CLASSICS OF WORLD

LITERATURE
VI SEMESTER
CORE COURSE: ENG6 B12

B.A. ENGLISH
(2019 Admission onwards)
CBCSS

UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT
School of Distance Education,
Calicut University P.O.,
Malappuram - 673 635, Kerala.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT
School of Distance Education
Study Material
VI Semester
Core Course (ENG6 B12)
B.A. ENGLISH
CLASSICS OF WORLD LITERATURE
Prepared by:
Smitha N,
Assistant Professor of English,
School of Distance Education,
Calicut University.
Srutinized by:
Dr. Muhammed Noufal. K,
Asst. Professor,
Dept. of English,
CKGM Govt. College, Perambra.
DISCLAIMER
“The author(s) shall be solely responsible for the
content and views expressed in this book”

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CONTENT
Module 1: Introduction to the ancient world 5
Introducing epics of the world and conventions: The Iliad,
Odyssey, Aeneid, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Mahabharata and
Ramayana – Introduction to Greek theatre and Indian theatre

Module 2: Poetry 16
1. Dante: Divine Comedy Canto IV
2. Goethe: The Violet
3. Alexander Pushkin: A Flower Shrivelled Bare of
Fragrance
4. Rilke: Adam
5. Omar Khayyam: The Rubaiyat: 68-72
6. Rumi: Let Go of Your Worries, Look at Love, I died
from Minerality
7. Matsuo Basho: In the Twilight Rain

Module 3: Drama and Film 26

1. Sophocles: Oedipus Rex
2. Bhasa: Urubhangam
3. Les Miserables: dir. Bille August

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Module 4: Fiction 33
1. Maupassant: Mother Savage
2. Tolstoy: The Three Questions
3. Firdausi: Shahnamah: The Story of Sohrab and Rustum
4. Ryunosuke Akutagawa: In a Grove
5. PU Songling: The Painted Wall

COURSE OUTCOME:
After the completion of the course students should be able to:-
● Identify the classic literature and thereby composite
cultures of the world
● Develop cross cultural perspectives

● Classify literary texts in English or English translation in

terms of their main stylistic and thematic features.
● Describe the literary, historical, social and cultural
backgrounds of these texts.
● Identify some of the main theoretical and
methodological issues involved in reading World Literature

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Module I.

Introduction to the ancient world

Introduction
Human beings have been social animal and literature, though
orally to a period, has been a part of his/ her life since its
beginning. It has shaped, moulded, and influenced the people so
much. Later, as man figured out language in its written form,
literature transformed into something materialistic. Everything
started getting recorded. The ancient oral literature started
getting written. These were obviously tainted by different
interpretations by the people who were writing them. Gradually
,the oral epics paved the way for written ones. The poets and
dramatists were later better equipped with better vocabulary and
styles. This resulted in the making of better literature. Later,
different genres appeared apart from mere epics and tragedies.
In this paper, we will come across almost all these genres.
Almost every dictionary in English defines epic as a long poem,
typically from oral traditions, often dealing with the exploits of
a hero or the past history of a nation. Many ancient civilisations
have created epics of their own and most of them survive even
today. The Greek/Roman epics may be treated as the most
popular among the epics available today. As discussed in the
beginning, these have been oral literature initially. For example,
Homer literally sang the epics of Iliad and Odyssey through the

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streets of Greece like a nomad. While analysing the ways which

the epics became popular, one arrives at many conclusions. One
of them being, the people who started living as a group really
wanted to have stories in fact. These acted as a supplement to
their music and dance. Their modes of entertainment were
limited. The epics didn’t appear overnight. The people sang
them. The ones who heard them passed them onto the next
generation and the cycle continued. As the generations changed,
it is sure that the original oral content would have undergone
major changes but it no longer matters since these are all a
written manifestation of oral literature. Often, anonymity is the
characteristic of epics, except for a very few ones. When we
analyse, there are similarities among the epics because the life
seemed to be pretty similar in most of the societies though the
rituals and customs changed.
Let us now briefly analyse some important epics of the ancient
times and why they are still being read and studied.
Iliad.
Iliad is thought to have been written in the 8th
century BCE. This is also treated as one of the earliest works in
the Western literature. To put it simply, Iliad narrates the story
of the Trojan war, especially its last days. Iliad revolves around
the adventures of Odysseus, Menelaus, Achilles, and the lives of
Helen and Paris. Paris, younger son of Priam of Troy falls in
love with Helen, wife of Menelaus. He abducts her to Troy.
Menelaus was the king of Sparta, one of the many small
countries in Greece whereas Troy was a very powerful country.
In order to bring Helen back, Menelaus seeks the help of
Odysseus, king of Ithaca and Achilles, a great warrior. The
trojan war lasts for around 10 years. At last, the war comes to an

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end when the remaining warriors hide themselves in horses

made by the remnants of their ships and annihilate everyone
they see in Troy at night. Helen is brought back to Sparta.
Iliad contains 24 books and more than 15000 lies altogether.

Answer the following.

1. What are the qualities that make Iliad an epic.?
2. Summarise the plot of Iliad in 250 words.

Odyssey.
Odyssey is the epic that narrates the further exploits of
Odysseus. Once they won the trojan war, the remaining warriors
try to return home but the journey takes them not months but
years. Later, the very word became suggestive of a long journey.
This work, just like Iliad also contains 24 books. It is in Odyssey
that we meet the Cyclops and Polyphemus.
Odysseus wanders for almost ten years. While he was
away, a lot of things happened. His wife Penelope was mentally
harassed by the suitors who wanted to have her. Ithaca gradually
ruined. The governance was in shambles. In order to find out the
truth behind the disappearance of his father, Telemachus goes in
search of Odysseus. He meets Nestor and Menelaus, who fought
with Odysseus and understands that he was still alive.
Meanwhile, Odysseus was wandering from one
adventure to another. He meets Circe, Scylla, Polyphemus,
Calypso and saves his skin from everyone. When he lands in
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Ithaca at last, there were more troubles. It was only his faithful
dog and a servant who recognised him at first. He reveals
himself to Telemachus and they devise a plan to overthrow the
mayhem in Ithaca. Both the father and the son drive away the
suitors.

