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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2014-2015)

M.E.G.-3
British Novel
Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the
Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tutors/Auhtors for the help and Guidance
of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100%
Accuracy of these sample Answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample
answers may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the
assignment. As these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake
cannot be denied. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these
Sample Answers/Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer & for uptodate
and exact information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the
university.
Q. 1. Through the moral viewpoint in Tom Jones, Fielding aims at correcting distortions in human behaviour.
Do you agree? Discuss.
Ans. It is said that Dr. Johnson once admonished a lady, I m shocked to hear you quote from so vicious a book. I am
sorry to hear you have read it; a confession which no modest lady should ever make. I scarcely know a more corrupt book.
In the same vein, the same Dr. Johnson is said to have eulogised highly Richardons Pamela for its high sense of morality
and virtue.
We must remember that Fielding was neither a moralist, nor a preacher. He was simply an artistic who was holding
the mirror to the society of his time. It was none of his business to be a reformer, even though it is a fact that he wanted to
show hypocrisy, sexual abuse and other vices in their comic colours like Addison and Steele, even though if he might have
exaggerated them slightly like Dickens caricaturist portalyals more than a century after him.
The fact is that Fielding did not believe in conventional morality which presupposed traditional moral standards.
Fielding believed in the sincerity of the motive and the purity of the heart rather than the occurrence of a deed. For
example, in spite of numerous sexual encounters of Jones, he can hardly be stamped with the blot of moral turpitude. It is
because he remains loyal to love for Sophia till the end of the novel and nowhere does he behave as a rake. These were the
wily, corrupt ladies of the society like Lady Bellaston, Molly, Mrs Waters, etc who ensnared him, taking advantage of his
simplicity, innocuousness and rawness.
It is sometimes said that Fielding was most unethical in making Tom accept money from Lady Belleston in return
for gratifying her carnal desires. But that was only because of Toms delicate financial position and even more because of
his lack of experience and rustic simplicity and innocuousness.
Morevover, as Walter Allen aptly says, It is not that Fielding approved of Jones sexual conduct; but he did believe,
with many excellent theologians, that other sins were graver than sexual irregularity, among them, malice, cruelty, meanness,
hypocrisy. (The English novel, repritned, 1957, p. 59). We know that Fielding himself expresses this view (as a chorus as
he acts) in the course of the novel.
According to Cross, W.L. Cross remarks, Emotions and impulses cannot be relied upon as infallible guides in
conduct; at times it is necessary to listen to sterner and less pleasing voice and to that voice Tom Jones is deaf. But we may
surely mark Fieldings protest against the letter of the law, and point to the fact that with Tom Jones the novel not only
definitely assumes a new form, but a new ethics much more respectable than that founded upon. Utilitarianism and
formulated in beautiful and edifying maxims. (The Development of the English Novel, 1952, page 51).
To quote Cross again, Cross remarks, In the moral teaching of Addison and Richardson the emphasis was placed
upon mere conduct and motives so far as they were appealed to were prudential. Do right, that you may prosper in this
world and hope for felicity in the next. That is the general impression gained from their writing. Fielding appealed to
higher motives for right conduct. Virtue, then, is its own reward in the peace that ensues, and vice carries, with the
consequential distrubed conscience, its own punishment.
(Development of the English Novel, 1952, pp. 49-50).

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As we know the whole of the novel Tom Jones is pervaded with the most ethical spirit of Sophia. She must be
considered a model of Fieldings virtue. Nowhere does she prove to be a flirt. She strongly rejects the hypocritical Bilfil
and not only protests against, but resists with all her might the attempts at molestation of her by the flamboyant and
misguided Lord Fellamar who behaves as he does under the shield and with the connivance and goadings of as corrupt a
lady as Lady Bellaston.
Fielding says in his Dedication to Lord Lyttleton, Besides displaying that beauty of virtue which may attract the
admiration of mankind, I have attempted to engage a stronger motive to human action in her favour, by convincing men,
that their true interest directs them to a pursuit of her. For this purpose I have shewn, that no acquisitions of guilt can
compensate the loss of that solid inward comfort of mind, which is the sure companion of innocence and virtue; nor can
in the least balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which, in their room, guilt introduces into our bosoms. And again,
that as these acquisitions are in themselves generally worthless, so are the means to attain them not only base and infamous,
but at best incertain, and always full of danger. Lastly, I have endeavoured strongly to inculcate, the virtue and innocence
can scarce ever be injured but by indiscretion; and that it is this alone which often betrays them into the snares that deceit
and villainy spread for them. A moral which I have the more industriously laboured, as the teaching it is, of all others, the
likeliest to the attended with success; since, I believed, it is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men
good.
