English

English-II: LLB 201 BALL.B./BBALL.
B: II Semester
Course Content & Reading Material

BALL.B./BBALL.B: II Semester(2018-2019)
Paper Code: LLB201
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ENGLISH-II
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Course Developed: Dr. RuchiRaj Thakur

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LL.B.-201 B.A./BB.A. LL.B. IInd Semester
HIMACHAL PRADESH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,
SHIMLA
SEMESTER- II
B.A./B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) PAPER CODE: LLB 201
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COURSE TITLE: English-II CREDITS-04
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Objectives: Language is a medium of self-expression in all spheres of human life
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– personal, social and professional. A student must have a fair knowledge of
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English language and skills to communicate effectively to cater to his professional
needs. The objective of this subject is to acquire proficiency, both in spoken (oral)
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and written language. At the end of the subject, the student will be able to develop
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comprehension skills, improve vocabulary, use proper grammar, acquire writing
skills, correspond with others and enhance skills in spoken English. The course
further aims at adding a human touch to the understanding of future lawyers by
introducing them to great works of literature. In the light of the words of Rene
Descartes: “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest
men of past centuries”, the subject will acquaint students with great thoughts of
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.1

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great writers that will lend a depth to their thinking and analytical skills. Through
the advent of the course, the students will introspect on the intricacies of human
nature, complexities of life situations and gain a deeper insight into life. They will
realize how intuition and emotion goes hand in hand with the power of reasoning
in delivering judgment.
A- COURSE-CONTENT
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Module-1
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[CRIME AND PUNISHMENT] (Total Lectures –18 Lectures)
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[This module aims at bringing to fore the ugliest and poor side of the society in
which we dwell. It further discusses the lacunas in social and legal system. It also
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accentuatesthe parochial approach of the society towards women who are the most
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vulnerable lot of the society. It aims at underscoring the thought that society has its
own way of calling someone’s deed a crime and then announcing punishments to
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set precedents. The module also discusses the individual resistance against the civil
and ecclesiastical establishments. It also discusses how sometimes innocent are
noosed by stringent law policies. It brings to surface the hard fact that the judge
has the final authority to pronounce unbiased judgment but how efficiently they are
shouldering these responsibilities is a question which bothers the most. The
module discusses various shenanigans observed in the judiciary, judiciary which is

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considered to be one of the four main pillars of democracy. Solitary confinement is
another issue which is comprehensively discussed.]
[Topics] 1.1The Witch by Yashpal
1.2Four Paise by Yashpal
1.3A Case for the Defence by Graham Greene (Short Story)
1.4 The Cop and the Anthem by O.Henry (Short Story)
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1.5Silence! The Court is in Session by Vijay Tendulkar
1.6 Justice by John Galsworthy

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Module-2
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[Grammar and Usage/ Vocabulary] (Total Lectures –16 Lectures)
[A basic understanding of functional grammar and style is essential for effective

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technical communication. This module on functional grammar illustrates important

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grammar concepts and explains problem areas and standard grammatical practices.
It will help in improving readers’ understanding of functional grammar.]
[Topics]
 2.1Determiners (a, an, the), Prepositions
 2.2 Change of voice: Active &Passive voice

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 2.3 Change of Narration
 2.4One word substitution
 2.5Legal terms
Module-3
[Developing Reading & Writing skills] (Total Lectures –15 Lectures)
[Honing of reading and writing skills is essential in order to achieve academic
success because academic performance depends on the quantity and quality of
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reading and writing. It will enhance one’s understanding of reading process,
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identification of the purposes of reading and grasping techniques to improve
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reading speed. This module also emphasizes on the understanding of sentence
structure, deciding on sentence lengths in technical writing. This will further

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enable one to understand how to connect ideas logically within a sentence.]

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[Topics]
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 3.1 Reading Strategies
 3.2 Mechanics of Précis writing
 3.3 Paragraph Writing
 3.4 Comprehension- skill of reading and understanding English language-
Unseen passages of literature
 3.5 Legal essays

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Module-4
Phonetic transcription (Total Lectures – 16 Lectures)
[“No two people pronounce exactly alike. The differences arise from a variety of
causes, such as locality, early influences and social surroundings…”, says Daniel
Jones. To purge off such differences, it is pertinent to learn appropriate
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pronunciation techniques which will help one to avoid common lapses and errors
in speaking. It will enable an understanding of the concept of ‘acceptable English
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pronunciation’ by knowing ‘phonetic transcription’ and phonemic symbols of
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English. It will enable one to identify speech sounds of English and provide
knowledge about pronunciation guidelines related to consonants, diphthongs,

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monophthongs and vowels.]

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[Topics]
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 4.1 IPA symbols, transcription
 4.2 English vowels and consonants
 4.3 The syllable – its structure and function
 4.4 Word stress in English
 4.5 Primary Stress and Secondary Stress

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Prescribed Books:
1) Yashpal(2005) The Second Nose.
2) Tendulkar, Vijay. (1967). Silence! The Court is in session.
3) John Galsworthy. (2001). Justice
4) NarangChanchal Ed., Promising Pleaders: A Text book of English For Law
Students. Publication Bureau Panjab University Chandigarh, 2018 ISBN: 81-
85322-70-8.
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5)Sharma, R.C. and K. Mohan. 2011. Business Correspondence and Report
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Writing. Fourth Edition. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.
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6) Rizvi, M. Ashraf. Effective Technical Communication. New Delhi : Tata
McGraw Hill, 2011.

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7) Sethi, Anjanee and Adhikari,Bhavana. Business Communication. New Delhi:

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McGraw Hill Education. 2010

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8) Raman, Meenakshi and Singh, Prakash. Business Communication. New
Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2006.
9) Madhukar, R.K. Business Communication. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing
House Pvt.

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Ltd, 2005.
INDEX
S.no Name of the topic Page no
1. Introduction on Law & Literature 11-44
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2. Module-1 45-89
 The cop & the Anthem
 The case for Defence IM

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 The Robber woman & The Witch:
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A study
 Justice by John Galsworthy

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 Silence! The court is in session by

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Vijay Tendulkar
3. Module-2 91-127
 Change of voice
 Change of Narration

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 Articles
 Prepositions
4. Module-3 128-131
 Reading strategies
 Reading Comprehension
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5. Module-4 132-139
Phonetics
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Declaration
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I, Dr. Ruchi Raj Thakur, Assistant Professor of English, HPNLU,
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declare that this study material is only meant for private circulation. This
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work has been borrowed from different sources available online. The
material has various articles, PDFs and readings to provide an insight

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into the fundamentals of language and phonology. It also dwells on the

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socio-cultural aspects depicted in various literary writings forming part
of the curriculum. All of these readings have been put together in an
effort to hopefully form a complete “mosaic” of a student’s or
class’s accomplishment in learning.

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Introduction on the
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Juxtaposition of Law IM
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& Literature
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SOCIETY: UNDERSTANDING LAW THROUGH LITERATURE
I. Introduction
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The correlation of law and literature has gained the attention of many debaters and
critics. According to Wordsworth, literature is a spontaneous overflow of powerful
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passions and emotions, a medium for self-expression and individual feeling. For
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some, it is an exhibition of artistic writings having an emotional and intellectual
appeal. While others believe that literature is completely detached from the
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imagination because of the close association of text and the context. However, in
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the beginning of the nineteenth century, literature adopted a more realistic
approach and hence, moved away from the themes of beauty, heroism, romance
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and also embellished literary language. The writers realised that literature should
be associated with society and this association with society bringsit closer to Law
asLaw regulates society. Therefore, the juxtaposition of Law and Literature
becomes vital. Literature work not only enriches law man’s life, broadens our

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views but also makes us more sensitive to the nature of human as well as the
reality of society1.
II. Synthesis of Law and Literature:
Both Law and Literature are peculiar and distinctive in their own way as both have
different theories, thinkingand approach. Literature is more concerned with
emotions and passions of human life while Law deals with human behaviour and
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society. The former explains itself through intricate plots and sub-plots which are
performed by the characters, who are flesh and blood creatures. Through fictitious
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depictions, writers enable us to feel connected to these situations, which are a
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blend of reality and imagination, through the dialogues of the characters. Literature
enables the readers to understand the human psychology of the life-like

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characters.In literary writings, the aim of the writer is to familiarise the readers
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with the real social, political and economic situations of the period to which he
belong. It is his responsibility to reveal the occurrences and the happenings of his
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times to keep the readers informed about the condition of the society. A reading of
such works foregrounds the beliefs and cultural norms of society by providing an
insight of those practices and preferences.
Similarly, Law also revolves around human beings, life and society. This discipline
works on certain set standards which are both objectively and subjectively
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file:///F:/2008_3-1-Li-Ching+Chang_%E5%BC%B5%E9%BA%97%E5%8D%BF_.pdf

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analysed. Lawregulatessociety bydecoding certain standard norms of behaviour.
Breaking of norms invites an action from law enforcement agencies. To ensure
discipline and congenial atmosphere for living, Law is always on vigil. It is
pertinent to mention that besidessociety and representation of life, rhetoric and
narrativealso bring the two closer to each other. So the correlation between the two
must be appreciated. Such relation would not only be intricate but interesting too.
III. Unveiling Dichotomy between Law and Literature:
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There are many critics to counter attack this synthesis.Richard Posner2 out rightly
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refutes the relation between two disciplines. According to him the study of
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literature improves law –“that it can do so not only by providing jurisprudential
insight, rhetoric techniques, an understanding of legal regulation of literature, and

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insights into social practices that law encounters, but also by humanizing
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lawyers”.3He furtherrejects the idea that legal content can be interpreted through
literature. In the same vein, many lawyers and judges have also expressed their
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apprehensions on the association of law with other disciplines as they assume law,
literature, philosophy, history etc. are separate entities. Hence, believes each
discipline is an independent space, with its own methodologies…4.
2
Richard Posner, Law and Literature (1998), p.237.
3
Id. p.237.
4
J.Shklar, Legalism (1964), note, above, para. 1-020.

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While there are many who fully support the legal interpretation with the help of
literature. For instance, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyeris known for his literary flair in
his language as in one of his famous judgment in Maru Ram v. Union of India5 his
speech was purely literary and embellished. In the judgment, he says,
“But broken hearts cannot break prison walls. Since
prisons are built with stones of law, the key to liberation
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too is in law’s custody. So, counsel has piled up long
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and learned arguments punctuated with evocative rhetoric.
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But Judges themselves are prisoners of the law and are not
free to free a prisoner save through the open sesame of

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Justice according to law. Even so, there is a strange

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message for judges too in the rebellious words of
Gandhiji’squasi-guru David Thoreau: ‘The law

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will never make men free; it is men who have got to
make the law free. They are the lovers of law and
order who observe the law when the government breaks it.”
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1980 AIR 2147;1981 SCC (1) 107

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Many critics and Lawyers feel that a penchant for literature and its usage enables
one to understand the legal situation easily. Legal theories may make the human
situations more theoretical and labyrinthine while rhetoric gives more clarity to the
circumstances of those who have a rendezvous with law. Law cannot negate the
socio-economic, political, religious bindings as it is for the society. So to say, law
cannot be technically estranged from emotions because all interdisciplinary and
social influences converge with law. The various social institutions and policies are
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governed by law because in the absence of law, the society becomes brutish and
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ruthless. Thomas Hobbes too supports this argument that man becomes a savage in
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the absence of law.
IV. Interface of Law and Literature: Functioning and Methodology

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The function of Literature and Law is similar. Literature aims to show its capacity
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to bring change in the social and cultural ethos, codes and conventions. So, a text
not only mirrors the era’s beliefs but also shoulders the responsibility of improving
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the underlying modes of thinking and practices, detrimental to its growth. Hence, a
text exhibits its ability to bring about a sort of revolution in the conventional
practices. On the other hand, Law is a science that aims at safeguarding society by
defining the limits of human behaviour and making them conscious towards the
rules and regulations of society. If a conflict arises, it aims at solving a real human
conflict by punishing the culprit and giving relief to the victim. This is done in

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adherence to various sections, acts and by following precedents set before. The
role of Law ends after the pronouncement of punishments. What convicts and their
family undergo remainsunheeded.To comprehend the impact of Law on society,the
role of Literature comes into being.
Law and Literature have the same technique of elucidation. Narration of facts and
stories are pertinent for fictional and legal purposes. In legal academia, Law is
taught through various fictitious situations and cases, one of the most important
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being the case of SpelunceanExplorers6published for the first time in Harvard Law
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Review, is developed by Lon L.Fuller, a legal researcher. The author in this case
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attempts to discuss the various approaches towards the conceptual understanding
of Law through a fictitious situation. It discusses the case of cannibalism in which

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five cave explorers find themselves entrapped in an extreme situation without food
and water. This case unfolds radicalization of law on necessity. Lawyers argue on
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facts to make the case clear for understanding and also to consolidate their point of
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contentions in the discussion of cases. However, a writer unfolds the setting, plots,
subplots, characterization for the better understanding of story line. This is where
the interconnection of law and literature becomes apparent.
The relation between the two provides lawyers a better acumen to understand the
human conditions with the help of the great literary works. The legal themes
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Available at http:// digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4813&fss_papers

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around which the writings of the great writers revolve lends a depth to their
thinking and analytical skills. The discussion of even the minutest details used in
literary works enables them to brood over the intricacies of human nature. The
complex life situations give a deeper insight into life. Thus, an emotional angle is
well-knitted in such literary writings which are supplemented with the power of
reasoning in delivering judgments. It further develops humanistic aspects about the
legal world as the aspects of law and popular culture are effectively woven in the
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plot of literary artifacts. With the help of such literary readings with legal
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framework brings before candidly the psychology of human mind and their
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response to the unique fictional, situational, yet universal. This certainly broadens
one’s perspective about society and life and enables them to find remedy to resolve
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the conflict, though the writers end the story by resolving the whole issue projected
in his work by his creativity ways of thinking.

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IV. Carving out the Socio-Legal Underpinnings in Literary Writings
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, John Galsworthy’s Justice, Bernard
Shaw’s St. Joan, E.M. Foster’s A Passage to India Graham Greene’s ‘The Case
for Defense’, O. Henry’s ‘The Cop and the anthem’, MunshiPrem Chand’s ‘God
Lives in the Panch’ include a vast amount of deliberation on law, indicative of
legal procedures, statutes and precedents expounded in literary language. The legal

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issues which have been explored are extensively associated with the criminal law,
crime and punishment, human follies such as conspiracy, larceny, treachery and
murder and attempted murder etc.
In The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare has depicted the concept of
contract law. The play depicts an agreement between two central characters of the
plot.In case of forfeiture of the bond, Antonio, a male character, Shylock could
claim the penaltyi.e. one pound of Antonio's flesh. The question arises that is it
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enforceable because of the content or is itunforceable, being against public
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policy.Legally, the bond is unforceable because it would be against public policy
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to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio’s heart in the name of penalty as it constitutes
unlawful object and unlawful consideration. In accordance with Section 24 in The

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Indian Contract Act, 18727, "if the whole consideration for a contract is illegal, the
contract is void, for the illegality of the consideration violates the whole".
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Therefore, because this bond involves a person being killed, should be forfeited, it
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is therefore illegal, as the consideration in it is an illegal act. Therefore, this bond is
unenforceable and should have been dismissed immediately, on these
grounds.Understanding of such legal issues, contracts and their invalidity or
validity is difficult to be understood by laymen. With the portrayal of fictitious
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Section 24 in The Indian Contract Act, 1872

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situation, Shakespeare has interpreted the Section 24 from the English Contract
Act, 1872. Goodrich8 asserts:
“It is language in the end which remembers, it is language
which bears tradition and it is through language…that we
remember notsimply the appearance of the past but also its
discourse…In discoursewe read language to collect not
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simply what was said, a copious linguistic context…”
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Shakespeare’s writings have discussed the legal discrepancies by using
languagewith a determinable objective. He aims to enable the readers to

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comprehendthe situation and the way to get riddance from the circumstantial
complexities. The literary writer also aims that the readers should understand the
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phenomenon of right and wrong with the play of words. The narrative of a writer
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enables the reader to decide if the role of the characters is just or unjust. For
instance, Portia’s argument that as per the contract, a pound of flesh can be
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extracted but the action must take place without oozing or spilling of blood is
probable or improbable is to be decided by the readers. In court rooms, the
arguments followed by decisions are based on legal textualism and interpretation
while literary writings are simple illustrations of legal concerns in literature.
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P. Goodrich, Languages of law: From Logics of Memory to Nomadic Masks (1990), above n.55, p.2.

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Different literary genres like drama, tragedies, comedies etc. stage umpteen legal
concerns and discrepancies with an objective to offer new insights into law.
Literary writings enable the readers to identify the evils produced by the systems,
the dissatisfied petitioners, ravenous lawyers, the inside story of the confinement,
captivity etc. John Galsworthy in Justice proves how a lacuna in the system leads
to catastrophe in human life. The writing questions the underlying legal system by
describing the deplorable state of prisons. Act III of the play delineates the
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grotesque life of the prisoners who have cells all to themselves for they could not
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share their space with another prisoner as per the rules of jail. The feeling of
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solitude is beautifully discussed by the writer because he wishes to underscore the
condition of prisoners which a Judge ignore while administering justice.

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W.H.Auden writes in Law like Love9:
“Law, says the judge as he looks down

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his nose,Speaking clearly and most severely,

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Law is as I've toldyou
before,Law is as you know
Isuppose,Law is but let me explain
itoncemore,Law is The Law.
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W.H.Auden. Law Like Love.