Answer the following.

1. Discuss the characterisation as presented in both Iliad
and Odyessey.

Aeneid.
Aeneid is a Latin poem written by Virgil. This was
written between 30 to 19 BCE. The story centres around the
adventures of Aeneas. In 12 books, Virgil talks about the
foundation of Lavinium (parent town of Rome).
Aeneid meets Dido while he was on his errands. Dido,
the queen of Carthage falls in love with Aeneas but he is bound
to sea again. Dido prepares to kill herself because of her loss of
love. Aeneas travels to the underworld and there he meets the
ghosts of Dido and Anchises, his father. Towards the conclusion
of the poem, we see Trojans being welcomed by Latinus, the
king of the region nearby Tiber River. A proposal of marriage
between Lavinia, daughter of Latinus and Aeneas takes place.
Unfortunately, this decision was resented by Latinus’ wife and
Turnus, a tribal leader who wanted to marry Lavinia. A war
follows in which the Trojans defeat them and Lavinia and
Aeneas unite.

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Homer was one of the influences of Virgil and enough

instances can be seen to prove this. His journey is shaped after
the model of odyssey. Virgil has often imitated and translated
some passages from Odyssey.
Answer the following.
1. How did Virgil get inspired by the Greek epics?

The epic of Gilgamesh.

The epic of Gilgamesh is about Gilgamesh, as the title
suggests. Gilgamesh was a king of Uruk , a Mesopotamian
country. Akkadian is the language used in order to narrate the
poem. The text of the poem is available from 12 tablets which
are incomplete. The tablets were found from the library of the
Assyrian king named Ashurbanipal who ruled from 668 to 628
BC.
The tablets found in Nineveh narrates the epic of
Gilgamesh, a warrior and builder. We meet many
Assyrian/Mesopotamian Gods in the epic. Gilgamesh is said to
be a severe ruler and the God Anu sends Enkidu in order to
control his ruling. According to different tablets, the narrative
also changes. As both Enkidu and Gilgamesh find out
Gilgamesh is stronger, they become friends. Enkidu is a friend
in some texts whereas he is a servant of Gilgamesh in Sumerian
texts/tablets.
As the tablets are incomplete, we don’t get to know what
exactly happens in a linear manner. Both of them start off an
expedition to meet Huwawa , an appointed guardian of a forest.
But the continuation of this journey isn’t recorded at all. Later,

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Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar , the goddess of love. Angered, she

sends a divine bull to kill him. Enkidu helps him kill the bull.
Enkidu is asked to pay for this with his life. After this,
Gilgamesh goes in search of Utnapishtim, the lone survivor of
the flood. Gilgamesh wanted to know how to stay immortal. He
is given the information of a plant that would help him gain
immortality. Unfortunately, a serpent eats the plant and
Gilgamesh returns to Uruk as a mortal.
Answer the following.
1. Epic of Gilgamesh as a precursor of Asian epics.

The Mahabharata.
Mahabharata is an epic believed to have been written
between 400 BCE- 200 BCE. The Hindus in India treat this as
both a text on morals and partly historical. The basic theme of
this grand epic is sovereignty and the fights for that in various
ways. The fights happen between two groups: the progenies of
Dhritarashtra and Pandu , two princes. The descendants are
respectively called Kauravas and Pandavas.
There are almost 100,000 couplets in the poem. It talks
about intrigues, fights, etc. Moreover, dharma is one of the
prime features presented in the epic. The epic is divided into 18
parvas/kandas. It may not be true that a single person had
written the epic, it is still solely ascribed to Sage Vyasa. Vyasa
appears in the epic as a character as well.
As prince Dhritarashtra was blind, Pandu was given the
chance to rule the kingdom. Since Pandu wasn’t able to beget
children in his wife Kunthi, they seek the help of gods. Hence,

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Pandu gets five boys for sons and Dhritarashtra, 100 sons and a
daughter. Gradually, feud grows between these two groups.
When Pandu dies, the five brothers along with their mom are
made to leave the palace. Since Yudhishtira, the elder lost the
gambling match to Duryodhana, the brothers go into an exile of
12 years and one year of invisible exile. If someone recognises
them in the last year, another 12 year-exile would follow. The
brothers after the period of exile come back and ask for a
meagre area of land so that they could live there. But Krishna,
the messenger was disrespected by Kauravas and this results in
the gory war named Kurukshetra war. Everybody in the
Kauravas died and only the five Pandava brothers and Krishna
survive. At the end of the poem, we see the five brothers
ascending to heaven.

Answer the following.

1. Contemporary significance of Mahabharata – Discuss.
2. What caused the rivalry between Kauravas and Pandavas ?

The Ramayana.
Between the two significant epics of ancient India , the
Ramayana is the shorter one. Written in Sanskrit like
Mahabharata , the Ramayana was written by Valmiki.
Ramayana includes some 24000 lines in seven books.
Just like seen in the Mahabharata, Ramayana also
narrates the story of princes and royal life, exile and so on. The
epic narrates the life and struggles of lord Ram, worshipped as
Sri Ram in India. Rama was born in the palace of Ayodhya and
grows up to be a popular prince. He meets Sita and bends, or

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literally breaks the bow, which was a test to win the bride. They
get married but the happiness doesn’t stay much longer. In a
typical intrigue as seen in all the narratives about power
structure, Ram is banished to forest and loses the chance to rule
the kingdom. Rama faces a lot of adversities before he returns to
Ayodhya. Similar to The Mahabharata, there also is the case of
exile for 14 years in Ramayana. While Rama was in exile along
with Sita and Lakshmana, Ravana, the demon king of Lanka
sees Sita and he falls in love with her. Ravana then abducts Sita
to Lanka and Rama finds it difficult to trace her. With the help
of monkeys led by Hanuman and Sugriva, Rama travels to
Lanka. In a fierce battle, Ravana is overpowered and Sita is
brought back. Sita jumps into fire to prove her chastity but when
they reach Ayodhya, the people again doubt her for the same.
Later, she is banished to forest by Rama. Sita lives there with
the sage Valmiki and two kids are born to her later. Though
Rama later comes to the forest to meet her, she lets herself be
swallowed by the earth, her mother.