Nor does Fielding believe that there is absence of vice in the country side. As R.P.C. Mutter opines, Fielding
believed in the universality of vice. Indeed, Fielding himself says in Book IV, chapter (7) of Tom Jones:
The great are deceived, if they imagine they have appropriated ambition and vanity to themselves. These noble
qualities flourish as notable in a country church and churchyard as in the drawing room, or in the closet. Schemes have
indeed been laid in the vestry, which would hardly disgrace the conclave. Here is a ministry, and here is an opposition.
Here are plots and circumventions, parties and factions, equal to those which are to be found in courts.
Nor are the women here less practised in the highest feminine arts than their fair superiors in quality and fortune.
Here are prudes and coquettes. Here are dressing and ogling, falsehood, envy, malice, scandal; in short, everything which
is common to the most splendid assembly, or politest circle. Let those of high life, therefore, no longer despise the
ignorance of their inferiors; nor the vulgar any longer rail at the vices of their betters.
There is no denying the fact that Tom Jones is written as an epic in prose, but it is a comic epic in prose to be
precise. It has an army of characters, but almost all the characters come under the diabolical hammer of Fieldings
insparing humour which is as rearied in effect as it differential is tone.
Fielding himself says, Now, a comic romance is a comic epic-poem in prose; differing from comedy, as in the
serious epic from tragedy; its action being more extended and comprehensive; containing a much larger circle of incidents,
and introducing a greater variety of characters. It differs from the serious romance in its fable and action in this that as
in the one there are grave and solemn, so in the other they are light and ridiculous. (Preface to Joseph Andrews, Washington
Square Press, New York, 1968, p.xxvi)
To quote Fielding again, The only source of the truly ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation ...... Now
affectation proceeds from one of these two causes, variety or hypocrisy. For a vauity puts on an affecting false character
in order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavour to void censure, by cancelling our vices under an
appearance of their opposite virtues. (Preface to Joseph Andrews)
Basically, Fielding express a broad sympathy with his characters and in doing so, he laugh heartily more with them
than at them. Of course, he laughs, smiles, derides, sareers and jeers in turn, but he is never malicious or spitful.
As Cazamian points out, Fielding has that broad, tolerant nature, that faulty of moral observation, that curiosity of
life for itself, which usually go to make the creators of character.
Cazamian goes on to say, He (Fielding) had written comedies; the play of personalities in contact with each-other,
striving the one against the other, interested and amused him; he has known how to come out of himself, how to endow
imaginary creatures with real life. (A History of English Literature, Legouis and Cazamian, p. 892).
In his Dedication to George Lyttleton, Fielding says, Besides displaying that faulty of virtue which may attract the
admiration of mankind, I have attempted to engage a stronger motive to human action in her favour, by convincing men,
that their true interest directs them to a pursuit of her .... For these purposes I have employed all the wit and humour of
which I am master in the following history; wherein I have endeavoured to laugh mankind out of their favourite follies
and vices.
Fielding excels in all kinds of humour and humour of character, humour of incident, humour of dialogue, humour of
situation and the like ! Irony and satire become homogeous with his humour. His avowed aim is create in aversion or

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destestation for a vice rather than just ridicule it.

He says in his Preface to Joseph Andrews, ...the vices to be found here, are rather the accidental consequences of
some human frailty or foible ... they are never set forth as the objects of ridicule but detestation.
In Joesph Andrews, Parson Adams is the best example of Fieldings humour. In Tom Jones, Partridge, Mrs Honour
and Squire Western are the best examples of pure humour.
Q. 2. Do you think Jane Austen privileges education over nature as formative of a persons character in Pride
and Prejudice? Explain with reasons.