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The writers also underscore similar contention that for the Judges law is law. In
Galsworthy’s play, Justice, Falder, the protagonist, is sentenced to three years of
confinement under the charges of forgery. In the captivity, he had to observe first
three months as solitary confinement.A criminal must be noosed by law but due
measures should be taken into consideration when judgments and punishments are
pronounced. Referring to Article 21 of the Constitution10which reads as:“No
person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to
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a procedure established by law.”
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Jury and the Judges do not know that in prisons, theprisoners are leading lives no
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better than animals. In the play, the writer depicts deplorable prison life of the
prisoners as they are forced to work strenuously against their wishes. Moaney, a
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prisoner half-heartedly makes saws because Wooder and the Governor, the jail
officials, want him to complete the assignment. O’ Cleary, another prisoner,is sleep
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deprived as Falder, his co-prisoner, keeps banging his head against the wall. Here,
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the writer underscores the impact of solitary confinement on the prisoners. Falder
does so because he feels that he would never be able to go out of the jail
compound. No body understood his pain. He tells that he bangs his head to ensure
his connection with the outside world. To stay connected he even drags his feet to
the door and then rests his ear on the door so that he could hear some sound from
Article 21 of the Constitution

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the other side of the door. The writer in Justice11writes: “In fast-failing daylight,
FALDER, in his stockings, is seen standing motionless, with his head inclined
towards the door, listening. He moves a little closer to the door, his stockinged feet
making no noise. He stops at the door. He is trying harder and harder to hear
something, any little thing that is going on outside”.
For Falder, door is a hindrance between him and the outside world.Galsworthy
further endeavours to immerse his writing in life-like situations encountered by
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those who experience penal servitude which changetheir life completely and
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ultimately end their life finding themselves misfit in society. Legal proceedings
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and procedures through literary illustrations and practical techniques promote the
unfolding of the incongruities that exist in the system. Law and legal process take
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place in precincts of court rooms and chambers and so unequivocally is a secret

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administration. But various writings facilitate the readers to familiarize themselves
with law through the representation of dramatic trials in literature. John

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Galsworthy’s Justicegained the attention of the authority whichrecognized him as
the foremost reformers in prison administration in England at his time. Taking note
of Galsworthy’s concern,the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill,introduced
reforms in prison system, especially solitary confinement.
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Galsworthy, John. Justice. P.164

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The power of literature cannot be overlooked. It articulates the externalities which
the theoretical foundations of law may fail to. A work of art is a detailed
interpretation of the surroundings and captures social, political consciousness, the
culture and practices. Literature highlights all aspects of culture and society.
Hence, it has the capacity to bring transformation in society and cultural
hegemony.
J.B.Shaw also deliberates upon the same legal concerns in Saint Joan. Joan, the
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female protagonist, becomes a victim of the English authority and the ecclesiastical
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power. She is charged as a heretic. The Inquisitor says, “…But it is a terrible thing
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to see a young and innocent creature crushed between these mighty forces, the
Church and the Law.”12 The protagonist of the play is gnawed by law because she
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claimed the she could hear the voices of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. A
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direct communication with the God was enough to hurt the feelings of the Church
who feared their supremacy and standing at stake. When the Church official asked
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the reasons for her being tried as a heretic, the Inquisitor said, “…A gentle and
pious girl …who has obeyed the command of our Lord … and putting on the garb
of poverty, the life of austerity, and the rule of humility and charity, may be the
12
J.B.Shaw.Saint Joan.

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founder of a heresy that will wreck both Church and Empire if not ruthlessly
stamped out in time.…”13
The writer further underscores through his writing that Joan is forced to signthe
recantation accepting all the charges framed against her. She is asked to do so on
the condition that her case will not be transferred to the English authority. Later,
Joan comes to know that signing of the recantation and the acceptance of the
charges mean that she would face lifeconfinement. The recantation
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reads:“…perversely rejected the Church’s warnings that these were temptations by
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demons. I have blasphemedabominably by wearing an immodest dress, contrary to
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the Holy Scripture and the canons of the Church. Also I have clipped my hair in
the style of a man, and, against all the duties which have made my sex specially
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acceptable in heaven... I confess to the sin of sedition, to the sin of idolatry, to the
sin of disobedience, to the sin of pride, and to the sin of heresy. …And I will never
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return to my errors, but will remain in communion with our Holy Church and in
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obedience toour Holy Father the Pope of Rome…”14
When she objects, her case is transferred to the English who burn her to death. The
English believed that burning of Joan is the only way to deliver Justice. Her death
gives rise to a number of questions in the mind of the church men even because
after the death of Joan, Cauchon asks his fellow men: “There is some doubt
13
Shaw
14
Shaw

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whether your people have observed the form of law, my lord”15. Shaw has
expressed through his writings the law administered by the church in the fourteenth
century. The trial scene, which forms Scene VI of the play, signifies that there is
nothing beyond logic and rational which might even ignore that the chariot of
justice can even overlook the noble deeds done selflessly for the society. Joan
deserves to meet a fair trial and a severe punishment for aiming the freedom of
France from English and setting free the annexed territory of France from the
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English. A number of pitfalls in the legal proceeding of the Ecclesiastical courts16
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have been underscored by the writer. Such limitations can only be comprehended
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through literary writings. The modern writers aim at giving a purpose to their
writings which certainly cannot overlook such major issues and practices.
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The much prevalent hiatus between the English and the Indians has been discussed
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by an eminent writer, E.M.Forster. A Passage to Indiadepicts racial
discriminations which not only drag an Indian into litigation but tarnish his image
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in the society as well. The writer highlights that sometimes even innocent are made
to face the court and are grinded by the law. For no reason, some people find
themselves standing in the testimony boxfacing the legal proceedings. In the novel,
Aziz,a poor Indian, is charged of coquettish behavior for chasingAdela, finding her
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An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction
mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider
powers than before the development of nation states.

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alone in the Malabar caves. McBryde, the prosecutor, damages his image by
asserting that it is certain that a dark Indian gets lured by white race and so should
be punished. Later Adela, who is believed to be chased by Aziz, confesses that she
had made a big mistake by thinking that Aziz followed her into the cave. The
lawyer tries to bring the proceedings on lull for some time on medical grounds. But
Adela withdraws all the charges followed by the release of Aziz.
Contrary to this, O.Henry’s‘The cop and the Anthem’ depict the other side of the
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story where Soapy deliberately breaks the norms to find himself a place in jail so
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that he could protect himself from severe winters of the year and also to get food
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and water for survival. This highlights the sorrowful condition of the poor people
who are forced to become criminals because they cannot afford the quintessential
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of life such as food and shelter.

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Writers like Graham Greene and MunshiPrem Chand have also contributed to the
discussion oninterconnection of law and literature through their writings. Graham

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Green in ‘The case for Defense’ highlights the legal aspect that ‘Let a hundred
guilty be acquitted, but one innocent should not be convicted’17. On this ground,
Adam and his identical twin are acquitted by the court because the charges of
murder could not be proved against any of the two as the main witness could not
identify the real culprit. The story certainly raises a question that more facts could
17

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have been extracted to find the main accused but the story ends on the concept of
‘Divine vengeance’ as one of the two twins is run over a bus leaving him dead. The
dead brother leaves number of questions in the mind of readers. The biggest one
beingwhether the dead man was the real culprit or the murderer was still
alive?Another renowned writer, MunshiPrem Chand in ‘The Voice of God’ has
endeavoured to portray the positive side of law by placing Judges or Panches at the
same pedestal with God and their voices as the voices of God. Also that with
LA
position comes sense of duty and fairness in the administration of Justice.
V. Conclusion
IM
SH
By depicting such human conditions, the concept of Law in Literature comes into
picture, as this concept portrays legal situations in literary writings. The primary
LU
concern to do so is to bring to surface the human conditions and the impact of law
PN
on them. Rhetoric and narrative techniques enable the readers to comprehend the
intention of the writers behind their creations.Literature serves the function of

H
education, self-expression, compassion, self-searching, life, feeling, and healing.
Literature inspires people’s minds. It makes us dream about a beautiful world,
ideal societies, and human justice18. Both Law and literature are textual. All texts
require interpretation and hence Law also demands interpretation. Literary writers
18
The Research of Comparison between Law and Literature: As Illustrated by Kafka’s “The Trial” Li-Ching Chang
http://www.law.ntu.edu.tw/ntulawreview/articles/3-1/2008_3-1-Li-
Ching+Chang_%E5%BC%B5%E9%BA%97%E5%8D%BF_.pdf

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aim at interpreting law through their writings and establish a relation between
literature and law which in turn develops relation between the author and text in
law19.The author is a part of society on whom the whole human science is based,so
what he sees he writes in his texts whilelaw is a science which controls and
governs the whole human and social system. So,the unison between the two is not
wide off the mark.
Law and Literature build up the relationship between “humans and society.” The
LA
prime tenacityof Literature is to bring a change in society by depicting such human
IM
conditions which underscore the vices and virtues prevalent in society. Through
SH
the delineation of morbid situations one can learn the implications of bad actions.
It further results inenvisioning an ideal and a just world free from immoralities,
LU
while law is to limit humans’ behaviour.

PN
Therefore, the comparison between Law and Literature does not take them far
away each other but enable one to carve similarities between the two. The
H
deliberation on the subject supports the argument that the two disciplines cannot be
divorced from each other. The beginners in the legal field can learn law from
various literary classics. Compassion for society can be imbibed from literature as
19
Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities Volume 11 | Issue 2 Article 8 5-8-2013 Law and Literature: Works,
Criticism, and Theory James Seaton. Available
athttps://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.co.in/&httpsredir=1&
article=1077&context=fwps_papers

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different hues of human life and society are painted in such writings. Literature
enables the readers to imbibe consideration, sensitivity and sympathy. They can be
more sensitive as well as conscious to the human issues and social conditions.
Literature not only gives voice to the legal functioning but numerous external
subjective factors which are often not considered by the legal theoretical
foundations. Law narrates a more practical story of punishments, legal
proceedings, crimes, conducts, etc. but overlooks the impact of its doing on the
LA
society as it is only concerned with objectivity. What is missed or overlooked is
IM
captured by the other discipline. Literature is a medium through which Law gets a
SH
holistic expression. It voices the agonies of the public which can effectively be
delineated by literature.Besides all such concerns, literary readings makes the

LU
readers realise the role of a formal system of governance, i.e, law, in the smooth
PN
functioning of society. The absence of such reasonable system of governance the
social edifice will disintegrate.

H

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Filozofia Publiczna i Edukacja Demokratyczna

Tom IV • 2015 • Numer 1 • s. 6-20 • DOI: 10.14746/fped.2015.4.1.1
www.filozofiapubliczna.amu.edu.pl • ISSN 2299-1875
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0
Law and Literature – a Meaningful Connection

Martin Škop
Abstract: The connection between law and (imaginative) literature can

still affect surprisingly. The theme of the present article is to sum-
LA
marize some of the basic features of the movement, which is called
„Law and Literature” and to suggest some starting-points with
which it is associated. These starting points include, for instance
IM
linguistic conception of law, narratology in law or the relations
between law and culture. The article offers an overview of the clas-
SH
sical approaches connecting law and literature and mentions the

reasons for this connection: e.g. cultivation of law and lawyers,
improvement of judicial decisions or improvement of legal inter-
pretation. Some of the findings resulting from the joint of law and
LU
literature can be used in practice and goes beyond „mere” theo-

ry. The article is to be seen as an introduction to the movement
of „Law and Literature”, presentation of ideas on which this move-
PN
ment is based and offering the possibility of its further develop-

ment.
Keywords: Law and Literature; interpretation; legal philosophy; legal
H
language; legal culture; narrative; sociology of law
French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu claimed that law, which

he considered to be strictly rational, is actually nothing but
an act of social magic that actually works.1 Magic means
magic words. Words that go along with magic. Law is mostly
1
Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, trans. Gino
Raymond, Matthew Adamson, Polity Press, Cambridge 1991, p. 42.
* Masaryk University
martin.skop@law.muni.cz
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION HPNLU

ONLY SHIMLA Page No.30
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| Law and Literature – a Meaningful Connection |7

expressed in words. The most common task in law is play-
ing with words. Modern European state governed by the rule
of law, too, is based on written law. It is therefore abso-
lutely crucial that a lawyer be able to understand and com-
prehend a text, connect it with reality and, in some cases,
transform it into action. That he be able to really work with
a text. Basic contents of law are transmitted through a text.
The path leading from words, or said social magic, to narra-
tion, is actually very short. Indeed, law is not merely a text,
but is also connected with reality. When German philoso-
pher and essayist, Walter Benjamin, reflected in 1936 on the
decline of narration, in which no one was interested anymore
and which had been losing its epic dimension,2 he entirely
neglected law. He thus left unnoticed an area which had been
LA
very closely interlinked with narration – description of his-
tory and of desired and wanted actions.
IM
Law can be found on the point of intersection among
several planes. From among these planes (or dimensions),
SH
the normative one plays a vital role. The law belongs

to the sphere of norms – rules of human behaviour. Anoth-
er marked dimension, which ultimately forms the design
of law, is the dimension of ethics. Legal rules include mor-
LU
al contents, values or ideas which society considers correct.

Law would make no sense without values. However, law is
PN
also affected by aesthetics. Emotions must necessarily influ-

ence law. Reasoning is an inherent part of legal argument.
Law represents a force that also has a symbolic dimension
H
and its ultimate character should be formed accordingly.

The present text focuses on the aesthetic dimension.
Indeed, this dimension implies a link between law and
literature. It shall be therefore examined how law can relate
to literature and vice versa. How literature can be of help
in lawyer’s work. How knowledge derived from fiction can be
employed in law. Naturally, we will not claim that law can-
not exist without literature, but we shall rather try to show
how literature can help, or at least cultivate, law. This abil-
ity of literature is pointed out by Jeanne Gaakeer, who
claims that the original mission of the Law and Literature
2
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, Random
House, New York 1988, p. 87.

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8| Martin Škop |
movement was quite simple: to achieve intellectual and aes-
thetic goals, to improve the ability to interpret and to see
things from someone else’s perspective.3 None of the above
is an inherent part of law. Nonetheless, these aspects can
help law attain a closer link with the culture4 in which law
is embodied.
Possible manifestations of literature in law

The backdrop against which shall be the connection
between law and literature approach lies in the assump-
tion that law can be perceived as a type of language.5 Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure understood law as a social
LA
product linked with the ability to speak. He considered it
a set of social conventions adopted by society to actually
implement this ability.6 At the same time, language can be
IM
conceived as a conventional system of signs that express-
es certain ideas.7 Law, too, can be understood as a conven-
SH
tional system that expresses values and ideas, as well as

the ensuing rules of proper behaviour. To this end, it uses
a specific set of elements – rules – which have certain fixed
LU
mutual connections. American expert in constitutional law,

Robert Cover, assumed that law was actually a language.
In his concept, a norm is a sign used – depending on how
PN
addressees deal with it – to communicate attitudes towards

ourselves and towards others.8 By breaching (or setting)
H
a certain norm, an individual makes a statement about

himself and his relation to society. Together with further
3
Jeanne Gaakeer, “The Future of Literary-Legal Jurisprudence:
Mere Theory or Just Practice?”, Law and Humanities, Vol. 5, No. 1,
2011 (185-196), p. 186.
4
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays,
Basic Books, New York 1973, p. 89.
5
James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination, University of Chica-
go Press, London 1985, p. xiii.
6
Ferdinand De Saussure, Course in General Linguistics, transl.
Wade Baskin, Philosophical Library, New York 1959, p. 9.
7
Ibidem, p. 16.
8
Robert Cover, “The Supreme Court, 1982 Term – Foreword:
Nomos and Narrative”, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 97, No.1, 1983
(1-68), p. 8.

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| Law and Literature – a Meaningful Connection |9

context, he can thus manifest his contempt for society or, on
the other hand, conviction that its values are correct, etc.
It was already stated that law can be conceived as a lan-
guage. Therefore its interpretation should be mentioned.
Law as a social phenomenon is hidden in words and must be
‘reconstructed’ from them. It is important how legal norms
are written, how the addressees understand them and what
is hidden behind these words. All that is law. It is a lin-
guistic phenomenon that reflects links of power as well as
cultural contents. Law is characterised by battles for influ-
ence.9 Various actors try to obtain monopoly over the defini-
tion of individual notions and these battles have the nature
of battles over language and interpretation.
An important role in the process of interpretation is
LA
played by the reader. Italian semiotician Umberto Eco
believes that a text can have no meaning without a read-
IM
er as the latter contributes towards its meaning.10 A text
is never complete without its relevant addressee. Pierre
SH
Bourdieu uses the term competent reader in this connec-

tion.11 Although both Bourdieu and Eco speak about art or
the aesthetic aspect of a text, there is no reason to believe
that law would be any different. Here, too, a certain text
LU
must be prepared for someone who will be able to under-

stand it, for a reader who has sufficient qualified informa-
PN
tion that is necessary for understanding it. The reader acts

in a context whose rules and values he must share with
others. The decisive role is played by the reader’s actual or
H
desired community, the community that forms the basis for

legitimacy of legal concepts. Law finds its expression in pub-
lic space and its existence is conditional on its acceptance by
the public. Or at least by the professional public. By his own
interpretation which is connected with his environment, the
reader thus construes the legal text and gives it its meaning.
9
Pierre Bourdieu, “The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the
Juridical Field”, The Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 38, No. 5, 1987
(805-853), pp. 816-817.
10
Umberto Eco, Lector in fabula: la cooperazione interpretativa
nei testi narrativi, Bompiani, Milano 2006.
11
Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the
Literary Field, transl. Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press,
Stanford 1995, p. 286.

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10 | Martin Škop |
It is the reader’s intervention which enables the implemen-
tation of a normative text in real situations.
Legal interpretation and literature

Consequently, it comes as no surprise that law can be inter-
preted as any other text. However, account must be tak-
en of the context of power in which law exists, and also
of the fact that a legal text is expected to be implemented.
It is not a text intended for intimate reading. Law is a spe-
cial system of signs that is reflected in the lives of specif-
ic people. In spite of its abstract form, it is an instrument
that interferes with the functioning of the society. It does
LA
so in a special way that requires persuasion – it is neces-
sary to persuade the addressees of the correctness of the
legal regulation and legal procedures. Jack M. Balkin and
IM
Sanford Levinson consider that this forms the basis for the
close interconnection between law and music. In music, as
SH
well as in drama, and law, crucial role is played by perfor-

mance.12 Law is an object that is presented to the public.
The audience becomes a relevant element in the process
LU
of interpretation. When law is interpreted, it is necessary

to transform the words by which a legal norm is expressed
to functioning social relationships. It is imperative to trans-
PN
form it to a rule of behaviour and let this rule actually influ-

ence human behaviour.
H
Law is a culture of arguing and interpreting.13 This is why

law can only be understood in view of the culture in which
it is implemented and through which it obtains its mean-
ing. This is not only about the given text, but also about its
meaning that emerges in relation to culture. Consequent-
ly, law can be perceived as the art of rhetoric, consisting
in the ability to convey specific meanings of a certain text
12
Jack M. Balkin, Sanford Levinson, “Interpreting Law and Music:
Performance Notes on ‘The Banjo Serenader’ and ‘The Lying Crowd
of Jews’”, Cardozo Law Review, Vol. 20, No. 5-6, 1999 (1513-1572),
p. 1530.
13
James Boyd White, ”Law as Language: Reading Law and Read-
ing Literature”, Texas Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 3, 1982 (415-445),
p. 436.