Answer the following.

1. How is Ramayana different from Mahabharata in
treating the myths ?
References.
1. https://www.ancient-
literature.com/greece_homer_iliad.html
2. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Odyssey-epic-by-
Homer
3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aeneid

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4. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ramayana-Indian-
epic
5. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mahabharata

Greek Theatre.
The Greek theatre takes its roots from the religious
festivals. Especially, there used to be the festival that celebrated
Bacchus / Dionysus, the god of wine. The people used to gather
there, get intoxicated, and would perform little crude plays. The
comedy plays emerged out of these.
Later, the plays became standardised through the works
of Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Euripides. One of the important
aspects of Greek theatre that continues to inspire the modern
theatre is the very architecture. Obviously, the drinking rituals
associated with the festivals would have influenced the tragedy
plays to form.
Tragedy became the accepted norm gradually. The
themes were taken from Greek epics. There would be the open
theatre where it was an almost all-men presence. The entrance to
the theatre would be usually free. The themes were often the
fight between good and evil. Often, the death of the characters
were communicated orally.
The tragedies were full of divine characters too. Initially,
these plays had only one actor who would use a mask to
impersonate all the characters he was about to play on stage.
There would be a big chorus comprising many people. Later, the
number of actors on stage gradually increased to three instead of
one.

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Aristotle later defined the grammar for Greek tragedies.

The strict adherence to the three unities, necessity of catharsis
etc. were part of these changes.
In the festival of Dionysus, there would be a Tragedy
competition in which plays by playwrights would be assessed
and the best one would be given prizes. Each participating poet
would submit for plays, three tragedies and a Satyr play, a
parody. Among them, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Sophocles
became famous and set standards for the upcoming plays.
To find out the traces of Greek comedy would be a tough
task. But one could see that since time immemorial, man loved
mocking and mimicking others and their mannerisms. Crude
songs were sung in the festivals of Dionysus which reflect
comedy. Comedies followed a conventional structure. The
players entering the stage imitated Knights to bees on stage.
This was the first part of the play and by the second part of the
play consisted of a verbal debate among the actors. Aristophanes
and Menander were the most important comedy playwrights.

Indian Theatre.
Indian ancient theatre is suggestive of the Sanskrit
theatre that dates back as old as 2nd century BCE.
Bharata, the sage is the one who changed the way in
which acting was perceived in India. He suggested a grammar
for many performing arts. Out of the 10 types of Drama Bharata
defines, two are very important. Nataka, which includes the
themes related with gods and kings. They are often taken from
history or mythologies. Shakuntala by Kalidasa is an example
for this. Prakarana is the other mode of performance defined by
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Bharata. In Prakarana, the dramatist uses the life of common

people. Mrichchakatika by Shudraka falls into this category.
Often the Sanskrit plays during these times ranged from 1 to 10
acts. Apart from them, there were one-act plays too. Bhana is
one such one act play. In Bhana, a single character involves in a
dialogue with an invisible character. There is also Prahasana,
which has an inferior and superior version. Bhagavad Ajjukiya
and Mattavilasa by Mahendravikramavarman are examples of
Prahasana.
Talking about the physical theatre, unlike the Greek
proscenium, the Indian theatre were three types : oblong, square,
and triangular. Though the Greeks followed the three unities
rigorously (of action, place, and time), the Indians were unaware
of these at all. Technically, the idea of catharsis was entirely
different from Bharata’s rasa theory. For the Greeks, catharsis
was more important than the aesthetic aspect the Indian upheld.
The Indian theatre was categorised into two: lokadharmi,
or the natural presentation of human behaviour and
Natyadharmi, the exaggerated stylistic presentation of drama. In
traditional Sanskrit plays, we have Nandhi, or a benediction of
8-12 lines that praises the gods and goddesses. Then a common
factor in almost all the Sanskrit plays is the presence of a kind of
clown named Vidhushaka, who reminds us of the fool in
Shakespearean plays.
The most famous Sanskrit playwrights were Kalidas and
Bhasa. And there are others like Harsha,
Mahendravikramavarman, Bhavabhuti, and Vishakadatta. King
Sudraka’s plays are very much theatrical in nature. Once the
traditional Sanskrit theatre declined, folk theatre emerged in
different regions of the country.

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Module II
POETRY.

1. The Divine Comedy: Canto IV.

Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet, (1265-1321) literary
theorist, and prose writer. The poem The Divine Comedy was
written as La commedia, and later named as La Divina
commedia. The poem can be read as a personal one too as Dante
was exiled from Florence. This is also an allegory, narrating the
journey passing through hell, purgatory, and paradise.
The Divine Comedy was written between 1308-1321.
The poem is categorised into three sections: Inferno, Purgatario,
and Paradiso. Dante makes use of another Italian poet in his
work too. This is none other than Virgil. Categorised into three
sections, there are 100 cantos in Divine Comedy.
The Canto IV of The Divine Comedy talks about the
preparation to visit hell/inferno. Along with Dante, Virgil is
there too. The very manner in which hell is described here is to
evoke fear. The targeted reader would definitely be from the
fourteenth century. The content of Divine Comedy, especially
from Inferno was enough to scare the reader of those times.
As Dante and his guide move along, they see many souls
who didn’t seen but were trapped there since they were ahead of
the time of Christianity. When they walk further, they meet
another group of people. Dante was unable to understand who
they were and his companion comes to his help at this juncture.
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He introduces each one in the following order : Homer, Horace,

Ovid, and Lucan. Dante was perplexed as he saw all these
masters. Then the four masters ask Dante to join them and he
feels privileged to be one among those six. They pass a brook
there to reach a lawn. Later, they chanced upon some people
who were sitting there. They all seemed very much serious. He
then spots many Greek/ Roman heroes there. There was Hector,
along with Electra, Caesar , Aeneas , and many more. Beside
them, he also saw many Greek philosophers too. They included
Socrates, Plato, Diogenes , Tales , Anaxagoras , Zeno , and so
on. The poet feels that he will not be able to talk enough of
those literary men, philosophers, and martial heroes, and princes
and princesses. Slowly, leaving the four masters behind, they
both walk on.