Ans. Jane Austen could not gain popularity during her own life. But later, as her novels were read by the public, her
popularity increased day-by-day. Not much later after her death, Walter Scott; her great contemporary was all praise for
her. A number of writers of great renown (among them Thackeray) lamented that they could not see the lady. Actually,
nobody probably could predict that she would die so young, that is just at the age of forty-one which for a novelist is only
the age when he/she tries to learn the art and/or rarely attain maturity.
Sir Walter Scott, the great contemporary who at first, could not quite attune himself to Jane Austens art, finally
recognised her superior merit. Said he in his famous Quarterly Review article :
Keeping close to common incidents, and to such characters as occupy the ordinary walks of life, she has produced
sketches of such spirit and originality, that we never miss the excitation which depends upon a narrative of uncommon
events, arising from the consideration of minds, manners, and sentiments, greatly above her own.
He continues : (Jane Austen) confines herself chiefly to the middling classes of society : her most distinguished
character do not rise greatly above well-bred gentlemen and ladies : and those which are sketched with most originality
and precision, belong to a class rather below that standard. He further says : The authors knowledge of the world, and
the peculiar tact with which she presents characters that the reader cannot fail to recognize, reminds us something of the
Flemish School of Painting. The subjects are not often elegant, and certainly never grand : but they are finished up to
Nature and with a precision which delights the reader.
About a decade later, Mr. Scott said : That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and
characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with ....
A number of readers and critics have found lack of warmth, passing and imagination in Jane Austens novels :
Charlotte Brone asked George Henry Lewis : Why do you like Miss Austen so much ? I am puzzled on that point
... I had not seen Pride and Prejudice till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find ? An
accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders
and delicate flowers ; but no glance of bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny
beck, I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant, but confirmed houses.
Later she wrote to W.S. Williams lamenting lack of depth and passions in her : Anything like warmth or enthusiasm
anything energetic, poignant, heartfelt is utterly out of place in commanding these works : all such demonstration the
authoress would have met with a well-bred sneer, would have calmly scorned as outre and extravagant. She does her
business of delineating the surface of the lives of genteel English people curiously well. There is a Chinese fidelity, a
miniature delicacy in the painting. She ruffles her reader by noting vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound. The
passions are perfectly unknown to her : she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood. Even to the
feelings she vouchsafes no more than an occasional graceful but distant recognition too frequent converse with them
would ruffle the smooth elegance of her progress. Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the
human eyes, mouth, hands and feet.
It should be noted that among the Bronte sisters, only Charlotte gained successor (to some extent, if not thumping)
in her life time with Jane Eyre. Emily and Anne (as novelists) left the world almost unnoticed. The same thing practically
happened with Jane Austen in spite of her superior art which brought her undying popularity, but alas ! much later after
death.
Wordsworth found lack of imagination in her works and this was the main reason that he disdained. In the same
vein, Charlotte, even life Wordsworth, eulogising her for her accuracy finds lack of sentiment and poetry for (imagination,
harmony and lyricism) in her works: Miss Austen being, as you say, without sentiment, without poetry, may be is
sensible, real (more real that true), but she cannot be great.
As we have seen, Charlotte Bronte denies the entitlement of being great to Jane Austen. That was a little earlier
than the Victorian period, and, as we known, Jane was practically a pre-Romantic novelist, much opposed to the Gothic
style which was then prevalent and which she satirised.
Charlotte, though may be right in her own way of thinking, finds fault with Jane Austen to a prejudicial point when

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she says
What sees keenly, speaks aptly,
moves flexibly, suits her to study;
but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life and the sentient
target of deaththis Miss Austen ignores. She no more, with her minds eye, beholds the heart of her race than each man,
with bodily vision, sees the heart in his heaving breast.
Even H.W. Garrod complains of (in Jane Austens novels)
A drab scenery the worse for use; a think plot unfashionably cut, and by turning, relining and trimming made to do
duty for five or six novels; a dozen or so stock charactersthese are Miss Austens material.
Such writers as complain of surface reality or superficiality in her novels or those who say that she never goes
not of the Parlour forget that the answer to their questions and doubtings lies in the novel (Pride and Prejudice) itself.
They should only recall Elizabeths famous remarks to Jane: The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with
it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be
placed on the appearance of either merit or sense.
Such critics forget that Jane deliberately limited her range, so that she described the life (only that part of it) which
she knew well and that was to be true to nature which means depth and not superficiality, as they alleged.