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| Law and Literature – a Meaningful Connection | 11

to another person and convince the latter of the need to read
it in a certain way.14 It is imperative to limit the possibil-
ities of reading the text and limit the number of possible
meanings.
Let´s summarise the above: the manifestations of the aes-
thetic dimension of law can most often be found in interpre-
tation, performativity and arguments, or more specifically
persuasion. Law must be interpreted – it is necessary to deter-
mine the ways of correct perception of a legal text. This text
also needs to be implemented in a manner that corresponds
to the expectations of the audience, or community to which it
is addressed. That is what is called ‘performativity’. And it is
also necessary to argue. To persuade, i.e. to enter the above
battle for meanings. This is where ‘legal imagination’ plays an
LA
invaluable role.15 Legal imagination is the ability to work with
abstract mental constructions on which law is founded. The
IM
knowledge of legal imagination can improve the understand-
ing of what law actually is, what place it occupies in society
SH
and in what forms it acts. With sufficient legal imagination,

law can be examined in a broader context.
In this way, we can partly answer the question inherent-
ly embedded in this text: why connect law with literature?
LU
Literature provides useful guidance in the field of interpre-

tation, as well as in the areas of performance and argument.
PN
A lawyer must read a text in the same analytical fashion

as, for example, literary critics. He also must act in a stra-
tegic manner, determine what stands ‘behind a given text’
H
and be able to use this knowledge.16 This brings us to func-

tions that literature can serve in relation to law. Literature
has the ability of cultivating law and lawyers. This process
of cultivation by literature also includes improved ability
to create a text and interpret it. Literature offers enough
means for increasing the perception of narration and telling
stories in a persuasive manner. However, it also refines the
capability of understanding stories and texts.
14
Ibidem, p. 437.
15
See James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination, op. cit.
16
Daniel J. Kornstein, “A Practicing Lawyer Looks Back on Law
and Literature”, Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 10,
No. 2, 1998 (117-119), p. 117.

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12 | Martin Škop |
Literature as a method of cultivating law

Let us now focus on the ability of literature to cultivate law
and the legal environment in general.17 John Wigmore is
often ranked among the first authors forming the contempo-
rary history of the Law and Literature movement. In 1907,
he published an article titled “A List of Legal Novels”,18
where he offered lawyers a list of literary works that should
not escape their attention. In his opinion, lawyers must
not neglect fiction which deals with law, because it is their
general duty to be cultivated people. They, therefore, should
also be educated in fiction. However, it is also their specific
duty to master their own profession. They must know what
expectations people associate with it.19 A lawyer ought to be
LA
a cultivated person and must know what society thinks of his
profession. This, according to Wigmore, is the foundation
IM
of responsibility borne by lawyers.
John Wigmore was not the only one to strive to offer
SH
students literary works that could extend their general

knowledge.20 Eugene Wambaugh can be considered one
of his predecessors.21 In his short essay, Wambaugh is,
in fact, much less radical than Wigmore. Wambaugh con-
LU
siders that it is up to each student whether or not he

will become acquainted with selected literary works.
PN
At the same time, he adds that a proper and educated law-

yer cannot be oblivious to literature – even if this was an
artistic description of the legal environment.22 Wigmore
H
has a number of followers, who have been further extend-

ing his list or, in contrast, reducing it by removing works
that are no longer attractive or revealing for nowadays
17
David Kairys, The Politics of Law: a progressive critique, Basic
Books, New York 1998, p. 663.
18
John H. Wigmore, “A List of Legal Novels”, Illinois Law Review,
Vol. 2, No. 9, 1907-1908 (574-593).
19
Ibidem, p. 576.
20
See Richard H. Weisberg, “Wigmore and the Law and Litera-
ture Movement”, Law and Literature, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2009 (129-145),
p. 141.
21
Eugene Wambaugh, “Light Reading for law Students”, Law Bul-
letin of the State University of Iowa, Vol. 2, No. 28-31, 1891-1893.
22
Ibidem, p. 31.

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readers.23 Similar lists are now even being draw up of other
works of art, such as films.24
In its early years, the Law and Literature movement
tended to attribute to literature the ability to cultivate
lawyers. Later, this element appeared to fade away,25 or
is rather deemed a matter of fact. Given the major impor-
tance of law for society, I believe however that we should
not neglect this cultivating aspect of literature. This the-
sis can now seem trivial – there can be no doubt that fic-
tion has a cultivating effect. However, in a situation where
specialisation is prevailing in law and an increasing num-
ber of lawyers tend to perceive law in technical terms, it
might be appropriate to return to a comprehensive percep-
tion of law associated with culture.
LA
Benjamin N. Cardozo, too, considered that literature had
the ability to educate.26 He, too, perceived the role of fiction
IM
in terms of cultivation. At the same time, he concentrated
particularly on decision-making by courts and especially
SH
on the concept and style of court decisions. For him, lit-

erature was a tool helping to establish a certain concept
of judicial rulings. This is also a question of cultivation, but
cultivation of expression, which necessarily – if court deci-
LU
sions to have any weight – influences the results of judicial

work. Therefore it is important to distinguish the contents
PN
and form of decisions, where form is by no means second-

ary. It is form what enables us to orient ourselves in a text.
There is not the slightest reason why legal texts, includ-
H
ing professional legal texts, should not be readable, why

they should not try to meet general requirements placed on
23
See e.g. Richard H. Weisberg, “Wigmore’s ‘Legal Novels’ Revisit-
ed: New Resources for the Expansive Lawyer”, Northwestern Univer-
sity Law Review, Vol. 71, No. 1, 1976 (17-28); Richard H. Weisberg,
Karen L. Kretschman, “Wigmore’s ‘Legal Novels’ Expanded: A Collab-
orative Effort”, The Maryland Law Forum, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1977-1978
(94-103).
24
See Tomasz Stempowski, „Prawo i film – instrukcja obsługi”,
in: Tomasz Stempowski, Piotr Grabarczyk (red.), Prawo w ﬁlmie,
C. H. Beck, Warszawa 2009 (3-16).
25
Richard A. Posner, “Law and Literature: A Relation Reargued”,
Virginia Law Review, Vol. 72, No. 8, 1986 (1351-1392).
26
Benjamin N. Cardozo, “Law and Literature”, Yale Law Journal,
Vol. 48, No. 3, 1939 (489-507).

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14 | Martin Škop |
any text. And this includes comprehensibility and clarity,
as well as, perhaps, certain aesthetic criteria. This, natu-
rally, also applies to a normative text, which must not give
up on readability.
Law as narrative
Along with the art of composition, which can be sufficient-
ly mastered by reading literature, Cardozo also pointed out
the ability to narrate. In forming his decision, a judge must
create a certain image of reality. It is clear that this image
cannot be sufficiently comprehensible if both important
an unimportant elements are assigned the same position.
LA
A judge must be able to choose. It is not his task to pro-
vide or obtain an absolutely accurate image of reality. He
must focus on elements important for his decision. Litera-
IM
ture shows a judge how to paint a comprehensive picture
composed of material elements. A picture that will not be
SH
a perfect copy of reality, or even hyperrealistic, but that

will capture substantial elements of the given case, with-
out omitting or adding any. Although Cardozo focuses pri-
LU
marily on the wording of court decisions, it can be stated

that narration is part of many fields of law. Let us now deal
with narration.
PN
Language – or rather cultivated and literary language – can

help establish a certain order that follows in a linear way from
H
a certain starting point.27 It has its origin. The ability to nar-

rate, to create a chain forming an order and linked to a cer-
tain original state, is desirable in legal argument. Allison Tait
and Luke Norris28 mention stories that are told in courtrooms,
pertain to past events and serve to clarify facts. These stories
provide a comprehensive picture of those parts of the history
of events that have a legal bearing.29 When describing facts
of the case, it is thus necessary to compose pieces of evidence
27
Peter Fitzpatrick, The Mythology of Modern Law, Routledge,
London 1992, p. 42.
28
Allison Tait, Luke Norris, “Narrative and the Origins of Law”,
Law and Humanities, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2011 (11-22), p. 11.
29
Guyora Binder, Robert Weisberg, Literary Criticism of Law,
Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000, pp. 261-264.

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to form a story.30 This procedure corresponds to what Neil
MacCormick described as ‘narrative coherence’.31 Although
MacCormick tends to aim at analytical examination of court
decisions, his concept that a description of facts must corre-
spond to what is usual or what is backed up by experience is
actually very close to narrative examination of law.
Persuasiveness of law
Let us now return to Benjamin Cardozo. In his opinion, anoth-
er reason why knowledge of literature is important lies in the
desired persuasiveness of a decision. The reasoning of a deci-
sion needs to be persuasive and have a symbolic strength.32
LA
These are elements that a judge can learn from fiction. From
fiction, judges can derive procedures and techniques they will
then use in composing their rulings. A persuasive decision
IM
must be functional by its own force. It must be a self-stand-
ing document that will stand vis-à-vis the parties’ judgement
SH
as well as that of the public and of the superior authority,33

not to mention that it may affect society as a whole and its
legal awareness. This is why court decisions certainly must
LU
not neglect the form in which they are provided. Cardozo

strives to develop a certain architecture of reasons (or ‘archi-
tecture of opinions’)34 that would ensure clear arrangement,
PN
comprehensibility and literary quality of judicial decisions. It

can be considered that if judges (and, as documented by Car-
H
dozo in the conclusion of his article, not only them, but also
attorneys and members of other legal professions) improve
their literary abilities, they will be able to render more per-
suasive decisions, including appropriate use of decorative and
ornamental elements.
30
Peter Brooks, “Narrative Transactions – Does the Law Need
a Narratology?”, Yale Journal of Law and Humanities, Vol. 18, No. 1,
2006 (1-28), p. 20.
31
Neil MacCormick, “Coherence in Legal Justification”, in: Alek-
sander Peczenik, Lars Lindahl, Bert van Roermund (eds.), Theory
of Legal Science, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, 1984,
pp. 235-251.
32
Benjamin N. Cardozo, “Law and Literature”, op. cit., pp. 492-493.
33
Ibidem, p. 505.
34
Ibidem, p. 503.

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16 | Martin Škop |
It follows from the above that knowledge of art – in case
of the authors mentioned above, especially literature – will
provide a lawyer with an overview of law itself and its func-
tioning in society, without losing the ever-present appeal
for values that are embodied in law and society. Literature
cannot replace law. That would be the same non-sense as
believing that law is identical with a statute (or the law
in narrower sense). The ability of literature to provide inspi-
ration was also dealt with by James Boyd White, who is
considered the ideological founder of the Law and Liter-
ature movement.35 In his book, The Legal Imagination,36
published in 1973, he provided an analysis of certain liter-
ary works and attempted to capture their inspiration for
jurisprudence and especially for teaching law. In his opin-
LA
ion, study of literature should become an inherent part
of not only legal education, but also of the entire science
IM
of law. At the same time, Boyd focused primarily on inter-
pretation. He considered that law and literature were inter-
SH
linked by a similar method of interpretation. It is irrelevant

whether a certain text is a legal text or fiction.
In view of this concept, Boyd did not limit himself only
to a system of rules, which, in his opinion, was unable to ful-
LU
ly capture the notion of law. He aimed at conceiving law

as the world of ways in which people perceive their sur-
PN
roundings and by which they ultimately create their world.

For him, law is inherently linked with language.37 It is also
art – it creates something new from existing elements.38
H
It is based on human creativeness and the ability to trans-

form the natural world the way people wish. Symbolical-
ly, take control over our surroundings. If a lawyer wants
to interfere in a qualified manner in fights among human
conscience, creativeness and the world surrounding us, he
cannot avoid using and showing his mental competence.
He cannot avoid using and proving his imagination.39 This
35
Gary Minda, Postmodern Legal Movements, New York Univer-
sity Press, New York, 1995, p. 149.
36
James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination, op. cit.
37
James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination, op. cit., p. xiii.
38
Ibidem, p. xiv.
39
Ibidem, p. 3.

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brings us back to intellectual challenges ensuing from the
combination of law and literature.
Conclusion
Literature can increase the ability to perceive a text and
thus, in turn, improve interpretation and composition
of legal texts. Topics, such as the role of the reader, or audi-
ence in general, actualism, originalism and narrative pro-
cedures, are only some of the procedures that are analysed
in detail by literary critics and also find their image in law.
Literature can also provide protection against overinter-
pretation. Robert F. Blomquist claims that overinterpre-
LA
tation is caused by the high number of tests established
by courts to dissect each individual notion used in a legal
regulation and attach to it a meaning that is considerably
IM
distant from usual and normal interpretation.40 The basic
meaning of a certain notion is often lost under the lay-
SH
ers and loads of tests, settled interpretations and notional

constructions. Umberto Eco speaks about texts becoming
sacred when describing the issue of overinterpretation.41
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A text becomes so important, known or widespread that

everyone provides its interpretation and everyone wants
to be interesting in some way. If the obsessive desire for
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originality42 is added, then every text becomes accompa-

nied by numerous interpretations. It becomes overshadowed
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by the search for individual details, examination of every

single word – both in and without context – and a search
for individual theories (including bizarre ones) that would
explain all its conceivable and inconceivable aspects. Inter-
pretation thus veers towards a technical endeavour, which
is not always desirable.
40
Robert F. Blomquist, “Overinterpreting Law”, [online] 2011, [25. 8.
2015] Valparaiso University Legal Studies Research Paper, No. 11-01.
http:// ssrn.com/abstract=1766766, p. 31.
41
Umberto Eco, “Interpretation and Overinterpretation: World,
History, Texts”, [online] 1990 [25. 8. 2015]. The Tanner Lectures on
Human Values, Cambridge University, http://tannerlectures.utah.
edu/lectures/documents/Eco_91.pdf, p. 169.
42
Ronald Dworkin, Law’s Empire, Hart Publishing, Oxford 1998, p. 60.

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18 | Martin Škop |
However, literature also offers tools that can be uti-
lised in legal argument. It can improve the persuasiveness
of legal arguments, even if serving merely as an ornamen-
tal element. Suitable composition can ensure the symbol-
ic meaning of court decisions or, indeed, any other sources
of law. By reading literature, a lawyer can improve his abil-
ity to describe and narrate the facts. It was already stated
in the introduction that, in this paper, we do not venture
to claim that law cannot exist without literature. Literature
rather enables law to avoid tendencies towards technocra-
cy and bureaucracy. By returning to cultivation, includ-
ing cultivation of the creation and interpretation of a legal
text, as well as improved legal imagination, the Law and
Literature movement responds to both historic and cur-
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rent challenges. IM
References
SH
Balkin, Jack M., Levinson Sanford, “Interpreting Law and Music:

Performance Notes on “The Banjo Serenader” and “The Lying
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(1513-1572).
Benjamin, Walter, Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, Random
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Binder, Guyora, Weisberg, Robert, Literary Criticism of Law,

Princeton University Press, Princeton 2000.
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Bourdieu, Pierre, “The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the
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1987 (805-853), pp. 816-817.
Bourdieu, Pierre, The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the
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Brooks, Peter, “Narrative Transactions – Does the Law Need
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Cardozo, Benjamin N., “Law and Literature”, Yale Law Journal,
Vol. 48, No. 3, 1939 (489-507).

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Cover, Robert, “The Supreme Court, 1982 Term – Foreword: Nomos
and Narrative”, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 97, No.1, 1983
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Eco, Umberto, “Interpretation and Overinterpretation: World,
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tures on Human Values, Cambridge University, http:// tanner-
lectures.utah.edu/lectures/documents/Eco_91.pdf.
Umberto Eco, Lector in fabula: la cooperazione interpretativa nei
testi narrativi, Bompiani, Milano 2006.
Fitzpatrick, Peter, The Mythology of Modern Law, Routledge, Lon-
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Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays,
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Literature”, Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 10,
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MacCormick, Neil, “Coherence in Legal Justification“, in: Alek-
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1984, pp. 235-251.
Minda, Gary, Postmodern Legal Movements, New York Universi-
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Posner, Richard A., “Law and Literature: A Relation Reargued”,
Virginia Law Review, Vol. 72, No. 8, 1986 (1351-1392).
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Saussure, Ferdinand De, Course in General Linguistics, transl.

Wade Baskin, Philosophical Library, New York 1959.
Stempowski, Tomasz, „Prawo i film – instrukcja obsługi”, in:
Tomasz Stempowski, Piotr Grabarczyk (red.), Prawo w ﬁlmie,
C. H. Beck, Warszawa 2009.
Tait, Allison, Norris, Luke, “Narrative and the Origins of Law”,
Law and Humanities, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2011 (11-22).
Wambaugh, Eugene, “Light Reading for law Students”, Law Bulle-
tin of the State University of Iowa, Vol. 2, No. 28-31, 1891-1893.
White, James Boyd, ”Law as Language: Reading Law and Reading
Literature”, Texas Law Review, Vol. 60, No. 3, 1982 (415-445)
White, James Boyd, The Legal Imagination, University of Chica-
go Press, London 1985.
Weisberg, Richard H., “Wigmore and the Law and Literature
Movement”, Law and Literature, Vol. 21, No. 1, 2009 (129-145).

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20 | Martin Škop |
Weisberg, Richard H., ”Wigmore’s “Legal Novels” Revisited: New
Resources for the Expansive Lawyer”, Northwestern Universi-
ty Law Review, Vol. 71, No. 1, 1976 (17-28).
Weisberg, Richard H., Kretschman, Karen L., “Wigmore’s “Legal
Novels” Expanded: A Collaborative Effort”, The Maryland Law
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Wigmore, John H., “A List of Legal Novels”, Illinois Law Review,
Vol. 2, No. 9, 1907-1908 (574-593).
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MODULE 1
The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry
In The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry we have the theme of freedom,
determination, class, change and hope. Set at the turn of the Twentieth Century the
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story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the
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story the reader realises that Henry may be exploring the theme of freedom.
Throughout the story Soapy is prepared to sacrifice his freedom in order that he no
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longer has to live homeless on the streets of New York. Every action that Soapy
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takes is an action of hope. Whether it is to be sent to the Island (prison) or to
finally turn his life around and get the job he was once offered Soapy never gives
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up and remains determined. Even if the consequences may be unpleasant to most

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people – going to prison. It is also interesting that Soapy as he is walking through
the city is waiting for opportunities to get arrested and when they arrive, he never
is arrested. It is possible that Henry is placing a spotlight (humorously) on the
police themselves and suggesting that they may be ineffectual. Despite acting
drunk, Soapy doesn’t get arrested. Also when he breaks the store window and
admits to it, he also doesn’t get arrested.