Answer the following.

1.Discuss the way in which Dante met his masters like Homer.

2. Violet : Goethe.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832 was a German poet,
playwright, and novelist. He may be seen as the greatest German
literary figure of the modern era. Goethe also is a face of
German romanticism. His notable works are Alexis und Dora,
Clavigo, Egmont, Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, etc.
Violet is a poem that reminds one of the English
romanticism. Goethe starts the poem with a statement:
“Upon the mead a violet stood,

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Retiring, and of modest mood”.

All of a sudden, the reader is brought to the poem. The poem
becomes lively when another character is presented here. A
youthful shepherdess passes by the meadow and spots the
flower. The moment the flower spots the girl, it is enthralled. It
wishes to be held close to the bosom of the girl.
The desire of the flower is so strong that it wishes for the
actualisation for just a moment. That single moment will make
the flower the happiest. Unfortunately, that was the fatal
moment in which the flower was crushed. The poem ends on an
unsaid cry from the flower.

Answer the following.

1. Violet as a nature poem- discuss.

3. A Flower shrivelled bare of fragrance: Alexander

Pushkin.
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was a Russian poet, novelist,
and dramatist. He is often considered as the greatest poet Russia
produced. Pushkin is credited with the shaping of modern
Russian literature. His notable works are Boris Godunov,
Egyptian Nights, Eugene Onegin, The Gypsies, The Queen of
Spades etc.
A Flower…is a poem that is rich in visuals. A shrivelled
flower is placed in between the pages of a book. The poet
awakens seeing this, though the word in the poem is soul. In
other words, the poet isn’t a word that is free from soul. As if in
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a reverie, the poet goes in search of the whereabouts of the

flower now. The book is compared to a tomb here. As to the
flower, there might have been a lot of interpretations regarding
who would have plucked it. It might have someone the
poet/narrator knew, or someone foreign. Someone would have
plucked it for a meeting with someone else, or meeting someone
for the last time. An unknown love affair might have been
present there, in which the reader is in dark as to who they were.
The poet wonders who they might be, where they might be now.
At last, they might have faded like the flower in the page.
Though the poem seems to be so simple in nature, it
presents the idea of evanescence and transience. As if times
slowly fades everything, people and lovers also fade. At the
same time, a token of such emotion also stays and brings back
memories. Here, the flower is at the same time a memento mori
as well as a token of love that would have existed at some point
of time.

Answer the following.

1. How does Pushkin recreate the life of a shrivelled flower
in his poem ?

4. Adam : Rilke.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is one of the most widely read
Austrian poets in the 20th century. Among the lyrical German
language poets , Rilke stands a class apart. He has written lyrical
poems as well as prose. He was an avid traveller and travelling
throughout Europe has influenced his poems to an extent.

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Though he has extensively written in German, more than 400

poems were written in French. His most important works
include Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, Letters to a Young
Poet etc.
Adam is a very short poem in four stanzas. The poem
travels from a famous visual to mythology/scripture with
enough ease. There stands the statue of Adam and the poet
stands in awe of it. Adam is compared to a ploughman here.
When he was in Eden, he didn’t know what he was supposed to
do. But the same person rose to find out a new path. In the first
stanza , the reader comes across a glorified , gigantic statue that
looks from a cliff. While moving on to the last two stanzas, one
sees god as a tyrant who wasn’t convinced in man. There was a
threat from his side. Instead of granting the wish of man, the
man is threatened with death here. Yet the man stands firm since
he has a companion too. Though she is not present in the poem ,
she in the last line of the poem refers to Eve , who would bear
him a child later. There is a stark contrast here that suggests,
though one is punished with death eventually, life will sprout as
the years pass by. The poem ends on a positive note as it talks
about the perseverance as well as fortitude in order to create a
new path.

Answer the following .

1. Adam as a poem that connects myth and the present-
Discuss.

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5. Rubaiyat : Omar Khayyam. (68-72)

Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) was a Persian polymath ,

mathematician, astronomer , historian ,and poet. Though his
other roles are gradually forgotten, Rubaiyat will make sure that
his stature as a poet stays forever. It was through the translation
of Edward Fitzgerald that Rubaiyat comes to be known in the
western world. The work was translated from Persian in 1859.
The Rubaiyat often talks about carpe diem.
The 68th rubai in Rubaiyat talks about transience. The
buried ashes, being fragrant might fling into air as that won’t
stay forever. In a way , the poem altogether talks about the need
to live in the present. Another interpretation might suggest that
he was talking about wine instead of perfumes. In other words,
another drinker might pass by his dead body some day and get
intoxicated.
The next quatrain deals with the loss of faith as well
idols. The so-called idols do not seem to be the same anymore
for the narrator. The shallow cup here might refer to wine and
with intoxication, everything else changes forever. The honour
is pawned along with the very cup one used to get drunk.
The next stanza suggests that the speaker really wanted
to change in his life , but he isn’t sure whether he took such a
decision when he was sober. Rose in his hands suggests the way
in which it withered as the days passed by. In other words, his
repentance never worked out at all.
The next stanza is an extension of the 68th one. The
narrator talks about wine sellers (vintners) and wonders what
they would be buying as they are selling something amazing. On
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the other hand, he accuses the wine to be the reason for losing
everything.
In the 72th quatrain, the rose and spring are used here
again. We are back to the idea of transience. As the rose fades ,
which suggests youth , spring also fades away. The nightingale
used here also suggests youth. At last the speaker comes to
wonder where did both the nightingale and spring go. In other
words, he has no clue as to where did his youth go.
Answer the following.
1. Liquor / wine as used by Omar Khayyam as a metaphor
in Rubaiyat.

6. Let go of your worries, Look at Love, I died from

Minerality : Rumi.