It should be noted, in particular, that Jane Austens enduring popularity is not merely because her characterization,
but also because of her varied merits like superb artistry, consummate skill of plot cons-truction, loving and sympathetic
humour, delicate irony and pleasing satire.
This what a renowned critic David Daiches says about her: The greatest of all the novelists of manners of this or
any other period and one who raised the whole genre to a new level of art was Jane Austen (1775-1817). With no
exhibitionist critical apparatus, such as Fieldings theory of the comic epic, no pretentiously moral purpose such as
Richardson kept repeating, and indeed with no apparent awareness that she was doing more than essaying some novels in
an established social mode, this unpretentious daughter of a Hampshire vision of man as a social animal, her ironic
awareness of the tensions between spontaneity and convention and between the claims of personal morality and those of
social and economic propriety, her polished and controlled wit, and beneath all her steady moral apprehension of the
human relationships produced some of the greatest novels in English.
It will be worthwhile to note W.J. Longs views of Jane Austen regarding her increasing popularity and her great
influence on the coming novelists, particularly those of the Victorian period
Miss Austen followed up the advantage with at least six works, which have grown steadily in value until we place
them gladly in the first rank of our novels of common life. It is not simply for her exquisite charm, therefore, that we
admire her, but also for her influence in bringing our novels back to their true place as an expression of human life. It is
due partly at least to her influence that a multitude of readers were ready to appreciate Mrs. Gaskells Cranford, and the
powerful and enduring work of George Eliot.
We should remember that women got a raw deal in all spheres of life and they got no better treatment as novelists.
Jane Austen demonstrated once for all that women could write as well as men and often even better than men.
W.J. Long mentions the place of Pride and Prejudice among Jane Austens works, as under
The most widely read of her novels is Pride and Prejudice, but three others Sense and Sensibility, Emma and
Mansfield Park, have slowly won their way to the front rank of fiction. From a literary view point Northanger Abbey is
perhaps the best; for in it we find that touch of humour and delicate satire with which this gentle little woman combated
the grotesque popular novels of the Udopho type.
It was Lord David Cecil who said of Jane Austen ..... her books express a general view of life. It is the view of that
eighteenth century civilization of which she was the last exquisite blossom. One might call it the moral-realistic view.
What is alleged to be a fault in Jane Austen, is in reality a tribute to her stark realism. For instance, Leonard wrote
in 1942 (what he called Economic Determinism of Jane Austen)
(her social and economic standard .... (are), except in one important particular (she is against work ; her heroes,
he says, do not work), those which we associate with a capitalist bourgeosie rather than with country gentlemen and
aristocrats ... The social standards are almost entirely those of money and snobbery. It is remarkable to what an extent the
plots and characters are dominated by questions of money.
Q. 3. Critically examine the various narrative techniques in Wuthering Heights.
Ans. It is common knowledge that there are three methods of telling a story which are employed by the novels
(1) The author himself tells the story in a straight forward intelligible manner.

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(2) The main character in the novel tells the story in the first person. This method is used by Dickens in David
Copperfield and Great Expectations.
(3) The employment of a detached observer who narrates the story.
Emily Bronte employs the third method, but she takes the services of two narrators instead of one.
The two narrators. The two narrators employed for the purpose by Emily are
(i) Mrs Ellen Dean (or Nelly)
(ii) Mr. Lockwood
The two narrators share of story-telling
(i) Lockwood tells the story.
(a) from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3
(b) from Chapter 31 to first half of Chapter 32
(c) concluding few paragraphs.
(ii) Nelly tells the story
(a) from Chapter 4 to 30
(b) from the second half of Chapter 32 to the end (except the concluding few paragraphs)
Thus, the major portions of the story is told by Nelly.
The Major Portion of the Story. The major portion of the story comprises
(i) the history of the two families
(a) the Earnshaw family, and
(b) the Linton family
(ii) the story of an outsider, Mr. Heathcliff. Thus the main story of the novel is told by Nelly.
Peculiarities of Emilys Narrative Art. One particular of Emilys narrative art is that
(i) Nelly tells the main story since she has worked as a housekeeper with both the families, i.e. Earnshaw and
Linton families.
(ii) She relates the story to Lockwood who then reproduces the same to us.
(iii) Thus Lockwood is first a listener (like us) and then a narrator.