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It is also interesting that at no stage in the story does Soapy lose hope. This may be
important as not only does it display a level of determination as previously
mentioned but it also shows that he is committed to his cause of going to the
Island. It being clear to the reader that Soapy is being driven by his life on the
streets of New York. Prison for Soapy is better than being homeless. Though some
critics might find that hard to believe, Henry’s description of life for Soapy on the
streets makes it easier to understand. He is reliant on charity, he is cold and he has
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the look of an individual who has seen better days. This is in contrast to the other
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characters that Soapy encounters during the day. All who are very well to do and
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appear to live successful lives. This may be important, the differences between
Soapy and the other characters, as Henry may be placing a spotlight on the
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contrasting lives of those who live in New York. Some are wealthy or well to do
and some like Soapy are down on their luck and looking at prison as being a better
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alternative to living on a park bench.

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There is also a religious element to the story which may be important. While Soapy
is listening to the church organ he has an epiphany or moment of realisation. He
decides against going to the Island and begins the process of changing or at least
trying to change his life. He recalls a job offer that was once made to him and he
vows the next day to make enquiries about it. Whether Henry is suggesting that
Soapy’s faith has been restored is difficult to say. Some critics suggest it has been

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for a brief moment. The sound of the anthem playing on the organ motivating
Soapy to change. Either way it does highlight again Soapy’s determination to
change his circumstances. What is also interesting about Soapy listening to the
anthem is that we learn he had a life prior to becoming homeless. When things
were better for him. Though we never learn as to exactly what the trigger may have
been that lead to Soapy being homeless. Henry telling the reader of Soapy’s
‘degraded days, unworthy desires, dead hopes, wrecked faculties and base
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motives.’
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The title of the story is also interesting as in many ways it suggests there are two
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paths that Soapy can follow. The Cop obviously represents the Island and a life in
prison. Something that Soapy is choosing at the beginning of the story. However
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the anthem played at the end in many ways represents not only who Soapy was but
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who he could be again. If anything the anthem is aspirational to Soapy. It
represents a good honest life that Soapy can live on his own terms. Leaving behind
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his old life and the troubles that come with it. The anthem empowers Soapy to live
behind his old life. The reader aware that Soapy’s reason for wanting to go to the
Island in the first place is so that he has somewhere warm to live for the winter.
Though he knows he must commit a crime to get to the island. The anthem
represents hope to Soapy.

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The end of the story is also interesting as Henry appears to be introducing further
irony into the story. After Soapy decides to make enquires about his previous job
offer he is arrested by a policeman for loitering. Despite all his previous attempts
to get arrested and being unable to do so. Now when Soapy is on a path of change
he gets arrested when he doesn’t want (or need) to. In many ways this is ironic
because all the aspirations that Soapy has are lost. Where previously he wanted to
go to the Island and then changed his mind he still ends up being sent to the Island
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for three months. Any chance Soapy has to change his life appear to be lost. He has
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succeeded in his goal of going to the Island, though the reader is also aware of his
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real aspirations and hopes. To reclaim his old life.Something that has been
triggered by listening to the anthem being played on the church organ.

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The Cop and the Anthem: Themes

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The Cop and The Anthem is written by O. Henry, born William Sydney Porter in
North Carolina in 1862. Did you know that he went to prison himself? He had
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embezzlement charges filed against him by a bank that he once worked for. He is
famous for writing ironic short stories. This is one of his many short stories filled
with irony.

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Themes
This story is based on a few themes. In this lesson, we will be touching on the
themes of Freedom and Class.
Freedom
The story begins with Soapy, a homeless man sitting on a bench in Madison
Square. He is a free man, but doesn't value his freedom. In order to escape the
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bitter winters, he chooses to forfeit his freedom for the ''comforts'' of prison. Soapy
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knows that he has options other than prison. Homeless shelters would take him in,
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but he says that, in return, they ask for ''payment;'' not financial, but in the form of
bathing and answering questions about himself.

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As for prison, it guarantees him three months of food, bed and warmth every night
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and best of all, no questions. Soapy finds an invasion of his privacy more of an
imprisonment than actual prison. To him, it's a better alternative than spending
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winter as a free man.
Soapy spends the entire evening attempting to have his freedom taken away from
him. When he fails to do so, he has a change of heart, realizing how low he has let
himself fall. He starts to think of all the actual opportunities he has, including a job
offer from someone earlier, which he had rejected. He reminisces about his life
back when he had a home and family. Soapy finally understands that it isn't the

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world that has imprisoned him, it is his own doing. He did this to himself and can
set himself free with a bit of hard work.
He is arrested the moment he has this realization. Now he faces imprisonment
when he no longer longs for it. As readers, we may wonder, how will he deal with
this? Will prison discourage him from bettering his life once he gets out? Will it
make him more determined to free himself?
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Class
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Class also plays a crucial role in this story. The initial mention of the importance of
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class in the story is when Soapy makes his first plan to get arrested. He plans to
dine at a high class restaurant, and then tell them he has no money when it's time to
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pay the bill. Being a high class place, he assumes they would call the police and
have him arrested.

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In order to even get a table at the restaurant, Soapy has to evaluate his clothes; he
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has to look the part. He attempts to hide his broken shoes and torn pants, but his
jacket (according to him) is suitable enough. As soon as Soapy walks into the
restaurant, he catches the trained eye of the head waiter; this man knows a high
class person when he sees one. He immediately identifies Soapy as an impostor,
and kicks him out.

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He later does the same at a not-so-classy restaurant. Soapy is able to order a full
meal here without suspicion. He is able to pass himself off as, perhaps, a middle
class person - this seems more reasonable than trying to pass as a wealthy man.
Soapy later approaches a woman standing on the street. Based on her good looks,
he assumes she is of a higher class, and that she will call out to the policeman
standing nearby if he were to rudely proposition her. Turns out, she is a prostitute
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who accepts his solicitation, proving again to Soapy that he does, indeed, pass as a
middle class man.
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The Case for the Defense Summary-

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GrahamGreene
The short story takes place in England, around 1940's. You see that by their talk for
example. They are very polite and sincere and we know this because the book
came out in 1947, so it is most likely that this short story was about the 1940's.

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The main character in the story is Mrs. Salmon, living in 15 Northwood Street, 56
years old. Kind, honest and careful lady.Adams the suspected for the murder,
heavy man with bulging, bloodshot eyes. It was three more witnesses than Mrs.
Salmon; Henry MacDougall, Mr. Wheeler and an unknown.
The story is not chronological; it starts with Mrs. Salmon’s attest to the crime. In
the early of the morning, at 2 o’clock Mrs. Salmon heard a noise outside her house.
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Therefore, she went to the window and saw Adams the suspected on the steps of
Mrs. Parker’s house. Adams had gloves on and a hammer in his hand. Mrs. Salmon
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saw Adams drop the hammer into the bushes. She had seen his face when he
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looked up in the light of a streetlamp. Mrs. Salmon spoke this attest to the court.
While Adams’s wife said that, he was with her at two in the morning. There was
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more witnesses but Mrs. Salmon was the ideal witness, with her expression of
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honesty, care and kindness to tell to the court if the man in the dock was the
murder. She looked straight at the big man standing in the dock, and said, “Yes,
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there is he.” Then they bring in Mr. Adams twin brother, exactly same as Mr.
Adams. Mrs. Salmon got confused and now she could not say which one of them is
the murder. There were no one else that could say which one of them was the
murder, so they both got free. One of the brothers was the murder, but no one knew
it. When the brothers came out in the crowd, somehow one of the twins got pushed

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on the road right in front of a bus. He died of course but which one of them died,
the murder or the innocent man?
The theme of the story is not to judge people too quickly and without enough
evidence. The story tells a very good point; nothing is what it looks like, and
maybe; everyone gets what they deserve.
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The Witch &The Robber Woman

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TRANSLATED into English by Anand, a print and broadcast journalist, The
Second Nose and Other Stories incorporate Yashpal’s 15 short stories. If
MunshiPremchand soared above all the writers in the Hindi literary world in the
first half of the 20th century, Yashpal (1903-76) dominated the literary scene in the
second half. Serving a life sentence for his involvement in the armed struggle for
India’s Independence as a comrade of Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad, he

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gave himself to writing. It was liberation from the confines of the prison and
formed his first collection of short stories, PinjarekiUdan, published in 1938.
Short stories, novels and socio-political essays continued to flow from his pen after
his release that prompted MahadeviVerma to comment: "When other writers were
praying to Sarasvati, the muse of literature, for her blessing, Yashpal was making
bombs in a dark, secret cellar. When he arrived on the literary scene much behind
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others, it was him that Saraswati gave her undivided attention."
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The stories carry a strong undercurrent of social reform and protest. The tales
unveil the suffering and exploitation of women in the rigid social milieu: Kokla’s
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life (Robber Women) shows how women in order to combat starvation enter the
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world of prostitution, while Honest Bread highlights the honesty of a prostitute,
Phulia. One Cigarette narrates the sad tale of Damati who is thrown out of the
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house and disowned for merely smoking a cigarette. While orthodox community
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brands Sarju a witch for opting to end her life in defiance to polyandry (The
Witch), apathetic attitude of people who fail to understand that for a poor
"expressing grief was a privilege," thus scoffing at a nameless and penniless
woman for not mourning her son’s death and selling vegetables in The Right to
Grief, is traced. Second Nose, where the husband slits the nose of his beautiful
wife just because the others ogle at her, conveys the grotesque travesty of saving a

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family honor and makes it relevant even today.Urmila (Borrowed Happiness) and
Indu (The Ostracised) though educated and modern women are shown to be
trapped in the invisible bonds of tradition, unable to choose their destiny.
Unquestioning submission of human beings to a deity or faith is the focus in The
Priest Who Saw God, The Devi’s Blessing, and The Mire of Sin. Anand deserves
to be accorded due credit for not only excellently translating, but also transmitting
the spirit of the age in which the stories are written. The sentimental overtones and
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frank realistic depiction of characters and circumstances are gripping. Yashpal’s
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deep concern with India he fought for and dreamt of lends the narratives universal
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appeal and significance.
Becoming A Woman: Simone de Beauvoir on

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Female EmbodimentFelicity Joseph finds that sometimes it’s hard

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to become a woman.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”
Simone de Beauvoir
Generally for existentialists, one is not born anything: everything we are is the
result of our choices, as we build ourselves out of our own resources and those

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which society gives us. We don ’t only create our own values, we create ourselves.
Simone de Beauvoir, although an avowed life-long existentialist, posits limits to
this central existentialist idea of self-creation and self-definition, qualifying the
absolute freedom Jean-Paul Sartre posited in Being and Nothingness. By contrast
de Beauvoir presents an ambiguous picture of human freedom, in which women
struggle against the apparent disadvantages of the female body.
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In The Second Sex, her most famous work, de Beauvoir sketches a kind of
existential history of a woman ’s life: a story of how a woman’s attitude towards
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her body and bodily functions changes over the years, and of how society
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influences this attitude. Here de Beauvoir raises the core question of female
embodiment: Are the supposed disadvantages of the female

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body actual disadvantages which exist objectively in all societies, or are they
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merely judged to be disadvantages by our society? She answers this question by
exploring case studies of the various stages of female life. In these case studies the
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female body is presented as both positive and negative, and women as both
oppressed and free. A woman ’s body is the site of this ambiguity, for she can use
it as a vehicle for her freedom and feel oppressed by it. There is no essential truth
of the matter: it depends upon the extent to which a woman sees herself as a free
subject rather than as the object of society ’s gaze.

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Sartre observed that whatever we perceive, including other people, is rendered as
an ‘object’ to our gaze and is defined by us. De Beauvoir takes up this idea and
applies it to men’s perception of women. The very concept of ‘woman’, de
Beauvoir argues, is a male concept: woman is always ‘other’ because the male is
the ‘seer’: he is the subject and she the object – the meaning of what it is to be a
woman is given by men.
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De Beauvoir argues that it is not the biological condition of women per se that
constitutes a handicap: it is how a woman construes this condition which renders it
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positive or negative. None of the uniquely female experiences – the development
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of female sex organs, menstruation, pregnancy, menopause – have a meaning in
themselves; but in a hostile or oppressive society they can come to take on the
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meaning of being a burden and disadvantage, as women come to accept the

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meanings a patriarchal society accords them.

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De Beauvoir points out that pre-adolescent boys and girls are really not very
different: they “have the same interests and the same pleasures” (The Second Sex,
p295, Translation and Ed, H.M. Parshley, Vintage, 1997). If the initial
psychological differences between young boys and girls are relatively trivial, what
then causes them to become important? If one ‘becomes’ a woman, how does this
‘becoming’ happen?

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The Flesh and the Feminine
De Beauvoir argues that as a girl’s bodily development occurs, each new stage is
experienced as traumatic and demarcates her more and more sharply from the
opposite sex. As the girl ’s body matures, society reacts in an increasingly hostile
and threatening manner. De Beauvoir talks about the process of ‘becoming flesh’,
which is the process whereby one comes to experience oneself as a sexual, bodily
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being exposed to another ’s gaze. This does not have to be a bad thing; but
unfortunately, young girls are often forced to become flesh against their will:
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“The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her… on the street men
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follow her with their eyes and comment on her anatomy. She would like to be
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invisible; it frightens her to become flesh and to show flesh” (p333).

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There are many more such events in a growing girl’s life which reinforce the belief
that it is bad luck to be born with a female body. The female body is such a
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nuisance, a pain, an embarrassment, a problem to deal with, ugly, awkward, and so
on. Even if a girl tries to forget that she has a female body, society will soon
remind her. De Beauvoir gives several examples of this: the mother who frequently
criticises her daughter ’s body and posture, thus making her feel self-conscious; the
‘man on the street’ who makes a sexual comment about a young girl’s body,

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making her feel ashamed; and a girl’s embarrassment as male relatives make jokes
about her menstruation.
However, de Beauvoir also gives positive examples of having a female body. She
shows us that there are situations in which young women can be comfortable in
their bodies – indeed, not only comfortable, but joyous and proud. Consider a girl
who enjoys walking in the fields and woods, feeling a profound connection to
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nature. She has a great sense of happiness and freedom in her body which she
doesn ’t feel in a social environment. In nature there are no males to gaze upon her,
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there are no mothers to criticise her. She no longer sees herself through others ’
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eyes, and thus is finally free to define her body for herself.
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But she cannot escape to the natural world forever. As part of belonging to a
patriarchal society she must eventually undergo a further traumatic event –

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initiation into sexual intercourse. Intercourse is physically more traumatic for girls
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because it involves penetration and usually some corresponding pain. Culturally it
is more traumatic because girls are kept in a greater state of ignorance than boys,
and are often ill-prepared for what is to come. Culturally too, there are certain
techniques of sexual intercourse which predominate, which may not be ideal for
female enjoyment and orgasm (for instance, man on top). De Beauvoir points out
that girls ’ sexual education tends to be mainly of the ‘romantic’ sort, which

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emphasises the courtship period and the pleasure of gentle caresses, but never the
penetration. Thus when sex finally happens, it seems a world away from the
romantic fantasies a girl has grown up with. De Beauvoir dryly observes that for
the shocked young woman “love assumes the aspect of a surgical operation”
(p404).
Ultimately, is it the biological penetration itself which causes the distress, or is it
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the culturally-engineered ignorance of young women? De Beauvoir thinks the
biological facts need not be traumatic: the distress is due to a lack of generosity in
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the man ’s sexual behaviour, combined with the woman’s fear of being objectified
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before an aggressive sexual gaze. She suggests that the way to a more positive
sexual experience for both genders is through each partner acting in ‘erotic
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generosity’ towards the other, rather than in selfish sensuality.

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The experience of pregnancy is more positive, yet still an ambiguous one for
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women: it can be both an unfair invasion of her body and at the same time a
wonderful enrichment. As a woman ’s pregnancy develops, society tends to
consider her less sexually attractive, as no longer sexually available. This means
that she temporarily escapes man ’s sexual gaze. This is a positive development for
a woman, de Beauvoir argues, because “now she is no longer in service as a sexual

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object, but she is the incarnation of her species, she represents the promise of life,
of eternity ” (p518).
What about as a woman gets older? The aging woman is described by de Beauvoir
as “intent on struggling against a misfortune that was mysteriously disfiguring and
deforming her ” (p595). This is a very negative description of the aging process. It
evokes the tone of a cosmetics advert which pressures women to buy their products
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to struggle against time. Nevertheless, de Beauvoir ’s description is an honest one.
We know from her autobiographical writings that she really struggled to come to
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terms with her aging body: she liked clothes, was considered attractive, and felt
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upset when she thought she was losing her looks. Yet as a philosopher she was
able to step back and see that this attitude was due to an inordinate value placed by
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society on such ephemeral assets. She had accepted society ’s definition of her
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worth as her own definition.

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De Beauvoir does admit that as a woman persists through the oncoming of age, she
may find herself in a more positive stage of life: “She can also permit herself
defiance of fashion and of ‘what people will say’, she is freed from social
obligations, dieting, and the care of her beauty” (p595). So although old age has
many negative aspects, it can provide a kind of escape from society ’s pressure.
The desire to conform is lifted, and freedom increases. De Beauvoir’s point is that

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freedom needs space to move. In the case of female embodiment, there is often no
room for women to really ‘see their bodies through their own gaze’, since the male
gaze permeates everywhere.
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ONE IS NOT BORN A WOMAN, BUT BECOMES ONE” – IN THE INDIAN
CONTEXT
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“One is not born a Woman, But Becomes One”. Analyze the Statement in the
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Indian Context.
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The statement in question was made by the female existentialist philosopher
Simone De Beauvoir in her book called the ‘Second Sex’. It alludes to the notion
of women that is brought about by societal and Physiological conditioning. Hence
Womanhood is something that is attained by a woman rather than something
innate. Before we proceed however it is pertinent to difference between becomes

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‘becomes’ (as used in the statement) and development. The latter is the
manifestation of the being’s innate nature and growth in a quantitative manner
whereas the former can involve a change in ‘Telos’ alien to oneself. A ‘woman’ in
the above statement refers to society’s idealized version hence referred to as
‘societal women’.
Conditioning, both classical and operant, entails alteration in behavior and
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concomitant changes in one’s identity. A woman is conditioned by her physiology
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by virtue of her ability to bear children and by society by a combination of external
and internal agents, such as her teacher or Father, in her milieu. She is also
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conditioned by societal expectation, rules and treatment by institutionally agencies
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in both favorable and unfavorable ways.