Jalal ad-Din Mohammed Rumi (1207-1273) was a Sufi monk

and Persian poet. Rumi’s poetry overflows with spirituality in
every sense. Most often his works are written in Persian but
sometimes his verses can be found in Greek, Turkish , and
Arabic. His poems often praise the god in a Sufi way.
1. Let Go of Your Worries.
The entire poem makes use of two similes: heart and mirror and
the ways in which they differ. Rumi speaks about clarity. One
should be like a mirror without preconceived notions and
images. The truth, according to the poet, is shameless. It is bitter
too. The mirror is polished out of a metal and similarly, the heart
requires polishing too. The poet concludes the poem stating one
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core difference between heart and mirror : the heart conceals

secrets and the mirror doesn’t do that. Maybe, the reader could
extend the reading saying that the mirror is shameless and the
heart is shameful.

2. Look At Love.
The poem is an exhortation as it begins. All of a sudden, it asks
the reader to look at love. Instead of looking at binaries, the
speaker in the poem asks everyone to see how things blended.
According to the poet, the unknown and the known merge into a
composite.
Though the poet talks about binaries here and there, he
concludes every stanza saying how these binaries form a
composite image or idea, which makes it complete. As he
concludes the poem, there is an advice to the reader that since
everything mingles in nature, man must also mingle. In other
words, man needs others in order to survive.
3. I Died from Minerality.
Rumi talks about spiritual transformation in this poem. He at
first dies as a mineral, and is reborn as a plant. Later, dies as a
plant but becomes an animal later. No matter, according to the
poet, every death leads to something better. But the change of
tone in the poem is striking as it moves from being a man to
something beyond: an angel. The poet suggests that all except
God perishes. Rumi suggests that in order to become what
nobody has perceived, one must leave the angel-soul behind.
While concluding the poem, the poet argues for non-existence as
he declares that the very non-existence will lead to godliness.

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Rumi invokes the scripture here saying that to God does

everyone return.

Answer the following.

1. How does Rumi deal with mysticism in his poems?

7. In the Twilight Rain: Matsuo Basho.

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was the most famous poet in the
Edo period in Japan. Basho can be treated as the master of haiku
poetry in Japanese. His poems are crisp and often they clinically
talk about the rustic charm. Basho used to write in pen names
like Tosei.
In the Twilight…is a haiku that is a mix of visuals. There is a
twilight, a sunset, rain, and hibiscus. There is the rain. In that
rain, the earth makes the hibiscus to be a brilliantly hued one.
Basho makes sure that everything, every element in the poem
works as a complement. The sunset complements hibiscus and
vice versa. Altogether, it is a composite. There is a fullness even
though all the elements in the poem stand as single entities.

Answer the following.

1. Compare Haiku with other poetic forms.

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References.
1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Divine-
Comedy
2. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/the-divine-
comedy-inferno/summary-and-analysis/canto-iv
3. https://allpoetry.com/poem/8489777-The-Violet-by-
Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe
4. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/alexander_p
ushkin/poems/1901.html
5. http://www.bobforrestweb.co.uk/The_Rubaiyat/verse
_by_verse_notes.htm
6. https://allpoetry.com/Let-go-of-your-worries
7. https://www.poetry-
chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RumiMevlanaJ/lookatlove/index.ht
ml
8. https://www.consolatio.com/2005/04/i_died_as_a_min
.html
9. https://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/in_the_tw
ilight_rain_23470

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Module III
DRAMA AND FILM.

Oedipus Rex : Sophocles.

Sophocles was one of the most ancient Greek
playwrights. He is thought to have lived between 497 BCE and
406 BC. Out of the 120 plus works he had written, only seven of
them survive today. His most important plays would be the
Theban trilogy dealing with the life of king Oedipus. Oedipus
Rex still holds relevance in present day because of the brutal
portrayal of a character who is victim to fate.
Oedipus Rex begins from middle. A disastrous plague is
eating up Thebes and everyone is so alarmed. Nobody
understands what the issue is. When Creon, Oedipus’s wife’s
brother went to know the oracle, he was rather shocked to see
what the issue was. The previous king named Laius was
murdered and the murderer was there in the country. According
to the Oracle, because of the murderer’s presence, the gods were
angry and they sent a plague. When Creon doesn’t reveal much,
Oedipus questions Tiresias, the prophet and the seer. There
breaks out a debate between Oedipus and Tiresias and Oedipus.
Tiresias accuses Oedipus of the murder and he is enraged.
Suddenly, Tiresias talks about Oedipus’ parents and it makes
him wonder how come he knows about them at all. As a reply,
Tiresias tells him that it would be the day he would be undone.
Tiresias tells him that that day will show his birth as well as
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destroy him. Before leaving, Tiresias says that Oedipus will

soon find out the binary relations he has with his daughters as
well as his wife. Oedipus accuses Creon too, saying that he was
an accomplice with Tiresias in branding Oedipus as the
murderer. When Creon enters the stage, he says that he has been
wrongly accused.
When Oedipus spots Creon, there emerges a debate
between them and Oedipus starts chiding him straight away.
While they were quarrelling thus , Jocasta comes there and
demands both of them enter the house rather than quarrelling in
the open where everyone in the streets hear about it. Jocasta asks
Oedipus what the issue was, and Oedipus says that Creon
wrongly accused him for which he should be killed. Oedipus
talks about Tiresias as a false prophet.
When Jocasta hears about this, she says that there was
also another prophecy about the dead king, Laius, the former
husband of Jocasta. Oedipus came to Thebes when he answered
the riddle of the monster Sphinx and he married the queen and
started ruling the country as the king.
Jocasta says that the prophecy was that the King (Laius)
would be killed someday by his own son. So fearing the
prophecy to become true , the king pierced his son’s ankles and
cast him away at a hillside. Jocasta says that since the son was
already sent away , Apollo’s prophecy failed. Hence, Laius was
never killed at the hands of his son. But when he listens to this ,
Oedipus starts losing his mind. Oedipus questions as to the
whereabouts of Laius, how did he look and all. Jocasta provides
the information as she heard them from others. Oedipus now is
terrified at how things are revealed to him. As each question is
answered, he is more terrified since it becomes clearer that he
was the one who killed his father and the king unknowingly.
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Oedipus comes to know that it was a servant who escaped that