(iv) Nelly remembers every little bit of each incident which took place in the two houses.
(v) Lockwood remembers every bit of the story told by Nelly.
(vi) Both Lockwood and Nelly have and exceptionally remarkable memory.
Nelly as a narrator.
(i) The great merit in Nellys narration is that she has known the characters at first hand. Even though she takes an
active part in furthering the plot, she is impartial and narrates the story in a dispassionate manner.
(ii) Both as the chorus and narrator. Nelly serves two purposes in the novel
(a) that of a narrator
(b) that of being the chorus
Even Lockwood assures us of her being a fair narrator. In spite of he story being seemingly an incredible or improbable
one, because of Nellys position of being an eyewitness, we do not challenge the occurrence of events.
Lockwood as a narrator. Since Lockwood narrates the story after hearing it from Nelly
(i) his detachment becomes more marked.
(ii) he serves as corroborating the story told by Nelly and thus making it doubly credible.
Both Nelly and Lockwood behave as not being emotionally involved in various events in the novel and this faculty
becomes more conspicuous in the case of Lockwood for his being the second and more distant narrator than Nelly.
The beginning of the story
(i) The narration starts from near the end of the story. Lockwood starts the story when Heathcliff has already had
his revenge and has no more any desire for it.
(ii) The real start takes place with the beginning of the narration by Nelly in the fourth Chapter. Then the end is told
by Lockwood again near the close of the novel.
Canards Technique. Canard took up Emilys technique and it became very popular thereafter. When Emily presented
the technique of the detached narrator, it was a new experiment in novel writing. Even at present her technique seems
confusing to many because of two narrators who take up narration in an irregular manner.
Demerits of the Technique. (i) The technique of narrator employed by Emily, creates confusion in the minds of the
readers mainly because of the two narrators

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(ii) Readers credibility is shaken instead of being enhanced while considering that
(a) Nelly is capable of remembering every bit of each incident and dialogue; and
(b) Lockwood is capable of remembering and recounting each word of information conveyed to him by Nelly.
(iii) Emilys narrative powers certainly decline considerably in the second half of the novel which lacks
(a) dramatic situations.
(b) intensity and fervence of the first half.
(c) cripness of the dialogues as in the first half of the novel.
(iv) Neither Nelly nor Lockwood evince any tangible sense of humour to relieve the tension caused by highly
violent incidents, such that critics like G.D. Rossetti are compelled to declare that the events of the novel take place in
hell. Only the names are human.
Q. 4. How do you respond to the Pip - Estella relationship? Illustrate your answer wih the examples from the
text.
Ans. Pip is, undoubtedly, the hero of the novel Great expectation. The whole story of the novel revolves round him
and almost all the characters in the novels are connected to him in one way or the other. He gives the following description
about himself and his family in the first chapter of the novel :
His name and family description
(Chapter 1, p. 9)
My fathers family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my unfant tongue could make of both names
nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
I give Pirrip as my fathers family name on the authority of his tombstone and my sisterMrs. Joe Gargery, who
married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their
days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were lie unreasonably derived from
their tomb stones. The shape of the letters on my fathers give me an odd idea that he was a square stout, dark man, with
curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, Also Georgiana wife of the Above, I drew a childish
conclusion that my mother was freck led and sickly.
To five little stones lozenges each above a foot and a half long which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave
and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly early in that
universal struggle. I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their
hands in their trousers, pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.
Fear complex. We find Pip alove first in the marshes. He is about to cry on seeing his parents and dead brothers
tombs. There he encounters the first convict, Abel Magwitcha meeting which gives him quantas of fear and makes him
steal food and a file from his sister and brother-in-laws house where he lives.
Not a coward. Even if Pip seems to suffer from fear complex, basically, he is not a coward. This he amply proves
in his duel with Herbert, in his efforts to save Magwitch and his encounter with Orlick in the sluice house.
Full of Imagination. Pips mind is full of imagination. This is both a positive and a negative quality. He had a childlike fancy of enlarging things and persons and situations. He actually believes that his heart would be torn out by a cruel
man if he does not comply with the demand of Magwitch. But this wild imagination also enables him to take Mr. Jaggers
word in their true spirit and he strives hard to become a gentleman.