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Physiological conditioning starts from a very early age rights from gifts including
skirts that hinder free movement and the ability to climb trees, enjoy play. It is at
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this point a girl becomes aware of the differences between herself and boys. Upon
the attainment of womanhood a ceremony is conducted to signal to her
womanhood. This is not practiced in western nation and no undue significance is
given to this particular event anymore and can be attributed to advancement in
women empowerment abroad.

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In India the woman has greater exposure to conditioning and its impact hence. She
is told of the appetites of men and how she must behave in front of them. She is
told to obey a combination of rules and has her movements severely restricted.
Certain social classes ‘protect’ their women by not letting them have an education
in public schools with boys. The environment in which the women operate
undergoes changes after this event and she begins to be conditioned in a different
manner. It is important for the reader to note the lack of agency for the female sex.
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Things are done to and for her while her passivity in the affair is a ‘Legitimate
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Expectation’ of society whereas men enjoy stability in the growth and are
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‘developing’ as individuals without violent alteration to their Telos.
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Social conditioning of women is a lot more apparent in India. It is accomplished by
the conforming of women to their societal expectations, even ones alien to them.
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This can be clearly understood upon examination of the societal role of ‘Wife’.
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From a young age women are taught to see their social standing in relation to theirs
husbands or fathers. Her duties to her husband are learnt by watching her mother or
movies or any other external source which depict this relation. Progress for her is
made through men in her life and to identify with their success. These idealized
versions stand in direct contradiction to the small margin of women who escape
these notions and find a path for themselves. They seldom find accepting partners

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treating them as individuals and constantly experience covert societal indignation
for their failure to meet these idealized versions of Wife. Although we as a nation
embrace liberal beliefs and promise equality under the constitution our ‘alief’
(habitual belief-like attitude) is still backward.
Why is it ‘right’ for men to expect women to cook and clean when they both earn
the same amount of money? What about the subtle impediments faced by
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ambitious women in their pursuit by institutional actors. This is the result of
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women operating in a patriarchal structure. She pulled by the reward of meeting
the expectations of society with honor and social standing, to fit and ‘become’
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rather than ‘develop’. Any attempt at ‘development’ is met with systematic and
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persistent hardship and her struggles are not met with sympathies. It is seen as a
struggle against her destiny of becoming a ‘Women’ as society intended her to be,
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to make her realize her rightful place. In India, a conservative society, strictly
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defined roles with both traditional and religious legitimacy are powerful and have
tremendous impact.
The reader might wonder if similar ‘societal expectations’ are not placed on Men
and thus argue that men ‘become’ as well. It is the extent of the conditioning they
face and the level of control that men have over themselves in their milieu that
invalidates the argument. Men have far greater ability to escape these confining

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factors. Men are economically independent and society is far more tolerant of their
ambition. The role of men has so far eluded strict definition and is therefore
dynamic. It is defined, if at all, in a negative manner e.g. Men don’t…… A
women’s role however is defined in a positive manner such as “A women’s place
is in her home” and any negative definitions extends as a logical derivative similar
to the statement “Women don’t belong in politics since they belong at home”.
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It does beg the question, why can she not stop ‘Becoming’ a societal woman?
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Virginia Woolf wrote a book called a ‘room of one’s own’ arguing for the need to
find a space for ‘development’ without external conditioning. A plan to escape the
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conditioning effects of society and ‘develop’ as an individual however this will not
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be sufficient since the societal notion of a woman and their identity found does not
fundamentally alter the patriarchal structure. Thus starting the cycle of

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conditioning afresh but this time she will be more resolute. Furthermore “A room
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of one’s own” is available is only available to affluent section with education and
employment opportunities in India.
We need a more fundamental change. She needs to regain her agency. J.J.
Rousseau noted in the ‘Origins of inequality’ a direct relation between dependence
and inequality and that inequality cannot exist without dependence. If women were
thoroughly independent economically and empowered politically and socially, and

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in sufficient numbers it may be possible for them to ‘develop’ rather than
‘become’. We can see this happen in India with the women’s reservation bill
bringing about political empowerment, increased participation in the labor market
gives women economic independence and a place outside the home for women
slowly brings about societal changes.
For women to enjoy the agency that men enjoy and for the creation of a society
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where one’s anatomy is not the primary determinant of one’s role is a goal of our
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constitutional republic. Till then however “one is not born a women, but becomes
one”
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Volume-1, Issue-1, August-2014 ISSN: 2349-7637 (Online)
RESEARCH HUB – International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

(RHIMRJ)
Research Paper
Available online at: www.rhimrj.com
“Silence ! The Court Is In Session” By Vijay Tendulkar – A

Study on the Defeat of Woman in Male dominated society
Dr. Indravadan G. Purohit
Associate Professor, Dept of English
B.R.S. College,
Mangrol, Gujarat (India)
Abstract: Vijay Tendulkar is unquestionably a grand Indian playwright and is famous for his comprehensive artistic genius.
However his strong suit is the language Marathi, but the versions of his plays in English have fascinated and amazed the
audience at a great apart. His main power comes into view from his devotion to usually Indian, particularly Hindu problems
which are intensely deep-rooted in the Indian socio-cultural philosophy. “Silence! The court is in Session”, is one of the well
highly praised plays of Vijay Tendulkar. The play discovers the anecdote of the relationship between Miss. Benare’s illicit and
Prof. Damle. Tendulkar depicts the condition of women of the middle class family in Indian societal context. He reveals how
women in our society are offended, suffered, distressed and exploited. The main aim of this research article is to study the
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defeat of woman in “Silence ! The court is in session”
Keywords: Indian, Playwright, artistic, Court, silence.
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I. ABOUT “SILENCE ! THE COURT IS IN SESSION”
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court Is in Session) is a Marathi play written by great playwright Vijay
Tendulkar and first performed in 1968, directed by Arvind Deshpande, with Sulbha Deshpande as the main lead. The play was
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written in 1963, for Rangayan, a Mumbai-based theatre group, however it was performed much later. It was inspired after the
playwright overheard the conversation amongst the members of part-time theatre group traveling on Mumbai local train to
perform a mock-trial at Vile Parle suburb. The play was based on a 1956 short-story, Die Panne (Traps) by Swiss
playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
Vijay Tendulkar is one of the famous Indian playwrights. He has strongly expressed the socio-political conditions in his plays.
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He appeared as a revolt against the traditional values of a primarily orthodox society with the production of “Silence! The Court is
in Session” in 1967. The play was initially written in Marathi language and later translated into English by Priya Adarkar.
Tendulkar has represented the dilemma of a young woman who is betrayed by the male-dominated society. A traditional male-
dominated society cannot surrender its paralysed traditions and customs. The society resists the change to come. It is a sour satire
against the social ills and an attempt to condemn the follies that exist in our society.
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In the play, “Silence! The court is in session” with three acts Tendulkar initiates a theatre group called “The Sonar Moti
Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association”. In it we get a group of teachers who were preparing to stage a play in a village. It
so turned out that one of the members of the cast didn’t shown. A local stagehand was asked to change him. A practice was set
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and a mock trial was performed on the stage to make him understand the procedure of the court. A mock accuse of infanticide was
leveled against Miss. Benare one of the members of the show. Then the imagine play abruptly turned into a gloomy charge and it
emerged from the witness that Miss. Benare did kill an unlawful child by Prof. Damle, the missing member of the cast. Miss.
Benare is cross varified in the court with full contempt by the male vultures around her. Witness after witness, charge upon charge
is mound upon her and her private life is exposed. He in this play describes how a young woman is made a casualty to
conventions and disgraceful insincerity of the middle class male dominated society. Miss. Leela Benare, the heroine character of
the play is an educated woman of about 34 years old and by profession she is school teacher. She loves life and is full of feelings.
She believes that her life is her own and nobody has got the right to obstruct with it – “My life is my own. I haven’t sold it to
anyone for a job.” Miss. Benare has spent through a very complicated stage in her life. She exposes the insincerity of some men
who pulled up her plant of life. She tells how she was deflowered by her own maternal uncle at the age of fourteen years: “Why, I
was barely fourteen! I did not know what offense was – I swear by my mother, I didn’t! I insisted on marriage. So I could live my
beautiful, lovely dreams openly. Like others! But all of them including my mother – were opposite to it.
After this hurtful experience, she wanted to kill herself by any way but she didn’t. She looked for an identity of her own in an
exclusively unfavorable society where men have little love for women; where men are more excited and hungry for the physical
pleasures of women. Despite her previous mistake, again she falls in love with Prof. Damle, whom she worships as a Lord. But he
too used her body for physical pleasure and turns his back to her. This dissertation and embarrassment is insufferable to a
abandoned woman. In the court, Miss. Benare’s crimes of infanticide and unlawful maternity are recognized by the suit as crime
against society. The mock trial holds reflect to our social response to ethical values. Sex is a private matter in one’s life, but there
are definite social and ethical values also associated to it. Before marriage or after marriage sexual relations are condemmed in
society. The rules of society in practice are most severe for women than for men. Tendulkar highlights on the insincerity of the
society that excuses men and women for the same types of offence. Benare’s maternal uncle no where expresses as charged of
2014, RHIMRJ, All Rights Reserved Page 1 of 2 ISSN: 2349-7637 (Online)

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LL.B.-201 RESEARCH HUB – International Multidisciplinary
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IInd Semester
Volume-1, Issue-1, August-2014
committing incest with her. Likewise Prof. Damle is only a witness in the trial court of the case. While Benare is blamed of the
society of law. We also find that the true opponent of a suffering woman in society is not only the social forbidden traditions,
customs, rites and male prejudice, but also the unresponsive and cold dealing of a womam with other woman. Benare’s mother
turns a deaf ear to her while Mrs. Kashikar, one of the members of the play carried out physical violence to pull her to the dock.
She has negative views against her and does not hesitate to say that this young unmarried girl gets everything without marrying.
She demonstrates her doubt, how can Benare stay without marriage at the age of thirty-four?” It is interesting that Mrs. Kashikar
reflects here a traditional housewife who has no concern with the progressive and contemporary attitude of a young girl in the
modern societal. According to her, her whole life is the family in which she is brought up and for which happiness she had to go
ahead a future life. But consequently, Benare stands for a progressive and educated life. She wants to emerge out of the command
of a patriarchal supremacy. Ms. Benare’s character recalls us of the unlike characters represented by the women novelists like
Shashi Deshpande, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De in their literarary works. These novlists also uncovered the miseries
of the women at the hands of the male dominated society. Except the character of the play, nearly all the other characters are
suffering from cruelty and inferiority complex. Sukhatme is a failure lawyer, Mr. and Mrs. Kashikar has no issues, they are
childless. Ponkshe is an interfailed scientist. Thus as Karnik is concerned, he is failed actor. The same is the case with Rokde, who
failed to achieve an independent life. In other words we can say that these characters have no individuality of their own.
Tendulkar in his creation ‘Silence! The court is in session’ chooses a term of the legal register as the title of his play to make a
influential command on society with a weighty patriarchal bias that makes justice unfeasible. A court is supposed to be a seat of
justice, significance and respectability. All through this play, He also makes an assessment of the today’s court procedures, and
finds out the problem of the ruinness of the court. The role of the judge in this play is itself – ironic a judge is normally free from
prejudice and unusual uttering. But here the case is just otherwise. The judgement itself seems more ridiculous. Mr. Kashikar says
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to Benare : “The crime you have committed are most dreadful. There is no pardon for them … no momento of your offense should
remain for next generations. Hence this court hereby sentences that you shall live. But the child in your womb shall be smashed.”
She is sensitively harassed but still starves to search for her survival. She has a immense tolerance to endure. She is the picture of
blamelessness and sympathy. However she is offended at every stage, she has not done harm to any one. If she did harm to anyone,
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it is her own self. The difficulty and plunder of a weak woman has been best articulated in the play. He has always been
controversial because he has always been contemporary in his concerns, both social, political and theatrical. All his plays deal
with the domination of the weak by the powerful. He treats his female characters with understanding and compassion. ‘Silence!
The court is in session’, is a naturalistic play.
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REFERENCES
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1. Tendulkar, Vijay, Silence! The court is in session, (New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 1992).
2. Kumar Nand, Indian English Drama – A Study, (New Delhi : Sarup and Sons, 2003).
3. Amar Nath Prasad & Satish Barbuddhe (Ed.), The Plays of Vijay Tendulkar : Critical Explorations, (New Delhi : Sarup and Sons, 2008).
4. Amar Nath Prasad (Ed.), Indian Writing in English : Critical Ruminations, (New Delhi : Sarup and Sons, 2006).
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5. Dhawan, R.K., Indian Literature today, (New Delhi : Prestige Books, 1994).
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantata!_Court_Chalu_Aahe#La
2015, RHIMRJ, All Rights Reserved Page 2 of 2 ISSN: 2349-7637 (Online)

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American International Journal of Available online at http://www.iasir.net

Research in Humanities, Arts
and Social Sciences
ISSN (Print): 2328-3734, ISSN (Online): 2328-3696, ISSN (CD-ROM): 2328-3688
AIJRHASS is a refereed, indexed, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary and open access journal published by
International Association of Scientific Innovation and Research (IASIR), USA
(An Association Unifying the Sciences, Engineering, and Applied Research)
Exploitation of Women and Patriarchal Domination in Vijay Tendulkar’s

Silence! The Court is in Session
Shailja Chhabra
Associate Professor
Department of English
Govt. P.G. College, Sector-1, Panchkula
Haryana, INDIA
Abstract: Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session is a critique of patriarchal values and
institutions and shows how the judicial system operates as an instrument in silencing the voice of women.
The play explores the tale of Miss. Benare’s illicit relation with Prof. Damle. Tendulkar exposes the
condition of women of the middle class family in Indian context. A modern, educated, ‘high-society’ woman
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is presented in contrast to a poor uneducated slave women. The frustrated male members try to subjugate
women to prove their power in social hierarchy. Miss Benare desperately fights her lone battle against the
oppressive power structure. Since the question of subjugation of woman in patriarchal power structure is
crucial in modern culture, Indian as well as Western dramatists have used the stage to expose gender
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discrimination in patriarchy and the women’s fight against this injustice. Tendulkar exhibits how women in
our society are victimized, suffered, tortured and exploited. The purpose of this research paper is to study
the subjugation and exploitation of woman, patriarchal domination and inequal power structure in Vijay
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Tendulkar’s play ‘Silence! The Court is in the Session’.
Keywords: Exploitation, Judicial System, Patriarchal power structure, Subjugation.

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Vijay Tendulkar (1928-2008) is undeniably a great Indian playwright and he is known for his multifaceted
creative genius. He has contributed to literary essays, political journalism, screen and television writing,
translated works and social commentaries, novels and short stories, though his creative soul is found only in
dramas and for his great contribution to dramas as well as theatre is Marathi; he has been honored with several
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awards such as Sangeet Natak Akademy Award, Padma Bhushan Award and Maharastra State Government
Award. He was the sub-editor of Nababharat journal.
In Silence! The Court is in Session, Tendulkar has depicted the plight of a young woman, Leela Benare, who is
betrayed by the male dominated society. A traditional male dominated society cannot relinquish its paralyzed
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values and customs. The society does not like to perceive or receive any social change. Tendulkar presents a
treatment of those ugly ways of society in this play. It is a bitter satire against the social ills and an interesting
attempt to criticize the follies that prevail in our society. He has also selected different persons from different
backgrounds who can give some clues about the judicial circle and their judicial culture. In fact, all these
characters are the representatives of the existing personalities in judicial circle with their personal, familial,
educational, ethical and professional defects. Mrs. Kashikars, Sukhatme, Balu Rokde, Gopal Ponkshe and
Karnik are the various typical personalities in judicial circle. The very fact of Mrs. Kashikar’s secret agreement
in the attack on Benare demonstrates how women internalize the dominance of men over themselves as a natural
phenomenon and turn against other transgressing women as the ‘other’. Had Benare been the economically
sound, she might have protested more actively. It has been found that the working educated women have higher
concern for status than the non-working women or house wives.
The opening scene of the play turns into a marvelous piece of satire by pitting the self-consciously independent,
vehemently assertive, and immensely cheerful Benare against the utterly selfish, hypocritical and malicious
amateur artists and paves the way as to how they are going to judge and reverse the natural justice. The scene
depicts how an average middleclass woman strives and struggles for preserving her womanhood and
motherhood and her thirst to be accepted by the society. As the curtain rises, Samant, a local chap and Leela
Benare, the heroine are found conversing. She springs a surprise on the rustic Samant with a sudden confidential
proposal: “Let’s leave everyone behind, I thought, and go somewhere far, far, away – with you”! [Silence! The
Court is in Session].2 When she makes this observation, she has Professor Damle in her mind. The depiction of
AIJRHASS 15-870; © 2015, AIJRHASS All Rights Reserved Page 207