told Jocasta all of these.
Oedipus tells Jocasta about his whereabouts. He was
born to the king and queen of Corinth. Once in a feast, he was
accused to be a bastard by a drunkard. When he comes to know
that he would be the reason for his father’s death and would
marry his mother, Oedipus fled the country. While he was
fleeing the country, he meets a group of people who misbehaves
with him. A brawl follows there and Oedipus kills them all.
Oedipus wants to see the old servant who escaped. Meanwhile,
Jocasta decides to go to the oracle to know the truth of
everything. While she was going to hear the oracle, a messenger
arrives saying that the people of Corinth will choose Oedipus to
be their king. To Jocasta, he says that his father died. Jocasta
becomes so happy hearing this and sends a messenger to reveal
this to the king. When Oedipus comes to know this, he tells her
that he was glad as he didn’t do anything to kill his father.
When the messenger says that the king and queen of
Corinth were not the legitimate parents that Oedipus had, he
again is frightened. The messenger tells him that he was brought
as a kid from Thebes to Corinth and the childless king and
queen adopted him as their son. Then Oedipus, who was happy
all these while demand that the shepherd who gave the kid be
brought before him. Jocasta tells him not to do so. As if Jocasta
has already understood everything, she runs away calling
Oedipus unhappy Oedipus.
Then the old man in the palace of king Oedipus is
brought here. He was also a shepherd. Both of them had
transferred the kid from one king to another. The servant says
that it was the queen of the old king who sent the kid away. As
everything comes to the open, Oedipus weeps and the singers in
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the stage start weeping for Oedipus. Without being able to see
Oedipus again, Jocasta kills herself. Oedipus plucks out his
eyes.
The stage witnesses the dialogues between Oedipus and
chorus. Creon comes to meet Oedipus and Oedipus demands
him that he be driven away from the land since he is the reason
for the plague. Oedipus talks in tearful tones to his daughters.
Though the play is an ancient one, it never amazes even
a modern reader. The very ideas of fate and destiny play a vital
part in the play. Oedipus and the people who knew him tried a
lot in order to avert the imminent danger, but the circle is
complete as the play ends. The play is an epitome of Greek
tragedy and its nuances. Oedipus becomes blind, but he is no
longer proud about anything. The hamartia/tragic flaw of
Oedipus may be treated as the pride he often felt being a strong
king as well as the protector of the kingdom.

Answer the following.

1. How is Oedipus Rex a perfect example of Greek
Tragedy ?
2. Fate is inevitable – discuss while comparing the
character of Oedipus.

2. Urubhangam : Bhasa.
Before Kalidasa, Bhasa (200-300 AD) was the most
celebrated Sanskrit playwright. His plays have been thought to
be lost before they were recovered in the 20th century. Just like
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many writers who used to write in those times, Bhasa also used
myths to be his source texts.
Urubhanga is a play that deals with Duryodhana from
the epic Mahabharata. As the gory Kurukshetra war was coming
to an end, there happened a duel between Bhima and
Duryodhana. Duryodhana was the disciple of Balarama and he
was fond of his student. While the duel was ongoing, Krishna
finds out that Bhima was losing and Duryodhana had more
strategy than the mere brutal strength of Bhima. Since he knew
that if it continued this way, Bhima would fail. Krishna starts
tapping on his thighs as a gesture to send Bhima a message.
Bhima , forgetting all the rules of the duel, smashes the thigh of
Duryodhana with his mace. This is where the title of the play
comes from. In Sanskrit, Uru refers to thigh and Bhanga
suggests broken, shattering etc. Duryodhana falls down to the
ground and can’t even get up. Balarama was furious since his
student was cheated. Krishna, and the rest of the Pandavas
return victoriously. Balarama was going to take an oath that he
would destroy everyone responsible for this.
Later, Ashwattama decides that he would kill everyone
in the Pandava clan. The most moving part of the play is when
the wife and son of Duryodhana come to meet him. His son used
to sit on Duryodhana’s thighs but now, he can’t even stay
upright on his feet. Contrary to the portrayals of Duryodhana as
we have seen already, here the characterisation is pretty
different. He seems to be someone who has foreseen it all. He
doesn’t even believe that he was cheated in the duel.
Duryodhana feels rather peaceful that it has come to end this
way.

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Apart from the characterisation, the play doesn’t seem

wonderful considering the modern standards. The audience do
not see the action on stage, rather the Vidushaka informs the
audience what happened.

Answer the following.

1. How is the portrayal of Duryodhana in Urubhanga
different from that of the epics ?

Les Miserables : dir. Bille August.

Billie August (1948-) was a graduate of the Danish film
institute. He started his career in television and later worked as
cinematographer. His first film as a cinematographer was Hemat
i Natten / Homeward in the Night(1977).
Les Miserables is the most famous work the French
social realist novelist Victor Hugo wrote. This is a voluminous
work spanning hundreds of pages. This work, dealing with the
character Jean Valjean and his pathetic life has been adapted
into films many a time.
The movie directed by Bille August makes use of the
talent of Liam Neeson for the character of Jean. One of the early
scenes in the film shows Jean approaching a Bishop and telling
him he has been a convict. The bishop takes him in and feeds
him. Jean steals a silver from the bishop and the police arrests
him. Fortunately, the Bishop tells the police that he had given
him the silver himself. The bishop tells him that he was
ransomed from fear and hatred.

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He sells the silver and gets a job in a factory nearby. As the

years pass, he has changed and is a mayor of the locality. He
was trying to become a better version of himself when the
inspector Javert, played by Geoffrey Rush enters the scene. He
was someone who knew Jean as a convict.
Uma Thurman plays Fantine, who was dismissed from
the factory and forced to live as a prostitute. Later, Jean takes
care of her. Uma Thurman has showcased a stupendous
performance in the film. He protects both her and the kid
Fantine had out of a wedlock. Later, Jean flees the place to
Paris. When Cosette comes of age, she meets a guy called
Marius and falls in love with him. But he was also being
searched by the police and this puts Javert behind Valjean once
more.
The sets and locations have been handled well.

Answer the following.

1. Compare the differences between the novel and the film
of Les Miserables.
References.
1. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/the-oedipus-
trilogy/play-summary/oedipus-the-king
2. https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/essay/dasarupa
ka-critical-study/d/doc628624.html
3. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/les-miserables-
1998

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Module IV.
FICTION.