High ambitions and great expectations. The same wildness of imagination raises high ambitions which are rather
too high as he is obsessed with great expectations which virtually come to nothing.
Inferiority complex. From the very beginning, Pip is conscious of being base born. He thinks too much about his
coarse body and dress and manners and sometimes even dislikes his trust and greatest friend, Joe, just for similar reasons.
Rusticity. There is something rustic and uncouth in manners and appearance. As he visits Miss Hanishams house,
his treatment by Estella enhances the element of inferiority complex in him.
Relations with Miss Hanisham and Estella. Pip is very sincere in his relations with Miss Hanisham and Estella.
He has a high regard for the strange lady and he is simply bewitched by Estella.
Pip vainly hopes that Miss Hanisham is his benefactress. Then he believes that one day she will arrange Estellas
marriage with him.
He is not well-treated by Estella from the very beginning. She hates him from the very beginning and even tries to
break his heart as she is trained to do by Miss Hanisham. Still, he believes that she will marry him. Estella, in Miss
Hanishams house, even caters food to him in a highly presumptuous manner. But he, though tormented tries to forgive
and forget his humiliation.

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Pip escorts Estella to Richmond as desired by her. He sincerely advises her to have no relations with a knave like
Drummle. But she admonishes him and cares not a fig for him.
Finally, when Estella becomes a widow, she marries him. It is too late. One can only say, better late then never, just
for the sake of consolation.
A true friend. Pip is a true friend. He helps Herbert sincerely to become a partner in Mr. Wemmicks firm. He does
not even inform him of this fact. He sincerely pleads his case with Miss Hanisham for help. He pleads even the case of Mr.
Matthew Pocket, his tutor, for the same purpose.
Pips treatment of Joe must be considered questionable. Joe is his brother-in-law and best friend who takes him as
his apprentice and plays off all his debts to his creditors as he visits London when Pip is ill. Pip does not like his uncouth
dress of blacksmith and his rustic too simplistic manners. When Joe visits him in London to convey to him Miss Hanishams
massage, Pip wishes he should not have come and when he actually comes, he maintains a reserved attitude towards him.
In the end, Pip abundantly makes amends for this lapse as the following dialogueChapter 57, (pp. 49798) reveals:
At least, one day I took courage and said, Is it Joe ! And the dear old home voice answered, Which it air, old
chap.
Oh, Joe you break my heart ! Look angry at me, Joe. Tell me of my ingratitude. Dont be so good to me ! For Joe
had actually laid his head down on the pillow at my side, and put his arm round my neck, in his joy that I knew him.
Which dear old Pip, old chap, said Joe, You and me was ever friends. And when youre well enough to go out for
a ride what larks !
After which Joe withdrew to the window, and stood with his back towards me wiping his eyes. And as my extreme
weakness prevented me from getting up and going to him, I lay there, penitently whispering, O God bless him ! O God
bless this gentle Christian man !
Joes eyes were red where I next found him beside me, but I was holding his hand and we both felt happy How long
dear Joe ?
Which you means to say, Pip, how long have your illness lasted, dear old chap ?
Yes, Joe.
Its the end of May, Pip. Tomorrow is the first of June.
And have you been here all the time dear Joe ?
Pretty nigh, old chap for as I say to Biddy when the news of your being ill were brought by letters, which it were
brought by the post, and being formerly single he is now married though underpaid from a deal of walking and shoeleather, but wealth were not an object on this fast, and marriage were the great wish of his hart.
It is so delightful to hear you, Joe, But I interrupt you in what you said to Biddy.
Which it were said Joe, that how you might be amongst strangers, and that how you and me having been ever
friends, a visit at such a moment might not prove unacceptable.. And Biddy her word were Go to him, without loss of
time. That said Joe, summary up with his judicial air, were the word of Biddy, Go to him Biddy says, without loss of
time. In short I shouldnt greatly deceive you. Joe added after a little grave reflection, If I represented to you that the
word of that young woman were, without a minutes loss of time.