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Shailja Chhabra, American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 13(3), December, 2015-February,
2016, pp. 207-210
unsecured condition of Benare explores the problems that exist among Indian women towards legal rights and
her absence of awareness about legislations and their enforcement and inadequacies of legal provisions.
Tendulkar has put Benare’s character on a large canvas of society where the people are still stuck to the
traditions. Benare is a progressive woman but in our Indian society certain norms are prescribed for the women.
A certain frame work is done for the Indian women and it is expected that the woman should adjust herself in
these norms. For men and for women the norms are different. Ours is the patriarchal society and rules are male
prejudiced. Many restrictions are there on the women and when a woman tries to throw these restrictions away,
the society blames her for her action and behaviour. Benare continuously struggles against the patriarchal
system though she is victimized by the men coming from all social levels. She cries in pain but does not
surrender herself to the situation. Marriage as a social institution has laid down stringent rules for the women
whereas men have no inhibition as far as extra marital affairs are concerned. This attitude of the authorities
expresses the basic hypocrisy and double standards on which our society is founded.
The commencement of the ‘Mock-trial’, which constitutes a ‘play-within-the-play’, offers Tendulkar ample
scope to dissect and lay bare the dormant ills of discontent in the psyche of these urban hypocrites. Though, they
gang themselves up against a hapless Benare for the time being, they have nothing but spite for one another.
Rokde symbolizes lumped public which is enveloped in the culture of dependency and carried away by the lures
of money, power and threat. Throughout the play, he is not allowed enough time to exercise his intelligent
challenges to prospective jurors. Ponkshe and Karnik are the other two catalysts who have their active role in the
plot against Benare. The stylistic gimmicks used by Ponkshe and Karnik sometimes speak a lot louder than the
words they actually speak. As witness their technique is not to argue the case but to present the issues. These
two people represent the educated elite in the society, who have to demand for ‘order of proof’ as yardstick
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before asking the jury to measure the complaint. But these people lack the logical order of proof for their expert
testimony.
The play depicts the tragedy of an individual victimized by male dominated society. The female protagonist
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becomes the victim of sadism of his male counterparts. Benare is cross-examined in the mock court with full
mockery. All the other characters like witnesses Mr. Gopal Ponkshe, Mr. Karnik, Rokde, Samant, Counsel for
the defense and counsel for the crown Mr. Sukhatme and Judge, Mr. Kashikar and his wife Mrs. Kashikar all
behave in a way of mockery. Benare is summoned merely as a witness while she remains the prime accused as
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the mother of an illegitimate child and having illicit relations with so many persons. The frustrated male
members of the society try to subjugate women to prove their power and superiority in the social hierarchy.
They praise motherhood with bombastic phrases but try to destroy Benare’s infant in the womb. Benare is
stigmatized and sacked from her job. But Prof. Damle, the man responsible for her condition, escapes scot-free
for he is a male. And Sukhatme, the brief less barrister, puts the final nail in the coffin of womanhood:
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SUKHATME. […] No allowance must be made because the accused is a woman. Woman bears the grave
responsibility of building up the high values of society.
Thus the imaginary mock-trial, ‘the play-within- the play’ gradually grows into a serious affair and the latent
sadism of the characters comes to the fore. What is more disturbing is that Mrs. Kashikar, the childless woman,
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who should have supported Benare, gangs up with the male members and severely criticizes her.
Thus Benare who bubbles with over-confidence in the beginning turns into a victim of social injustice at the
end. She represents the working class women who want to lead a liberated life. Though she is a victim of incest,
it is not in the main focus as it is referred to by way of reflection by Benare herself. She is robbed of her
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virginity when she hardly fourteen years old. The focal point of the play is the violent response of the male
dominated society to pre-marital relationship and motherhood. The mock – trial holds a mirror to our social
response to such things. It is pre-eminently male biased. What is wrong, immoral for a woman is not so for a
man. Benare is the accused but Prof. Damle is nowhere held guilty. Subha Tiwari in her article “Silence! The
court is in Session – a strong social commentary” states “The whole responsibility of morally upright behaviour
is bulldozed on women. Men are by nature considered to be willful, wild, childish, innocent and mischievous.
Their sins are no sins at all. The society has a very light parental and pampering sort of attitude when it comes to
sexual offences of men. In case of women the iron rod gets hot and hotter. No punishment is actually enough for
such a woman. There is no respite, no shade and no soothing cushion for a sinning woman. She must be stained
and abandoned. Her femininity, her needs, her very existence must be ignored or rather destroyed. She must be
cornered and brutally killed both in physical and psychological senses. This play is about the pathetic position of
women in the male dominated Indian world.” The comment proves to be a right one as we see before passing
the final verdict on Benare, she is given ten seconds to defend her case. The motionless Benare stands up erect
and says, “Yes, I have a lot to say” (Silence, 72). Then follows a long monologue in which Benare expresses her
zest for life and tells how she is deprived of her wishes:
BENARE. […] My life was a burden to me. [Heaving a great sigh] But when you can’t lose it, you realize the
value of it. […]There’s great joy in a suicide that’s failed. It’s greater even than the pain of living. […] I
swallowed that poison, but didn’t even let a drop of it touch them! […] I cried inside, and I made them laugh. I
was cracking up with despair, and I taught them hope. (Silence, 72-73)

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2016, pp. 207-210
Benare hurls her denigrating attack against patriarchy in this monologue:

BENARE. […] These are the mortal remains of some cultured men of the twentieth century. See their faces—
how ferocious they look! Their lips are full of lovely worn-out phrases! And their bellies are full of unsatisfied
desires. (Silence, 74).
In the final verdict Benare is equated with ‘criminals and sinners’ and the court orders that she should live but
the child in her womb should be destroyed. According to P. Obula Reddy and P. Pramila Devi, Benare, the
principal character in the play is as sprightly, rebellious and assertive as the heroine of Shakespeare romantic
comedies - of course. Benare is lovely spark from the thunder bolt of Tendulkar. She is a new woman pleading
for freedom from the social norms. (Reddy and Devi, 36). This is suggestive of Benare’s last speech when she
breaks her silence and speaks passionately about conspiracy against her.
The interrogatory procedure is so convincing that the legal professionals have been encouraging litigation more
and more by giving impetus to disputes. In all his arguments there is no ethical creation of evidence. Silence!
The Court is in Session is not a propaganda play. It grapples with several problems of the Indian society—such
as the degradation of the judiciary system, pretentious institutional social service organizations, and forceful
male supremacy in Indian society, in a masterful way. The mock-trial ends up with an interruption by a visitor
reminding them of their being late in the show. This interruption brings them back from illusion to reality. But
Benare remains in the same condition engrossed in thought for she is overtaken by the reality implied in the
illusion. Her reality is different from others. Parrot in the play is a powerful symbol of illusion of her own self
and sparrow represents her reality. The cynical game is well-rooted in their sick psyche that informs the verdict
they pass on her, with the sort of pleasure that can be envy of professional torturers. The questions posed by the
play call for a total overhauling of the society’s entire moral code.
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Though Tendulkar is not a self-acknowledged feminist, he goes with the feminists in voicing women’s concern,
their sensibility and their subjugation as well as their protest. Thus, Tendulkar’s dramatic world reveals his deep
and uncanny insight into feminine mind. Benare represents all the women in India who are suppressed,
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oppressed and are marginalized. She breaks down during the mock trial because the story of the character in the
play she is performing at the mock trail is identical to her own. The last speech of Ms. Benare is skillfully
constructed by Tendulkar. It echoes the irony, sorrow and lampoon present in Indian society. Ms. Benare said:
But I was ignorant Instead; I threw myself off a parapet of our house-to embrace death. But I didn’t die. My
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body didn’t die. I felt as if feelings were dead-but they had not died either then…. (Silence…, 74)
Tendulkar has left the play open without suggesting any solution to the problem of Ms. Benare. He has
highlighted critical problems like the squalor of Indian Judiciary system, male dominance in the society and the
ostentatious institutional social organizations. He has achieved a mile-stone in exploring the relationship
between men and women at different levels. He has focused on men’s superiority complex and shown subtle,
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inverted and preservative relationship between men and women. He has studied the psychology of all the
characters and put them together in the play in natural shapes. The play is an intricate mosaic of several other
seminal themes like juxtaposing the two worlds – games and reality and relationship between art and society. It
also emphasizes on how the basic instincts and impulses in man continue to motivate human being in a civilized
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society. Leela Benare who is the victim herself on some occasions becomes the hunter and she ridicules the
characters. However the most noticeable theme of this play is the plight of a single woman in a male dominated
society.
The play contains a latent critique of modern Indian society, mostly middle class and lower middle class from
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different angles. It combines social criticism with the tragedy of an individual victimized by the society. The
individual is placed against the backdrop of society and the tensions between the two are explored. Tendulkar
portrays life as it is from different angles without trying to philosophize or moralize in any way. His sympathy
for Leela Benare is underlying throughout the play. He has made Benare to struggle against the orthodox
society. Benare possesses a zest for life and she does not care about social customs and norms. The exploitative
society isolates Benare. In the mock trial, there is shift from make believe to the real world and Benare’s private
life is exposed and dissected publicly. The play is derision on the middle class probity, where people have all the
rights to pass the judgments and ‘Silence’ is the only alternative left for the victim. The words of Candy
Elizabeth quoted in ‘The Introduction of Feminism in our Times’ can be the best to conclude. According to
Candy:
Thus far women have been mere echoes of men. Our laws and constitution, our creeds and codes and customs of
social life are all of masculine origin. The true woman is yet a dream for future… (Candy, 14)
Works Cited
Banerjee, Arundhati. “Introduction”, Five Plays, New Delhi; Oxford India Paperbacks, 1995, Eight Impression, 2006,p.8.
Candy, Elizabeth. (1994) Quoted in Introduction of Feminism in our Times, Vintage Books: New York, pp. 14.
Dass, Veena Noble. (1994) ‘Women Characters in the plays of Tendulkar’, New Directions in Indian Drama, ed. Sudhakar Pandey and
Freya Barya. Prestige Books: New Delhi, pp. 10.
Gokhale, Shanta.”Tendulkar on His Own Terms’, Vijay Tendulkar. Eds. Shoma Chaudhury and Gita rajan.New Delhi: Katha,2001.
Jain, Jasbir. Indigenous Roots of Feminism. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2011.
Spivak, Chakraborty, Gayatri. “ Can Subaltern Speak?”

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2016, pp. 207-210
Tendulkar, Vijay. (1992) Silence! The Court is in Session, Oxford University Press: New Delhi. Tendulkar, Vijay. (1974) “Silence! The
Court is in Session” translated by Priya Adarkar, Five Plays, and Oxford University Press: New Delhi, pp. 7.
Tendulkar, Vijay. ‘A Testament’ in Indian Literature. No. 147, Jan-Feb, pp.92.
Vijay Tendulkar. “Drama: The Most Difficult, But the Most Powerful Medium.” Interviews with Indian Writers, New World Literature
Series, B-18, p.280.
Vijay Tendulkar. “Interview”, The Indian Literary Review, Vol.I, p.12.
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Research Paper Literature E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 2 | Issue : 7 | July 2016
THEPATRIARCHALWALLOFSILENCEINVIJAY
TENDULKAR'SSILENCE!THECOURTISINSESSION
Dr. Kavya. B
Lecturer in English, Govt.Pre-University College, Hosur, K R.Nagar, Mysuru Dist.
ABSTRACT
The Padma Bhushan awardee Vijay Tendulkaris a well-known name in the Modern Indian Drama. He is a realistic playwright who mirrors our society and its
callousness in a natural way. Silence! The court is in session remembers Shakespeare's Hamlet as the writer employs a play within a play technique to exhibit the true
color of men towards a woman. Silence is used as a tool of suppression and persecution by male dominated society on women by centuries.
KEYWORDS: Silence, Infanticide, mock trial, motherhood, hypocrisy, gender inequality.
The Padma Bhushan awardee Vijay Tendulkaris a well-known name in the Mod- life. There is glorification of motherhood by the men. Sukhatme says Mother-
ern Indian Drama. He is a realistic playwright who mirrors our society and its cal- hood is a sacred thing and mother holds a great responsibility in raising the
lousness in a natural way. Silence! The court is in sessionremembers Shake- child.Further he says, “She weaves a magic circle with her whole existence in
speare's Hamlet as the writer employs a play within a play technique to exhibit order to protect and preserve her little one. (79) Kashikaris reminded of Sanskrit
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the true color of men towards a woman. Silence is used as a tool of suppression proverb 'Mother and The Motherland both are even higher than Heaven.
and persecution by male dominated society on women by centuries. Sukhatme even says, “Woman is a wife for a moment, but a mother forever”
(180) .
The present paper entitled The Patriarchal Wall of Silence in Vijay
Tendulkar'sSilence! The Court Is In Session is a study on silence of women in Gradually these men in the name of prosecution put negative shades on Benare's
patriarchal society. Women are sexually oppressed and our Indian culture has
enslaved women for ages while men are free to enjoy within and outside the mar-
riage. There is a mock trial which is conspired on Benare to unveil her personal
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character. As she is unmarried in her 30's they mean she is like running behind
every man all the time. They even raise question of remaining single as though
she avoided to get married so as to enjoy her freedom and flirt with men. It's very
life. The male chauvinists prosecute her by dissecting her private issues and she tragic that Mrs. Kashikar is not sensible as a woman to witness the degradation of
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is badly tortured.Vijay Tendulkar defines Violence, “At a very sensitive level, vio- woman but helps men to uphold it. Miss Binare requests them not to bring her per-
lence can be described as consciously hurting someone, whether it is physical vio- sonal life in the mock trial but men were very much interested and enjoying it.
lence or psychological violence.… Violence is something which has to be Whatever she utters is taken in a negative sense. The witnesses give hint that she
accepted as fact. It's no use describing it as good or bad. Projections of it can be was found alone with Professor Damle in his room. Samant had found her crying
good or bad. And violence, when turned into something else, can certainly be very secretively and he narrates the conversation between Damle and Benare.
defined as vitality, which can be very useful, very constructive. So, it depends on Damle wants to save his reputation and itsentirely Benare's problem where to go
how you utilize it or curb it at times.”Benare is found guilty of infanticide and a and what to do. Benare threatens to kill herself and he is not bothered about it
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verdict is sentenced on her. She is a spinster and has consumed the baby without even when she says he will be murdering two. But the members of court are
wed lock and her conscious is thwarted for her sin. The man behind this sin is not thrilled by the news. Benare cries out, “You've all deliberately ganged up on me!
accused of anything who is equally responsible. Whether it is rape or child by an You've plotted against me!” (93). Kashikar Says “Our society should receive the
unmarried woman, only the woman is targeted and tormented and made her feel old custom of child marriage. Marry off the girls before puberty. All this promis-
guilty. Tendulkar questions this thinking in the society, why only a woman alone cuity will come to a full stop.” (98) Mrs. Kashihar says its Benare's earning
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has to face this sort of assault and succumb in silence. which has made her like that and the way she moves freely with men that too
being unmarried. Even she makes a reference that after a performance they
Benare is a dedicated school teacher. She is very happy that she remains in the wanted to leave her home but she had taken Damle with her.Whereas Mr. Damle
midst of children from eight years. She feels children's are better than adults. is referrered as a responsible elder person, family man with five children. To
“They don't scratch you till you bleed, then run away like cowards” (57). Benare emphasize Miss Benare as characterless MrsKashikar says she had tried for
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loves her job and children and she is good in teaching. Children also adore her much younger guy Balu. Even Ponkshe says Benare had kept the proposal to
and she wants to teach them till her last breath. It's her one bit of slander that the marry her. Kashikar asks him she was pregnant by one man and wanted to marry
management has taken decision to throw out of the school. In rage she utters, another. But they are not seeing her helplessness, straight forward and her hon-
“My life is my own – I haven't sold it to anyone for a job! My will is my own. My esty to seek help to save her child. But these men make fun of her. She had fallen
wishes are my own. No one can kill those- no one! I'll do what I like with myself to his feet but Ponkshe wanted a matured partner for himself. Ironically the truth
and my life! I'll decide….” (58). is that he is not matured enough to understand and broad mind to marry a woman.
Whenever Miss Benare wanted to open her mouth to defend herself or to disap-
Along with Benare,Samant, Sukhatme, Ponkshe, Karnik, Mr and MrsKashikar prove her accusations made on her she is not given any chance and is silenced.
and BaluRokdeare involved in enacting the mock court.Theyintend to spread Even she can't go outside as the room is locked from outside. She is caught from
enlightment through their plays and it's the prime objective of their inside its like a maze. It symbolizes the society and its norms. Everybody feels its
programme.Ironically all characters are incomplete and unsuccessful in their her fault not even a single person to show pitty on her. She had even approached
lives but are enthusiastically enquiring Benare's life.Mrand Mrs. Kashikar are Rokde to marry her but he feared about the society which would laugh at him if he
childless and they have given shelter to a young boy BaluRokde and have edu- married her in this condition. Benare just wanted to save her baby's life so she
cated him. But they have made him a slave and defeated barrister.Even there is an wanted to get married to any man so that the baby may be accepted in the society.
intellectual but he is absent as he is not dare enough. He is an intellectual who She had even kept Tik-20 in her purse that shows she wanted to kill her life, so as
boasts of his intelligence and flaunts on his book learning but he is not gutsy to to end this turmoil. Even that is ridiculed by all as she had earlier in her teenshad
face the real life problems. Ponkshe always hangs false modesty and dignity. He already attempted to kill herself. She had loved her maternal uncle.
aspires to be scientist and trying hard and even works as a clerk in the central tele-
graph office. Samant is an innocent village guy. Sukhatme has failed to become NanasahebShinde the chairman of education society had taken decision to dis-
successful as a lawyer. Karnikis a struggling actor. Rokde is not having his inde- miss Benare from the school. He says, “It is a sin to be pregnant before marriage.
pendent life only.In fact the mock trial was a case against President Johnson for It would be still more immoral to let such a woman teach, in such a condition!
producing atomic weapons. Before the actual play they plan to rehearse the trial (113).Sukhatam in his prosecution says Benare has made a heinous crime. She is
and in the mock trial they make Miss Benare as the accused of the crime of infan- immoral and bringing up the child of an illegal union is even more dreadful. She
ticide. In the beginning everything seems to be light hearted but later it becomes is seen as a taboo for our culture and society. Sukhatam wants the court to show
very clear that Miss Benare is purposefully targeted. She is locked up in the trial no mercy on her on the basis of woman. He says “woman bears the grave respon-
room significantly that there is no escape for her even in her life. Benare from the sibility of building up the high values of society. Woman is not fit for independ-
beginning is warned to be silent while others do the Postmortem of her personal ence” (115). He seems to be a believer of Manu's principle. Even in this world of
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FOR PRIVATE
International EducationCIRCULATION ONLY[IERJ]
& Research Journal HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.74 45
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Research Paper E-ISSN No : 2454-9916 | Volume : 2 | Issue : 7 | July 2016
modernity there are many in our society who still stick to this to chain women.
With all the charges on her Benare is asked to speak and the given time is ten sec-
onds. She is having whole lot to say but she is silent, motionless. But she speaks
in her mind about her pains. She blames life and it is life that is responsible for
everything. She is very upset for her banishment from the school. She had given
her whole self to the children. She never taught children despair she taught them
hope. She drank the poison and kept them untouched of her private life. The only
source of hope and life was her job and she is shattered. She never wanted them to
judge her from the private life as she was professionally good as a teacher.She
was just 14 when she fell in love with her maternal uncle. It was considered sin by
her strict house. But she wanted to get married. He turned his back and she
embraced death but in vein. Her body dint die. Second time again she fell in love.
It was purely intellectual. She surrendered to him on the altar of worship. She fell
for intellectuality but what he wanted was her body not her mind and devotion.
She accepts her mistake and says body is a traitor and one needs to accept it as it
can't be rejected. Her life was burden to her and she thinks that the trouble, the dif-
ficulties, is because of this body only. Her maternal uncle or Damle just wanted to
take advantage of her body and were granitic. She was betrayed by her body and
now she wants her body for the little life in her. “He must have a mother… a
father to call his own - a house - to be looked after - he must have a good name.
After her soliloquy Kashikar gives his verdict Benarestillremains motionless. He
calls her crime unforgivable and for her irresponsibility she should be chained
down. “Marriage is the very foundation of our society's stability. Motherhood
must be sacred and pure”(118). Marriage is an institution which is a metaphor for
woman's loyalty but not for male counterpart. Praising the school authority for
dismissing her from the school, he says, “Neither you nor anyone else should
ever do anything like this again. No moments of your sin should remain for future
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generations. Therefore this court hereby sentences that you shall live. But the
child in your womb shall be destroyed” (119). Benare cries out” No! No! No! – I
won't let you do it – I won't let it happen – I won't let it happen! “(119). Thus the
mock trial is over. But it is the true story of her life. Thus unmarried motherhood
is seen as obscene and the child brought up from it is rejected from the society.
The most striking is the silence of the victim. Benare adheres to silence and it indi-
cates her subjugation and helplessness. She is forced to accept her sin and the co-
partner in the sin is left free. That's how society is designed in favor of men to con-
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trol women. Simone De Beauvior rightly quotes, “Representation of the world,
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like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of
view, which they confuse with absolute truth”.The hypocrisy of the society is
well narrated through the words of Benare, “Their lips are full of lovely worn-out
phrases! And their bellies are full of unsatisfied desires”(117).Benare
iseducated, frank, self-reliant and free thinking.She is a woman so her independ-
ent way of leading life is condemned. Tendulkar is condemning the so called mod-
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ern society which fancies about everything and in reality suffocates women liv-
ing. Only Benare is dismissed from her teacher job questioning her morality but
Mr.Damle is having illegal relation with a woman though married and still he con-
tinues as a professor.Tendulkar voices against gender based exploitation and he
feels, “As a social being I am against all exploitation and I passionately feel that
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all exploitation must end.”Thus protagonist Bendre is succumbed to power and

suffocated in the wall of patriarchal silence.
REFERENCES:
1. Beauvoir, Simone De, The Second Sex.trans.H.HParsheley (Harmonds Worth; Pen-
guin), P.249
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2. Tendulkar, Vijay. Interview. Elizabeth Roy. Indian Review of Books.Vol.2, no.7, April-
May, 1993.Quoted by SamikBandyopadhyay.Introduction. Vijay Tendulkar's Col-
lected Plays in Translation. New Delhi: OUP, 2002, xli-xlii.
3. Tendulkar, Vijay (2004), Collected Plays in Translation, Oxford India Paperbacks,
New Delhi.
46 FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page Journal