1. Mother Sauvage: Guy de Maupassant.

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a French master craftsman
of short stories. Quite often, the stories of Maupassant centred
around the lives of people stuck in disillusioned terms.
The story begins in the form of a nostalgia or flashback. The
narrator visits a place called Virelogne after fifteen years. With
his friend, he was there to shoot. They spot a house there and the
narrator suddenly remembers the woman who was there. She
had given him wine to drink years ago, but now the house is in
shambles. When he asked Serval, his friend, what had become
of the woman, the friend replies that her son was enlisted in the
army and the people didn’t bother since she had enough money.
As the days passed by, the snow arrived. Mother Sauvage went
on with her morose life. Later, the Prussian army arrived there
and four of their military men were asked to live with Aunt
Sauvage. These four men proved to be pretty gentle and
considerate towards the old woman. Though her life was okay
there, she would always worry about her son who was also a
soldier somewhere there. When she asked if they knew where
her son would be , they always had the same answer.
Maupassant here remarks that the peasantry usually doesn’t
have any hatred towards anyone and it’s always the middle class
who have it.

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All of a sudden on a day, the postman appears there with

a letter and it contained the information that her son Victor was
killed by a shell in war. It was difficult for her to digest at first.
Slowly, she found the tears within her. When the Prussians came
back, there was a rabbit with them. When she saw the animal,
she couldn’t kill it but one of the soldiers did it with his mere
hands. It shocked her too. When she saw the dead animal in
front of her, it reminded her of her son. Though she sat with
them, she couldn’t eat anything at all.
It was almost a month since they had been together but
she didn’t know their names and vice versa. They wrote down
their names and passed to her. Since it was cold, she made them
a chamber with straws so that they wouldn’t be frozen. Once she
knew that they were fast asleep, she locked the door and came
outside. Once she was safely out of the room, she set fire to a
bundle of straw and threw it onto the chamber. When she knew
that her mission was successful, she sat down calmly outside her
cottage. Then a group of German soldiers ran to the place and
she told them it was she who set the fire but they didn’t believe
her. When many people gathered there, she detailed everything
from the beginning. When she handed down them the paper on
which the addresses of the dead soldiers were written, she was
pushed to the cottage by 12 German soldiers. She knew she was
going to be shot down. She was killed by the firing squad.
The narrator ends the story thinking about all the
mothers who lost sons to the wars and a particular mom who
was brave enough to avenge it.

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Answer the following.

1. Discuss the portrayal of the character of the mother in
the story Mother Sauvage.

2. The Three Questions : Tolstoy.

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, fondly called Leo Tolstoy
(1862-1910) may be considered one of the greatest writers of all
time. He is often treated as one of the most significant realist
fiction writers. Tolstoy is famous for two voluminous works
named Anna Karenina (1878) and War and Peace (1869).
The Three Questions written by Tolstoy is a very simple yet
philosophical story. He straightaway starts the story, talking
about a king. The king though if he knew the right thing to do
always, everything would be perfect in his life. He asked his
people if they knew someone who could say which was the right
time to do anything. There were answers like, one must always
think in an advanced manner. Then there were others who said it
wasn’t possible but avoiding pitfalls will be the only option to
the necessary things in life. There were other opinions that one
man alone wouldn’t be able to do anything of that sort.
Regarding the people who the king needed, there were various
opinions like he needed wise men, priests, doctors etc.
When the king heard of a hermit who lived alone in the forest,
he went to him asking three questions. When the king met him,
the frail hermit was digging the soil. The king asked him how
would he learn to do the right thing at the right time, the people
he needed the most, and the most important things that needed
his attention. The hermit didn’t say anything but went on

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digging. The king, seeing how tired the hermit was, offered to
help him. When it was so late, the king asked if the hermit
didn’t have any answer to any of the questions, he would rather
leave. When the hermit heard this, he said there was someone
running to them. The man who came running was wounded and
both the king and the hermit attended to the person. When he
became better, he asked something to drink. When it was dark,
both the man as well as the king were tired and they went to
sleep in the hut. When the king woke up , he saw the man
standing near him and he apologised to the king. When the king
told him he didn’t wrong him to be forgiven, the man told him
that he was in fact his enemy who came to avenge his brother.
But he was caught by the bodyguard of the king when the king
went alone to meet the hermit. The wounded man then offered
his services to the king if he would forgive him.
When the king decided to go out with the wounded man, he
asked the hermit once again the questions. The hermit told him
that he was already answered. He detailed that, if he hadn’t
helped him, the man would have come to kill the king. The
hermit told that, the most important time was then, and the most
important man would be one who he is with, and the most
important thing to do is to do good.

Answer the following.

1. The philosophy as explained by Tolstoy in the short
story Three Questions.

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3. Shahnamah : The story of Sohrab and Rustum :

Firdausi.
Firdausi ( 940-1019-25) was a Persian poet who is famous for
writing Shahnamah , the longest epic poems written by a single
poet. Sohrab and Rustum is one of the many poems Firdausi
wrote in Shahnamah.
Rostam and Sohrab talk about the story of a father and his son.
Rustum was an Iranian warrior. One day he went in search of
his lost horse and reached the kingdom of Samangan. He meets
princess Tahmina. She becomes enraptured by seeing him.
While Rustum was staying in the kingdom, the princess enters
his bedroom at night and offers that she would bring the horse
but in return, he should give her a child. Before he left the
kingdom after impregnating her, he told her that if it was going
to be a boy , she should take the seal and bind it on his arm and
in case it is a girl, she has to take the jewel and make a plait of
her hair. She bears a son and does as Rostam suggested. She
names him Sohrab. The father and son never meet at all. A war
breaks out between Iran and Turan then. Sohrab was already a
great fighter in Turan army. But Rustum was a veteran who
knew better that what Sohrab knew. Sohrab goes to fight
Rustum. Sohrab just knew his father by name and he didn’t
know that he was fighting the same. They fight for a long time
and at last Rustum stabs Sohrab. While he was dying, Sohrab
tells him that his father will avenge him. Then both of them
realise their identities and it breaks their hearts. Sohrab produces
the armband Tahmina tied to him. Rustum is unable to save his
son. Tahmina comes to know about this and burns Rustum’s
house and gives away his wealth. Later, her spirit joins her son
Sohrab.

