the past.
The poem has
two stanzas of 4 lines each. The basic
metre is iambic dia metre and the rhyme is ab, ab, cd, cd. The lyric beautifully narrates the poetic
feeling of joy and despair. There is a
poetic blending of different moods even in such a very small poem.
Dust
of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I
had rued.
00719--Define ‘Satta’ [Being; Existence]
Define ‘Satta’ [Being;
Existence]
1.
According to the Vaisesika School, Being is
the highest universal.
2.
According
to Advaita Vedanta Being is the Reality.
00718--Define Manogupti [equanimity of the mind]
Define Manogupti
[equanimity of the mind]
According
to Jainism, it is one of the external rules of conduct. It enables one to remove all false thoughts,
to remain satisfied within oneself, and to hold all people to be the same.
00717--Nothing Gold Can Stay [ by Robert Frost]
Nothing Gold Can Stay [ by Robert
Frost]
Nature's first
green is gold,
Her hardest hue
to hold.
Her early leaf's
a flower;
But only so an
hour.
Then leaf
subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to
grief,
So dawn goes
down to day,
Nothing gold can stay.
00716--BOOKWISE BRIEF SUMMARY OF PARADISE LOST by JOHN MILTON.
After the invocation to the Heavenly
Muse for help, and a general statement of the theme Book I tells about the condition
of Satan and the other fallen angels in Hell, directly after they have
been driven out of Heaven.
BOOK II
Book II presents the council that the
fallen angels hold to plot their revenge.
At the end of the book Satan is on his way. As he leaves on his mission, the Fiend
encounters at the Gates of Hell his offspring Sin and Death. The beginning of the allegory of Sin and
Death is in Book II, and is completed in Book X.
BOOK III
Book III begins with another
invocation, this time to light, for the scene moves from Hell to Heaven. The theological background of the poem is
then supplied; God’s foreknowledge of man’s ‘fall’, although he has given man
free will to obey or not to obey Him; the Son of God’s offer to redeem
man. At the end of the book Satan succeeds
in reaching the universe.
BOOK IV
Book IV describes the Garden of Eden,
with Adam and Eve as lovers. Both are
thankful to their Creator and aware of the one prohibition: they may not taste
the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
Satan, observing them first with pity for their innocence, soon feels
only envy and succeeds in reaching Eve by an evil drama.
BOOK V
Book V continues the dream episode:
Eve reports the dream in which she has sinned by eating the forbidden
fruit. Adam comforts her by saying that
she has not sinned as her reason has not approved of her doing it. The archangel Raphael, sent by God, arrives,
talks about the nature of angels, and then at Adam’s request, tells the events
before the creation of Adam: the elevation of the Son of God, the jealousy of
the Son of God, the jealousy of Satan, and the revolt in Heaven. At this point, as Raphael begins his
narrative, the reader is being given the chronological beginning of the epic’s
action.
BOOK VI
Book VI is devoted to Raphael’s
continued story of the revolt in Heaven, to which the Son of God puts an end;
Satan and his followers are cast out of Heaven and driven to Hell. At this point the reader knows all the action
antecedent to Book I.
BOOK VII
Book VII starts with a new invocation
to the Heavenly Muse as the epic is half-completed. Raphael tells of the Creation of Earth. Symbolically Good or constructive action is
followed by Evil or destruction by war.
BOOK VIII
Book VIII continues Raphael’s
instruction of Adam: the Archangel gives some elementary lessons in astronomy,
but warns Adam it is more important that he guard himself and Eve against
Satan. Adam then tells the story of his
creation and of Eve’s.
BOOK IX
Book IX begins with a prologue in
which Milton thanks the Heavenly Muse and rededicates himself to finish his
great task. Eve persuades Adam that the
two should do their gardening separately.
Intimidated and influenced by the serpent’s [Satan’s] flattery, Eve
succumb to temptation. She falls. Adam falls due to his love for Eve. Their innocent bliss is gone forever, and the
two quarrel about their respective guilt.
BOOK X
Book X serves to complete much of the
preceding action. The Son of God passes
judgement that all mankind fell with Adam, and so the men will toil for their
living, endure suffering and know Death.