International Education & Research No.75 [IERJ]
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DEPICTION OF “SHE” IN TENDULKAR’S

SILENCE! THE COURT IS IN SESSION
G. SAILAJA DR. K. GOPAL REDDY

Research Scholar Associate Professor of English and
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Heads the Department
University, Sri Sai Baba National Degree & PG
Anantapur, (AP) INDIA College (Autonomous),
Anantapur. (AP) INDIA
DR. V. B. CHITRA
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Associate Professor of English and
Heads the Department
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological
University, Anantapur. (AP) INDIA IM
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Culture is a set of standards, customs, and beliefs which people believe in. It decides the
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attitude of human beings. It varies from society to society, community to community, and
country to country. But it is the same to man and woman. It may also change according to
the times. For Indians, it the most important one. People try their best to preserve the set
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standards. Unfortunately, men believe that they can violate the culture and do anything. But
if a woman tries to live a life of her own, not violating the culture, they make her victim and
speak volumes about culture. This sort of attitude is recurrent in Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence!
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The Court is in Session. The play skillfully depicts the predicament and vulnerability of
“She” in an Indian society. It truly presents that the standard rules are set for women but
not to men.
The present paper focuses on Tendulkar’s Leela Benare, the protagonist of Silence! The
Court is in Session who becomes a victim of ruthless society’s set standards of culture and
longs for true love breaking the cultural norms by having a relation with a married man
without marriage. The paper also tries to analyze how she is isolated and made the victim to
a cruel game cunningly planned by her co-actors.
INTRODUCTION
G. SAILAJA DR. V. B. CHITRA DR. K. GOPAL REDDY 1P a g e

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Culture is a set of standards, customs, and beliefs which people believe in. It decides the
attitude of human beings. It varies from society to society, community to community, and
country to country. But it is the same to man and woman. It may also change according to
the times. For Indians, it is the most important one. People try their best to preserve those set
standards. Unfortunately, men believe that they can violate the culture and do anything. But
if a woman tries to live a life of her own, not violating the culture, they make her victim and
speak volumes about culture. This sort of attitude is recurrent in Ms. Leela Benare, the
protagonist of Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session.1
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar (1928-2008) is one of the significant Indian playwrights of the
post-independence era who made an effort to transcend the cultural boundaries of
Maharashtra into a work of art. He is an icon of the country’s vernacular theatre. Critics
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called him ‘the angry young man of Marathi theatre.’ He is a literary essayist, screen and
television writer, political journalist, and social commentator. His rich literary contribution
includes thirty full-length plays, twenty-five biographies, and nineteen award-winning films,
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several of which have become classics of modern Indian theatre. His plays, one act-plays,
short stories, and movie scripts are about controversial social themes which include violence,
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poverty, women’s rights, and corruption. They derived inspiration from real-life incidents or
social upheavals, which provide clear light on harsh realities. Though he has written many
works, the most critically acclaimed plays through which he has brought modernism to
Marathi drama and stage are Shatata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court is in Session),
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Ghashiram Kotwal, Gidhade, Kamala, and Sakharam Binder. His contribution to Indian
English drama in general and to Marathi literature in particular has kept him ahead of
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contemporary writers and an inspirational force to many modern writers. Famous writers like
Mahesh Elkunchvar, Satish Alekar accept that their writing is influenced by Vijay Tendulkar.
V.S. Naipaul, the 2001 Nobel Laureate in English, has called him “India’s best playwright”2
and Shailaja Wadikar called him “one of the pioneers of New Drama in the post-
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independence India.”3
Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session is a landmark in the annals of Indian drama in
English. It was written based on a 1956 short story, “Die Panne” (Traps) by Friedrich
Durrenmatt, Swedish playwright. The play skillfully depicts the predicament and
vulnerability of “She” in an Indian society. It truly presents the standard rules that are set for
women but not to men. It deals with the deep seated instinct of violence against a lonely
woman and sexual compulsions that lie beneath respectable exteriors. It is also about the
isolation of the individual and the failure of human relations as a result of man’s inherent
violent attitude towards fellowmen. Nirupa Rani remarks thus:

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Using mock-element, theatrical edge and making the structure revolve round
the idea of a game and being tight-lipped about legal remedies for social
problems and unwholesome comments on human nature Tendulkar
commented on the lack of self-knowledge and resources to self-justification
which is distinctive trait of the present day society.4
The play begins in an empty hall and Benare’s entry on the stage suggests some significance.
The door through which she enters resembles the problems of the play. She got hurt by the
door. Her finger was caught in the bolt. She was deceived by her uncle in her teens. That
was the first shock to Benare. When Samant enquires her about the door and how she got
hurt, she says, “It is nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just a habit with me” (Act One, 55). These
words of Benare clearly convey that she got hurt many a time and she is habituated to them.
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The door presents the cultural norms of the society which try to bind her freedom and Benare
can’t handle them properly.
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The story runs in three acts and each act is structured very well with the other. In Act One,
one sees a mock trial to be staged by an amateur theatre group from Bombay in the
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Community Hall of a distant suburb. The scheduled subject is the prosecution of President
Johnson of the US for the production of atomic weapons. But the playwrights found that they
have assembled a little too early. So they ploy with the idea of staging an unrehearsed mock
trial with one of their groups as the accused to be prosecuted on some trumped-up charge.
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In Act Two, all the participants in the mock trial play their roles of Judge Counsel over the
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prosecution and defence witness. Benare, the accused makes rapid digs at her colleagues. It
ends with the trap of Benare. While Ibsen’s Nora manages to leave the room with a bang on
the door thereby creating a stir in the whole of Europe, Benare unfortunately stands by the
door with her back to the others. Soon she is asked to come to the witness box.
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In Act Three, the mock games becomes a regular game with Benare as the trapped victim.
The hunters launch a concerted attack upon her and derive pleasure from it. They expose her
private life with evidences. She realizes that the whole society is out to punish her for
deviating from the moral norms. Benare finally breaks down and confesses, in her long
soliloquy, that she has been seduced by her uncle first, and later by Professor Damle, an
intellectual, whom she has worshipped. One can see the mental agony of Benare in the
following lines:
Storms raged one after another about my throat. And there was a wail like
death in my heart. But each time I shut my lips tight. I thought no one will
understand. No one can understand! (Act Three, 116)

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She further says that she has a will of her own to decide things and to act upon. But the
group never listens to her words. The mock-judge pronounces the final savage judgment that
the baby would be destroyed in the womb itself. When Benare collapses sobbing, others
exclaim that it is just a ‘joke’ and a ‘game’ which she has taken really to heart.
Ms. Leela Benare, the protagonist in Tendulkar’s magnum opus Silence! The Court is in
Session, is an independent working woman who longs for true love. She loves life and is full
of spirit. She is extremely happy, sometimes proud, about her performance as a teacher. She
is completely devoted to her profession. She gains popularity that leads to the envy of her
colleagues and the management at school. The only thing that always pricks her mind is that
she is a woman who should be bound to the laid rules and adopt the culture. Yet she aspires
to fulfill her desires. She doesn’t feel ashamed of her instincts. So, she emerges as a
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different character from others in the play.
Leela Benare is tortured purposefully by male characters and sometimes even by female
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characters. She, in her quest to escape from the clutches in which she is put, goes to the
extent of breaking the cultural norms by maintaining a relationship with a married man
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without marrying him. As a result, she becomes a victim to society’s ruthless set standards of
culture. She is isolated and made the victim of a cruel game, cunningly planned by her co-
actors. Thus, the fellow-actors accuse her, prosecute her, and subject her to terrible mental
agony. Arundhati Banerjee rightly points outs that,
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In the persecution of this helpless woman, a fierce psychological violence

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becomes evident. The latent sadism of the characters, of Sukhatme, of Mr. and
Mrs. Kashikar, of Ponkshe, Karnik or even Rokde, surfaces during the process
of the trial.4
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Tendulkar has put Benare’s character on a large canvas of society where people still stick to
the age old traditions. Unlike the others, she is a modern woman with individuality.
Unfortunately, in our society that is primarily patriarchal, rules are male prejudiced. A
woman should not have any individuality whereas a man can. The society also believes that
standards and rules are set for women but not for men. As a result, Vijay Tendulkar skillfully
presents the predicament and vulnerability of an Indian woman in this play.
Being outspoken and conventional, Benare is considered a woman of questionable character.

Her journey from a woman to an individual is clearly brought out in the mock trial of the
play. Her co-actors are well aware of real story that they are going to enact. But Benare
doesn’t know that. Yet none of them want to really approach Benare’s problem in a humane
manner or treat her with dignity. The reason for this is that they are jealous of Benare who is

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successful in her career. They do not approve of her unconventional behavior. They gang up
against her and hurt her feelings deeply by making her private affairs public. Mrs. Shirish
Pai’s poem which Benare recites at the school for her children succinctly gives us the plight
of her own. To quote,
Our feet tread on upon unknown

And dangerous pathways evermore. …
And the wound that’s born to bleed
Bleeds on for ever, faithfully.
There is a battle sometimes, where
Defeat is destined as the end. (Act One, 63)
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This poem serves as a metaphor that offers the mental state of this great heroine. The poem
is equally equivalent to what Derrida mentions as glassopoeia, a state in which meaning is
yet to be born. At the end of the trail Benare is given an opportunity to say something in her
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defence. She breaks her silence and asserts that she cannot tolerate others meddling with her
life. She has a will of her own to decide things and to act upon. She like Ibsen’s Nora tries to
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defend her rights and independence of mind. But the group never listens to her words. The
mock-judge pronounces the final savage judgment that “Marriage is the very foundation of
our society’s stability. Motherhood must be sacred and pure. This court takes a serious view
of your attempt to dynamite all this. … And, what is more, the arrogance with which you
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conducted yourself in society, having done all these things, that arrogance is the most
unforgivable thing of all. Criminals and sinners should know their place” (Act Three, 118-
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119).
Mr. Kashikar, who acts as a Judge in the mock-trial, is an embodiment of hypocrisy. He

always claims to be a social worker who works hard for the development of society. But in
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reality he is not. This is evident by the way he treats his wife. He justifies his selection of
the crime for the mock-trial by saying thus:
Did you notice, also, Sukhatme, that this charge is important from the society
point of view? The question of infanticide is one of great social significance.
That’s why I deliberately picked it. We consider society’s best interests in all
we do. Come on, Miss Benare. (Act Two, 76)
But the actual intention behind selection of this charge is to humiliate Miss Benare.
Though the play was produced in 1967, it has its relevance even today. Nothing has changed
much in the society. People still question and judge a woman’s character, the way she

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behaves, the way she dresses herself, and so on. There are few people who are putting their
efforts to enlighten women and focus their problems by making movies.
Pink (court-room drama film) is such best example in which three women are brought to the
trail and their character is questioned based on their behaviour and appearance. It is a
powerful statement on the existing feudal mindset of a majority of India, where men and
women are judged by different yardstick. It is about Meenal, Falak, and Andrea, the three
middle-class normal working girls. They meet three men who take them for dinner. At the
resort, Meenal hits Rajveer when he tries to molest and outrage her modesty. The case comes
for the trail where umpteen questioned are hurled on the three women based on their
behaviour.
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Like Benare in the mock trial, the three girls become victims in the hands of the society
which set standards for women. A safety manual will be there for women that they shouldn’t
go alone with a stranger and they should never laugh while talking. This kind of behaviour
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shows that ‘she is a woman of questionable character.’ Rajveer, the culprit says they gave
‘Hints’ to him by laughing and touching. He says thus:
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Hass hass ke bath karrahethi

Touch karke bath karrahethi
Acche ghar ki ladkiya parties me nahee jathi.
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From the above lines, it is clear that Rajveer is the representative of the feudal mentality of
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the Indian society who finds fault with women if they talk freely. But this rule is not
applicable to men. From the girls’ point of view, they are normal. This gives the scope to
criticize the views of the society where women are stereotyped as spoilt, if they come home
late, if they move out of their home, want to be independent, if they drink, if they giggle and
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so on, but none of these apply to men.
The same thing happens with Leela Benare in the mock trial of the play. She remains
completely silent during the dissection of her personal life by her fellow actors. Even if she
tries to speak, she is silenced by them, because they feel that she is an individual who moves
freely with others irrespective of men and women. But this free nature is criticized by the
society. None of them is ready to accept Benare’s new concept of life. Mrs. Kashikar says,
Free! Free! She’s free all right – in everything! Should there be no limit to how freely a
woman can behave with a man? An unmarried woman? No matter how well she knows
him? Look how loudly she laughs? How she sings, dances, cracks jokes? And wandering
alone with how many men, day in and day out! (Act Three, 100)

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In both the cases the society finds fault with the women. But what about the men. In the
play, Leela Benare is seduced first by her maternal uncle. When she asks him to marry her,
he avoids the responsibility in the name of customs. Prof. Damle, a Professor at a University,
acknowledges Benare only for her sexual attraction but not for her character or intelligence.
When she makes a plea to marry her, he escapes himself to protect his honour. Everybody
knows that he is the main cause for her suffering. His appearance during the trial as merely a
witness whereas Benare remains the prime accused as the unwed pregnancy of his
illegitimate child depicts his nature. When it comes to punishment only Benare has to receive
it. Here, Tendulkar exposes dual standards of self-centered male characters. He tries to show
to the society that the male characters are custom conscious only when it helps them.
Thus, the contemporary Indian society, with its roots grounded firmly in traditions and
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culture can’t allow the birth of a child without wedlock. So, Benare is accused of immorality
and sin. Against all such charges Mr. Kashikar announces his judgment.
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Neither you nor anyone should ever do anything like this again. No memento of your sin
should remain for future generations. Therefore, this court hereby sentences that you shall
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live. But the child in your womb shall be destroyed. (Act Three, 119)
Against all such charges Miss Benare tries to defend herself and it is represented through her
long soliloquy, which has become famous in the history of contemporary Marathi theatre and
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stirred women in the country. She appeals the audience to view her situation from a different
perspective. In spite of her appeals, they do not show any sympathy and pass the judgment.
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In the end, she struggles to move but cannot. The play ends with a song of a grieving
sparrow whose secure world has been destroyed by predators.
Benare’s character motivates us to struggle and fight the situations, however harsh they may
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be. She never loses her spirit till the end. She decides to give birth to the child against the
norms of the society. Though the mock-court gives a judgment that the child in her womb
shall be destroyed, she opposes it and says that she won’t let it happen. She asserts her right
to give birth to the child, the product of the ruined union, and her right to live a life in her
own way. She says,
I’ll decide what to do with myself; everyone should be able to! That can’t be
anyone else’s business; understand? Everyone has a bent, a manner, an aim
in life. What’s anyone else to do with these? (Act Three, 117)
Thus, Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session interplays the woman’s psyche through
the character of Leela Benare. It powerfully depicts how “She” is treated by men in the