These Joe cut himself short, and informed me that I was to be talked to in a great moderation and that I was to take
a little nourishment at state frequent times, whether I felt inclined for it or not, and that I was to submit myself to all his
orders. So I kissed his hand, and lay quietly, while he proceeded to write a note to Biddy with my love in it. Evidently
Biddy had taught Joe write. (Chapter 57, pp. 497-98)
Pips materialism. Dickenss was age when money was gaining the centre-stage in human relations. As such, when
Mr. Jaggers informs Pip of his great expectations from an unknown benefactor, he is overjoyed. When he informs uncle
Pumblechook, Miss Hanisham and others of his bright prospects, Key all congratulate him.
Thus Pip hankers after money and status. Magwitchs attempt at making Pip a gentleman clearly demonstrates that
is the new world, it is not birth or inheritance alone which makes a gentleman, but money and education can do this and
Magwitch wishes this and Pip tries to take full advantage of it.
Pips fate. One may believe in fate as divine dispensation or not, yet fate play its part, at least with Pip. His
circumstances, environment and events in life are closely connected with fate.
In the Victorian world poor orphans like Pip had no status in society even when having a kind patron like Joe. Pip
lived in a marshy and this is connected to his fate. It was there that he met Magwitch who caused him ripples of fear and
held out great expectations to him even if they dissolved into the mists of the marsh, as Pip himself say towards the end of
the novel.

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It was providential that Pip met women like Mrs Joe, his own sister (who did not treat him well), Miss Hanisham
who first treated him as a plaything and became instrumental in causing him frustration in the matter of his expected
marriage with Estella and that Estella who at best once broke his heart, though in the end reconciled to him as a feeble
widowa poor substitute for that throbbing, vibrating Estella. Again whereas Miss Hanisham bequeaths everything for
Estella and Mrs Pocket she wills nothing for poor Pip.
Q. 5. What perspectives if any, does The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie offer on faith and morality?
Ans. Sparks characters are interiorised. This means that they are involved in a search for the self that accommodates
both personal fulfilment and political or social claims. Personal obsessions guide those characters. They turn their lives
into channels of self-righteous imagination and bring about their destruction.
Miss Brodie is one of the characters who is an accentric spinster and school teacher. She has fine judgement of
character and specializes in organising the lives of the Brodie set. She dislikes team spirit which contravens individual
freedom. She thinks herself that she can seek the beginning and end of ther proteges. She resists all questions which
question her unorthodox methods. Her pupils also carry this impression. They are unquestioning and uncritical absorbing
all that she says. These characters take a hostile stand against those who intrude in the classroom and appear to change the
ways of Miss Brodie.
Miss Brodie emanates from those parents who couldbe trusted "not to lodge complaints about the more advanced
and seditious aspects of her educational policy." She shares also personal equation with Brodie set. She was ready to go
where even her parents feared to treat. Brodie took them to the world of art by explaining them the feats of Italian
Renaissance painters. They developed appreciation for operas and also understood the temprament of devoted artist like
Anna Pavlova and Sybil Thorndike. Miss Brodie invited them to meals and in this way developed in the girls a sense of
indebtness. She used that sense for herpersonal advantage.
Miss Brodie had a great hold over the girls. It is observed in her machinations and manipulations regarding the future
of Rose and Sandy. Miss Brodie oversteps the limits when she is found manipulating situations in order to make Rose Mr.
Lloyd's lover. She says that Roses instinct would particularly appeal to the art master. Miss Brodie than convinces Sand
that she would be ideal informant on the Lloyd-Rose liasm. B at Sandy does not agree and rejects the teacher's plan.
The relationship between Miss Brodie and Mr. Lowther does not last long. This is due to the fact that the very base of
the relationship was deceipt and fraud. Miss Brodie convinces her student that her aim was that falling health of Mr.
Lowther did not deteriorate further, but improve. Mr. Lowther suffered from bad health due to the departure of old
housekeeper and nonavailability of her replacement for a long time. The Ken-sisters keep Mr. Lowther on tenterhooks
and after that started neglecting him thinking that she could marry him at any time. But she feels a great shock. Mr.
Lowther is engaged to Miss Lockheart, a science teacher.
When war clouds were howering over Europe, the idealogy of Miss Brodie proved to be a failure. She believed in
fascim and praised Mussolini and Hitler. For these beliefs, Sandy betrays her. She thinks that the Girl Guides are her rivals
who will disband Brodie set. She is unable to understand that she is coming in between the idependence of others. She has
a false notion that whoever so comes in her way will surrender to her. In this way, she believes in abusing power. But she
fails in her motive and loses her control on others. The pathos of the downfall and the importance of her defeat is
conveyed through 4 desciption of her sitting Shrivelled and betrayed in her long preserved dark musquash coat and her
blind groping for the real identity of her betrayer.