Women will be submissive to men and will bear their children in
pain. The allegory of Sin and Death is
completed with Sin, Death, and Discord rampant on Earth. Satan returns to Hell, but his satisfaction
in corrupting man turns to ashes. Adam
reasons with himself, admits his guilt and God’s justice, and forgives Eve; the
two join in repentance and prayer.
BOOK XI
Book XI begins with the Son of God
presenting to his Father the prayers of Adam and Eve. God accepts their repentance and sends the
Archangel Michael to inform them gently that they must leave the Garden of
Eden. On reaching the Garden, Michael
tells of their banishment, but as a consolation allows him to have a series of
visions of man’s future.
BOOK XII
Book XII continues Michael’s
prophecy, this time in narrative form, stressing the coming of Christ and the
Redemption of man. Adam is comforted by
the realisation that the Fall was not completely evil and that the Paradise is
within man. He now knows what God
expects of man is obedience, faith, patience, temperance and charity, and the
deeds that prove these virtues. Sadly,
but putting their trust in Providence, Adam and Eve leave the Garden.
00715--Discuss the structure of Doctor Faustus.
Doctor Faustus contains a major
pattern of action which deals with Faustus’s choice to follow magic and to sell his soul to Lucifer. A comic plot, probably written by a
collaborator, comments on and parodies the serious action of the main
plot. Structurally, the play may be
described as episodic because Marlowe gives us a series of actions which
repeats the struggle of Faustus between the choice of God or Lucifer. Thus the recurrence of Good and Bad Angels,
the repeated thought s of repentance, and the appearance of the Old Man in Act
V indicate the episodic and repetitive pattern of the play’s structure.
The comic portions of the play illustrate by
irony the the vacuous accomplishments consequent to Faustus’s bargain. Wagner’s conjuring and later Robin and Dick’s
ability at magic are parodies of Faustus’s ability. By way of contrast these comic scenes serve
to point out the terrible nature of Faustus’s bargain, for these scenes reveal
that the powers of magic are not nearly so great as Faustus imagined. Marlowe, then, by repeating the basic
struggle of good and evil, structures his play so that the cumulative effect
reveals the turmoil in Faustus’s soul and produces awe and wonder at this
tragic fall.
00714--Discus the role of the Old Man in Act V of the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.
Discus the role of the Old Man in Act V of the play Dr. Faustus by
Christopher Marlowe.
The Old Man in Act V
appeals to Faustus to leave his damned art and to ask for God’s
forgiveness. In many particulars the Old
Man is like the Good Angel because his counsel to Faustus is the same. He takes on many of the qualities of a
morality personification, perhaps something like Good Counsel. After the Fausus-Helen episode, the old man
is aware that Faustus has completely damned himself. The Old Man is then tried by Satan, but his
faith prevails against the devils and hell.
Thus the Old Man achieves a spiritual victory, and dramatically this
contrasts with Faustus’s choice of evil and his ultimate damnation. Marlowe through the Old Man, shows that the
temptation to evil may be resisted and that spiritual victory can be
achieved.
00713--What dramatic purpose does the Chorus serve in the play Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe?
The Chorus speaks before Acts I, III, and IV and delivers the
Epilogue at the end. The Prologue to Act
I gives the exposition of the narrative material needed by the audience to
understand the subsequent action. In the
Prologue, the chorus narrates Faustus’s biography, compares him to Icarus, and
foreshadows Faustus’s death. The Prologue,
then, really gives the summary of the entire play, and as we watch the play we
anxiously anticipate the fulfilment of what the Prologue has announced.
The Prologue to Act III narrates the fabulous journey of
Faustus and gives us narrative material which Marlowe could not present
dramatically. Here the Chorus is a
conventional shorthand device which enables the dramatist to narrate rather
than show by dramatic action. The
Prologue to Act III tells us what Faustus has done before he came to Rome in
Act III. The Prologue to Act IV does
much the same thing because it introduces us to Faustus at the time of his
return to Germany and the Court of the Emperor.
As Epilogue the Chorus provides the conventional moral comment on the
action of the play.
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