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Answer the following.

1. Sohrab and Rustum as an epic – discuss.

4. In a Grove : Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

Akutagawa (1892-1927) was a prominent Japanese writer in the
Taisho period. Often regarded as the father of Japanese short
story , Akutagawa was phenomenal as a writer. Akutagawa died
at a young age before leaving a legacy of short stories. In a
Grove was later turned into the film Rashomon by Akira
Kurosawa.
In a grove is a story that uses multiple narratives and
perspectives in the same story. The first narrative is by a wood
cutter who testifies that it was he who saw the dead body first in
the grove. According to the wood cutter, the body was clad in a
kimono. The chest of the body carried a wound and it had
almost dried up. There was a rope as well as a comb nearby.
The second narrative was given by a travelling Buddhist to the
investigating commissioner. He had seen a man and a woman,
supposedly his wife. They were on a horse.
The third testimony was by a policeman. He talks about a man
he arrested. His name was Tajomaru. He suspects it would have
been Tajomaru who murdered man but wasn’t sure what would
he have done with the wife of the man.
Another testimony came from an old woman who claimed that
the dead body belonged to the one who married his daughter.
She told the commissioner that the man was not from Kyoto. He

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was a samurai named Kanazawa Takehiko. Her daughter was

named Masago.
The fifth narrative comes from a woman who was seen near
Shimizu temple in the form of a confession. She saw her
husband was tied by a rope there. After a few moments,
everything went blank as she became unconscious. When she
looked around, the man in blue silk had gone away and only her
husband was there. Before he left, the man had his way with the
woman forcibly. The husband kept on looking at these
loathingly. She suggested that both of them die since after the
shameful incident, they wouldn’t be able to live together. She
killed him with her small sword. Later, she tried to stab herself
and threw herself to a pond. Though in whatever ways she tried
to kill herself, she didn’t die.
The next narrative is by the murdered man himself, through a
medium. In his words, he tried a lot in order to dissuade his wife
from listening to the robber. But he thought that she was slowly
yielding to him. The robber at last told her that she would be
useless in case she was tainted by the robber. Then the murdered
man thought that she was telling him that let the robber take her
away wherever he went. According to the man, the woman
asked the robber to kill him since living with the robber
wouldn’t be possible while he was alive. Then the robber
knocked down the woman and asked if she be killed. According
to the man, he was forgiven that moment. Then the robber
untied the man and went his way and the woman was nowhere
to be seen. Then the man spotted a small sword nearby and
stabbed himself. The man was in a hallucination and he thought
someone must have crept near him and drew out the sword from
his chest.

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The last confession is by Tajomaru. He says that he had killed

the man but not the woman. He accuses people who kill others
with power and money. He says that everyone does the same
and he alone cannot be branded as a murderer then. He had
already made up his mind to capture the woman the moment he
spotted the couple. Then, he accompanied them as if he was a
friend and lured them into the grove in the mountains saying
that he had kept some precious swords and mirrors there. Once
they were inside, the robber seized the man from behind and tied
him to a cedar. When then woman was brought to the grove, she
was furious and started slashing at the man with a small sword
she had. But she was overpowered soon and later, he raped her.
But when he was about to leave, she clung to his arm that she
cannot live with her husband anymore and she be taken with
him. She wanted to be with whoever survived between the two.
He decided at that moment that he needed her as his wife. When
they went to the man, he untied him and asked to fight him.
There was a furious battle that followed. According to
Tajomaru, nobody had ever gone past 20 strokes with him in a
fight. He struck him with the 23rd strike. But once he fell down,
she had gone too.
The story is an open ended one. We can only make assumptions
as to who might be telling the complete truth. Instead of
following a linear, connected narrative, the author has used
unconnected yet connected fragments of narratives. Later, once
Kurosawa made the film titled Rashomon, this kind of
narrativecame to be known as Rashomon effect in cinematic
terms.

Answer the following.

1. Significance of multiple narrative in the story In a Grove ?

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5. The Painted Wall: PU Songling.

Born in 1640, PU Songling was a Chinese author who became
famous for his anthology titled Strange Stories from a Chinese
Studio. He was recognised only very late in his life as a literary
man. The anthology consists of around 500 “marvel” stories
depicting fantastic life.
The story begins by talking about two friends named Meng
Longtan and Zhu. One day they decide to visit a monastery
nearby. When they entered the monastery which was quite
simple enough, Zhu started noticing the paintings on the wall.
Out of all the paintings there, one specific painting of a beautiful
maiden caught the attention of Zhu. He was slowly transfixed at
the painting and even felt as if someone was tugging at his
sleeve. The maiden was beckoning him while slowly moving
away from him. They were alone in a pavilion and made love
there. This continued for two more days as she used to visit him
in his room. The companions of the maiden started teasing her.
Zhu started making love with her and they were interrupted by
the sounds coming from outside. Then they overheard the
sounds and it revealed to them that their room would be
searched over pretty soon. The maiden then asked Zhu to hide
under the bed.
Then , suddenly Meng Longtan found out that Zhu was no
longer by his side. When he asked a monk nearby where his
friend was, he was replied that the guy was listening to a
sermon. Then, all of sudden Zhu was materialised on the wall.
When Meng saw Zhu, Zhu was so tired and he couldn’t even
stand on his feet. Zhu said he was hiding but when he heard the
noise, he came out to see what the commotion was all about.
When Zhu asked the monk what this was all about, he said

Classics of World Literature 41

 School of Distance Education

chuckling that the illusion stays in the man himself. Trying to

comprehend what it was all about, the two friends walk away.

Answer the following.

1. How did the author create a sense of magical realism in
the story The Painted Wall ?

References.
1. https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-
maupassant/short-story/mother-sauvage
2. https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/short-
stories/the-three-questions
3. https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/download/Sohra
bandRustum_10464529.pdf
4. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-
almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/grove-yabo-no-naka-
ryunosuke-akutagawa-1921
5. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Strange_stories_from_
a_Chinese_studio/The_Painted_Wall

Classics of World Literature 42