Sandy also exhibits propensities of psychological and moral growth. She is in search for self. It leads her through
many diverse experiences and ultimately she becomes a nun. Spark has created Sandy to offset Brodie. She goes on a
mission that in the very beginning questions, after that defies, and in the end betrays Miss Brodie for what she is. From the
very beginning, Sandy starts investigating Miss Brodies weakness. She relies on her experience, images and conscience
to help her in this quest. In the beginning, she only tentatively assents to Miss Brodie's ideology and thinking. First of all,
she distrubs her class by asking Marry to give an incorrect answer. Then she walks with her head bent back gazing at the
ceiling and telling Miss Brodie that she is imitating the big actress Sybil Thorndike and purposely keeps away from Miss
Brodie's tea party after going through the Edinburgh slums. She does all that to watch Miss Brodie's reactions to subtle
forms of defiance. Sandy is often told of that one day she will to too far by surpassing the limits given by theteacher to
her girls. As the time passes, Sandys experience of Miss Brodie's domination over the girls is supplemented, by images
that reinforceher opinion. When Mr. Lloyds jkissei Miss Brodie in the art room after school hours, Sandy starts thinking
about the sexual aspect of Miss, Brodies love. Jenny reports about the incident. She is the only one in the Brodies set
who is able to identify the image of the teacher in any figure that Mr. Lloyd claims to paint Sandy, in this way, concludes
that Miss Brodie had a passion and sexual yearning for the married art teacher could not be fulfilled.

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Emily Joyces goes to fight in Spanish civil war for General Franco where she meets a tragic end. Sandy revolts
against Miss Brodies doctrine. She tells Miss Mackay that Miss Brodies has fascist views that her actions constitute
authorial agreement. Spark agrees with Sandy in some aspects, enters a convent, and publishes pychological treatise
which is known as The Transfiguration of the Commonplace." Sandy is not much different than Miss Brodies. She is on
many ways identical with Miss Brodie. Her sense of personal guilt and revenge hound her, which reflect in her picture as
sister Helena.
Both Miss Brodie and Sandy feel isolated at the later years of their lives. Miss Brodie is shaken by the knowledge that
she has been betrayed. She meets her never knowing what the real cause was of her tragic end. Sandy, who later becomes
a nun and known as sister Helena, lives, and achieves fame but she is always aware of cruelly betraying a woman to whom
she could never recount the past. Both Miss Brodie and Sandy arouse the compassing and outrage of the readers. They
openly stand against the conventions both in public and personal life. But they cannot perceive and counter their destructive capabilities.
The oilier characters in the novel are peripherial. They only highlight tlie interaction between Miss Brodie and Sandy.
Monica Douglas, Rose Stanley, Eunice Gardiner, Jenny Gray and Mary Macgregor were the six girls in the Brodie Set
They symbolically emphasise the strength of the personality. These figures stand for flexibility and conformity to Miss
Brodie's visions of them in the time to come. They have the spirit to challenge her and at the same time remain her docile
admire even after schooling. Like Miss Brodie, they can simply speculate about the identity of the person who betrayed
Miss Brodie and brought about her embarassing displacement from the school.
The readers came accross with only two male characters in the play. They are Mr. Lloyd the art master and Mr.
Lowther, the singing teacher. They have been depicted as satellites of Miss Brodie who satisfy her physical and emotional
needs. She interacts with these two persons as man to man. But they do not take her attitude in the same spirit. They treat
her woman first and anything else afterwards. It causes rivalary between them. Miss Brodie is inclined to Mr. Lloyd. Mr.
Lloyd is a married gentleman. He can afford only to indulge in Clandestine meetings. Sandy and Jenny happen to see one
such meeting between them. Miss Brodie and Lloyds nurture their affections, but they are never open about it. Mr.
Lowther serves to camouflage Miss Brodie's true affection and by and by goes out of her life. In her private life also, she
is thwarted by social concerns. She is unable to express her soft corner. Her nearness to Mr. Lowther, is known but since
there is no evidence to it, Miss Brodies escapes with social censure.

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