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society and how moral codes and restrictions restrict women from leading a happy life of her
own.
1. Tendulkar, Vijay. Silence! The Court is in Session. Five Plays. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2009. The page references that appeared in the body of the text are
from this edition.
2. Naipaul, V.S. Introduction. Two Plays of Vijay Tendulkar. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2006.
3. Wadikar, B. Shailaja. Blurb. Vijay Tendulkar: A Pioneer Playwright. New Delhi:
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Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd., 2013.
4. Rani, K. Nirupa. “Evam Indrajit: Prototype of Modern Human Consciousness.”
Aspects of Contemporary World Literature, ed. by Prof. P. Bayapa Reddy, New
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Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd., 2008. 286.
5. Banerjee, Arundhati. “Introduction.” Vijay Tendulkar: Five Plays. New Delhi:
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Oxford University Press, 1992. 9.
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Int.J.Eng.Lang.Lit&Trans.Studies Vol.3.Issue.3.2016
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, LITERATURE (July-Sept.)
AND TRANSLATION STUDIES (IJELR)
A QUARTERLY, INDEXED, REFEREED AND PEER REVIEWED OPEN ACCESS
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
http://www.ijelr.in
KY PUBLICATIONS
RESEARCH ARTICLE
ARTICLE
Vol. 3. Issue.3.,2016 (July-Sept. )
"SILENCE! THE COURT IS IN SESSION" - A RE READING OF THE TEXT FROM THE GAME
THEORY PERSPECTIVE
SADHAN RUDRA
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Assistant Teacher
Garaphusra High school(H.S), Purulia ,West Bengal.
ABSTRACT
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A game is a play between two individuals, between two players, two communities or
between two countries based on a certain formulated strategy. A game clearly ends
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in win or loss for one player and the other. But sometimes a group emerges as a
single player to wage a war against an individual to accomplish certain vested
interest. In the play Silence! the court is in session by Vijay Tendulkar the male society
plays a deliberate game to trap the heroine of the play Leela Benare in its own web
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through a subtle tactic. Mrs. Leela Benare a self made and free girl suffers under
various male characters in the play. But in the mock trial the male characters through
a brilliantly and cunningly crafted strategy made the sinned the sinner. The various
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games played at different level in the drama offers us an opportunity to read the text
from Game theory perspective.
Key Words: Game, De-construction, Unconscious of the text
©KY PUBLICATIONS
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INTRODUCTION
Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar, a leading contemporary Indian Experimental and satirical playwright, a
political journalist and a social critic has been in the vanguard of the Indian Theatre for nearly five decades and
most of his plays contain a latent critique of modern male dominated Indian society and the middle class
hypocrisy. He took a disinterested look and exposed the exploitation of woman both sexually and physically in
male centered world. He successfully ventures into unveiling the social turpitude and the holocaust in which
the interests of the fairer sex are almost strangled. In a hectic decade of avant-gardism (1960s), when the
impact of the ‘absurd’ was heavy on the theatrical scenario of India, Tendulkar’s Silence! The court is in Session
brought in need strategies of postmodernism. Yet, the play retains most of the illusive features of proscenium
realism shunning the temptations of existentialism. The proposed paper intends to deal with Silence! The court
is in Session, one of his theatrically most successful plays from a new perspective. The play within a play
structure provides us scope to analyze and anatomize the play from the recently developed theory –the game
theory.
In the play the male dominated society or patriarchal society used the strategy of game as a potential
tool to trap Leela Benare in the web created by the different male players who played as a group to defeat the
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Int.J.Eng.Lang.Lit&Trans.Studies Vol.3.Issue.3.2016 (July-Sept.)
lonely and single player Leela Benare who is as depicted in the play lives on her own term in a world designed
and crafted by her, “My life is my own-I haven’t sold it to anyone for a job! My will is my own. My wishes are
my own.”The game that emerges is an enchanting and enthralling one in which two groups of players are
involved in a rational battle. The different male members are failures in their respective profession and field.
They came together as a group to play an irrational game in a seemingly rational way to outwit the opposition
who is a lone player in the complicated and subtle game of dishonoring and encaging a free bird.
Over the years there has been an evolution of myriad theories and many are evolving that have
enlightened and brought in new ways of reading a particular literary work. Game theory is one of such
theoretical tools which has handed over to the critics and theoreticians a fresh and new tool to read a
particular text, Application of game theory to the humanities have grown over the years in such disciplines as
history, phisophy, religion and linguistics. Ethical issues in business and law have also been analyzed using
game-theoretic models. It is fiction that has proved to be the most fertile for humanistic application of game
theory, novels, short stories, plays, opera librettos, a narrative poem – all have been subject to game theoretic
exegesis, as have stories in the Hebrew bible. Game theory may also provide a parsimonious frame work and
an important set of tools for the literary analyst. Although there are no rigorous tests to determine what the
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‘right’ interpretation of a work of fiction is ,some interpretation are more tenable than others .Game theory
has proved useful in explicating the strategic choices of characters by making tighter the linkage between
motives and actions in plot construction.
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The Game theory started with the publication Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour (1944) by
John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern at the height of World War II. It was written to interpret the war
mathematically. By the 1950 we began to see a better understanding of Game theories and different countries
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started using game strategy to win them war. It is applies in social science, Mathematics, Economics and
Biology to study the competition between different species. Of late it is used in humanities particularly in
literature, history, philosophy, religion and theology. Its application in literature is enchanting as it opens up a
new vista in analyzing and anatomizing the different tactics used in order to win the players their desired
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goals. Who can forget the strategy used by Lady Macbeth in Macbeth .Life is a game, a complicated game and
every individual is a player in life’s game. As the great Greek philosopher stated that human beings by nature is
political, a different version of game.
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A game is a recurring set of transactions, often repetitious, superficially plausible with a concealed
motivation or more colloquially a series of moves with a snare or ’gimmick’. Games are clearly differentiates
from procedures, rituals and pastimes by two chief characteristics (i) their ulterior quality and (ii) payoff.
Procedure may be successful, rituals effective and pastimes profitable but all of them by definition are candid;
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they may involve contest but not conflict and the ending may be sensational but it is not dramatic. Every game
on the other hand, is basically dishonest and the outcome has a dramatic as distinct from merely exciting
quality. A game looks like a set of operations, but after the payoff it becomes apparent that the operations
were really maneuvers; not honest but motives in the game.
Eric Berne in his book Games People Play has dissected human psyche into three phases’ stimulus
hunger, recognition hunger and structure hunger. In the phase structure hunger people structure their time.
The operational aspect of time structuring is called programming. It has three aspects material, social and
individual. He further stated:
As people become better acquainted more and more individual programming creeps in, so that
‘incidents’ begin to occur. This incident specifically appears adventitious, and may be so described by
the parties concerned, but careful scrutiny reveals that they tend to follow definite pattern which are
amenable to sorting and classification and that the sequence is circumscribed by unspoken rules and
regulation: these regulation remain latent as long as the amities or hostilities proceed, but they
become manifest if an illegal move is made, giving rise to symbolic ,verbal or legal cry of foul such
sequences ,which in contrast to pastimes are based more individual than on social programming may
be called Games.(page 5)
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Tendulkar’s play Silence! The Court is in Session assumes a significant role under the above mentioned quote
where the different members of the group played a deliberate game with rules and regulations formulated
and devised by the members and any objection by Mrs. Benare to those self-crafted rule is instantaneously
overruled with the banging of the gavel. She is circumscribed by unspoken rules and regulations. This is where
the game starts .Tendulkar intentionally drew our attention to the nature of the game as Peter Hutchinson, in
his book Games Authors Play, states “Another characteristic of literary play is its self-conscious nature: in order
to function as a game, the play must draw attention to itself”. The of the playwright is to channelize the
reader/spectators’ attention to a reality which always remain dormant in our objective world .This intention of
Tendulkar is axiomatic by the fact that he mentions the word ‘game’ as many as 18 times or so in the play.
Therefore the question remains why Tendulkar wanted the reader or the spectator to focus on this
aspect of the paly.Johan Huizinga in his famous article Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture
asserts that:
Playfulness in literature as the game that has the quality of tension, the power of madding,
absorption, a quality of clear element of eagerness. The game creates a second level of real life .The
second level is supralogic level, it is different from first level of reality, the everyday reality: ‘play is not
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ordinary or real life’. Rather it represents a stepping out of real life into a temporary sphere of activity
with a disposition all of its own .What does not happen in the first level, happens in the second level.
The second level of reality breaks with the logic in the first level. In other words, it breaks the logic,
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the structure or the boundaries to create a new logic, a new structure or boundaries. It is supra-logic
because it transgresses everyday reality’.
Jacques Derrida in his article Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences avers that the
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game disrupts or breaks down the present structure and signifiers. Derrida attacks the concept of the centre
which allows for a certain structure or organization. He insists that we must break with the structure’s points
of reference in order to obtain or enter into the game. In other words, disrupt the centre. He defines centre or
structure as a ‘point of presence’, a fixed origin that is governed by a set rules, ’the function of the centre’ was
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not only to orient, balance and organize the structure but above all to make sure that the organizing principle
of the structure would limit any deviations or prohibit anything outside the centre or we might call free play of
the structure .Generally ‘drama’ means action. As Aristotle puts it drama is an ‘imitation of action’ .But in
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Silence! The Court is in Session, we understand that the play is not an imitation of action, rather it is a game of
word play,The whole play is verbal rather than a spectacle of action. In the play in Act I Karnik comments:
Will someone please tell me what Modern Theatre is supposed to be? People just play with words
without knowing what they mean
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The de-constructionist reading of a play instructs us to read between the lines and excavate the unconscious of
a text. If we read this text from this perspective, then we can categorically avers that the unconscious of the
text reveals the social structure and stereotyping of woman. Though the whole play pivots around Benare and
the game, but the unconscious of the text accentuates the dichotomy between male/female, freedom/bound,
tradition / modernity, progressive / regressive, professionalism / amateurism, motherhood / womanhood,
law/human spirit and justice/injustice. And it is clear from the way the whole game is played that the later part
of the dichotomy is marginalized, disparaged and sub-ordinated to the first part. The left is on the centre while
the right is on the periphery.
Shantata the play and its structure revolve wholly round the idea of a game and include the essential
ingredient of reversal. Benare, who is on the offensive in the beginning, finds herself trapped at the close of
the play. The claustrophobic atmosphere inside the hall provides a kind of setting. The setting helps to
transport us into the second level or the unconscious of the text which is the real one. When the charges
which were based partly on conjecture and partly on hearsay were brought against her, ”Benare looks
stunned. All are silent for the moment. The atmosphere is extraordinarily somber”. Suddenly the ambience is
changed. From cheerful and candid atmosphere, it shifted into a somber and grave atmosphere. There has
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been transportation from the reality to the superreality. As if we are being transported from the present to the
suprapresent.
In the act I, we find that in the sub-conscious mind of the players, there was already the seed of
playing a game was already sown;
Sukhatme: …Shall I tell you what’s going through your mind right now? This hall, you are thinking, is
ideal for Intimate Theatre-in other words, for those plays of yours for a tiny audience.
Rawte’s sickness and to teach Samant the proceeding of court and their willingness to kill the time before the
actual performance give them their golden opportunity to play the game and thereby trap Benare and have
some fun which is an intrinsic part of game. Mrs. Kashikar who had repressed hatred and jealousy for Benare,
since Mrs. Kashikar is not as much educated and free like Benare and does not have financial independence
and above all she is infertile ,unable to produce children unlike Benare and she continually lives under the
dominance of Mr. Kashikar.
Mrs.Kashikar: …That’s what happens these days when you get everything without marrying .They just
want comfort. They couldn’t care about responsibility….It’s the sly new fashion of women earning
that makes everything go wrong.
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Mrs. Kashikar: …Should there be no limit to how freely a woman can behave with a man? An
unmarried woman?
And it was Mrs.Kashikar who first proposed for a rehearsal and suggested that there must be a change in the
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accused. Even during their discussion as to who should be the accused, a latent and hidden game being played.
Karnik: … [Aside to Ponkshe, who has reached him]Do you know something Ponkshe?
Ponkshe: What?
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Karnik: [Indicating inner room] About her? About Miss Benare.Rokde told me.
Kashikar: Whispers some plan to them, gesticulating every now and then, he points to the room
where Benare is.
Finally Miss Leela Benare was charged with the crime of infanticide under section No.302 of the Indian Penal
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Code. Later in the play Kashikar confessed that he deliberately picked the charge labeled against Benare
Kashikar: The question of infanticide is one of great social significance. That’s why I deliberately picked it.
Mrs. Kashikar: …There is nothing wrong with the present charge.
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The court procedure started with oath taking. Rokde forgot to bring the Geeta or Bible. They used the Oxford
English Dictionary. This clearly refers to the fact that this going to be a game of words. The whole procedure
could be termed as ‘Publicization of private life’ and ‘privatization of public life’. One after another self-made
and fabricated witnesses are given to game with Benare.
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Ponkshe: …She runs after men too much.

Ponkshe: …Once she tried to arrange a marriage.
The statements are clearly made to show her hyper activity with men. As the procedure goes on, the mock
trial started taking shape of real trial;
Sukhatme: What is your opinion of the prisoner conduct?
Karnik: Do you mean, in this mock trial, or in real life.
Sukhatme: In real life, of course.
Karnik passed the buck to Rokde.Rokde out of rage gave the evidence that he once found Leela Benare at night
with Professor Damle at his home. The greatest blow comes from none other but the simple, honest and
innocent Raghunath Bhikaji Samant. He unintentionally got implicated in the whole game. He proves to be a
master card in the whole game. His witness seems to be the turning point in the game. He read out from
magazine which co-incidentally has a connection to Benare’s life. He picked the thread where Rokde left. While
taking oath Samanth stated that;
Samant: …What’s true for the trial is quite false really.
Ponkshe quickly rebuts that ‘Only the accused is real!’
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Samant reports from the magazine which has significant repercussion on the whole game. He gave the account
of an imaginary conversation between Leela Benare and Prof Damle;
Samant: [Hurriedly looking at a book in his hand]’if you abandon me in this condition. where shall I
go’?
Samant: Where should you go is entirely your problem. I feel great sympathy for you .But I can do
nothing .I must protect my reputation.
Samant:’If you abandon me, I shall have no choice but to take my life. ‘Then do that I shall have no
choice’.
Samant:’But this threat will not make me budge an inch from my considered course of action, ‘he
said. She replied, ‘bear it in mind that you will not escape the guilt of murdering two’
Benare: It’s all a lie. A complete lie.
Karnik: Even if it is a lie, it’s an effective one!
Benare: Yo’ve all deliberately ganged up on me! You have plotted against me.
One of the key features for a game is other players take fun and enjoyment at the humiliation of the opponent
or the targeted person.”Peculiar and cautious excitement breaks out on each face”.
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Kashikar: [Picking his ear] it’s all become quite unexpectedly enjoyable.
“A peculiar enjoyment begins to show on everyone’s face but Samant” when Benare fails to get out of the
locked room. Now Benare is completely trapped. Mrs.Kashikar starts pulling Benare along forcibly,”Benare’s
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face reveals the terror of a trapped animal. The metaphor used is important because it reveals the animality
and cruelty of thought of other players. In the midst of excitement Rokde came out with another fatal witness
that eight day ago Mrs.Benare held his hand during a show at Dombivili and he slapped her, which later in the
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play Karnik corroborates too. At the whole thing the prosecution Lawyer commented;
Sukhatme: Milord this means that the accused committed an outrage in lonely spot on a boy like
Rokde, much younger than her …Not only that, but she threatened him with consequences if the
matter came to life. She tried to cover up her sinful deed.
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But the evidence from Ponkshe was a final nail on the coffin, He said that Benare carries with her a deadly
poison to commit suicide and Mrs.Benare also offered to marry him.
Ponkshe: She made known her desire to marry me.
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Ponkshe: But she told me she was pregnant.

And he also said to the court that Benare confessed to him that “It’s only for the child she wants to go on living
and get married”
In order to prove the point that she bears an immoral character and she really wishes to commit the
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suicide, Mr.Karnik provides a testimony to the court saying that “the accused attempted suicide because of a
disappointment in love .She fell in love at the age of fifteen ,with her own maternal uncle, That’s what ended
in disappointment” .In this game the tradition of the court has been set aside.Mr Kashikar the so called
socialist and the judge in the Living Law court shun his duty of the judge in order to give a testimony to the
court that once he overheard a conversation between Nanasaheb Shinde, a leader and Benare. And from
Shinde he came to know that Mrs.Benare wanted Education Society’s High School should drop an enquiry
against her.
Now the game is over and now the cat is really out of the bag.The game in the name of Visual
Enactment has brought Benare’s private life into public and her public life has also been privatized. Now the
free bird does not want to live”A small bottle is in Benare’s hand. Just as she is about to put it to her mouth,
Karnik dashes forward and strikes it away”
The real face of the trial comes out when the witnesses for the accused are announced and
deliberately the names of those persons who were missing were announced one after another. Professor
Damle, Nanasaheb Shinde and Mr.Rawte all were absent. The sentence is announced against Mrs.Benare that
she would be sacked from her job, the only source of income and she would live but “the child in your womb
shall be destroyed”.
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This is quite ironical that the trial started with the charge of ‘infanticide’ i.e abortion but when the
verdict came, we are shocked so as Benare that the child would be killed. The name of the drama troop is ‘The
Sonar Moti Tenement Progressive Association’s Mock Law’ but their mindset and thought is quite regressive.
This is quite a travesty of justice. This clearly focuses on the fact that how legal system which is a part of
civilized society commits injustice in the name of justice .There is no sentence for the intellectual Prof. Damle
who is in fact allowed to go scot free and it is he who is the main culprit. In an enchanting soliloquy she reveals
that she only knows about men who profess love but in fact, only hungry for the flesh. The soliloquy appears to
be self-justification than knowledge of self.
The game is quite apparent and the game ends by transforming us to the second level reality, which
remains hidden beneath the surfaced meaning. In regard to the present text the second level is the failure of
the civilized society in meting out justice to a lonely woman who is all self-made .As Huizinga states;
Whether in myth or the lyric, drama or epic, the legend of remote past or a modern novel, the
writer’s aim conscious or unconscious, is to create a tension that will enchant the reader and hold him
spell bound.
His theory is based on two realities, real life and a new reality (second level).
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As Derrida explains that the game and free play are always caught up in a tension because on the one hand,
the game has the appearance of an original system with its rules and guidelines, reflecting society. On the
other hand it differs; the way it differs is by means of substituting reality.
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To conclude in this play, the reader or spectator is not fixed on a particular meaning; rather the game
of the play provides the reader/spectator to decipher the totalizing theme or idea within the play. The
structure of the play and the open ending nature of the text offer us an opportunity to do away with the
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centre. The reader has the opportunity to freely play in the text and rejoice the multiplicity of the literary
game, meaning, and the connotations also hands over to us a tool to subvert the overt and implicit reality and
go deep into the sub-conscious strata of the text. In conclusion the game breaks with symmetry and causes
transformation and entropy in the textual space. The play offers us a scope for a practical application of Game
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theory.
WORKS CITED
1. Berne, Eric. Games People Play. The Basic Hand Book of Transactional Analysis. New York: Ballantine,
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1996.Print.
2. Brams, J. Stevenson. Game Theory and the Humanities: Bridging Two Worlds: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
2011.web.12 Feb.2016.
3. Brams, J. Stevenson. Game Theory and Literature. Department of Politics, New York University, New York,
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1994.32-54.Web.10 April.2016.
4. Derrida, Jacques. “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.” The Critical Tradition:
Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Editor David H. Richer. New York: St Martin P, 1989.959-971.Print.
5. .Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon p, 1955.web.15
Mar.2016.
6. Hutchinson, Peter. Games Authors Play. Methuen, London and New York, 1983. Web.10 April. 2016.
7. Ley, Herbert De. The Name of The Game: Applying Game Theory in Literature 17.55(1988): 33-
46.Jstor.Web.24 August.2010.
8. Panigrahi, P. Ramesh. Game As Text And Text As Game: Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session.
9. Tendulkar, Vijay. Silence! The Court is in Session. Oxford University Press, Delhi.
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Module 2
Active and passive voice, worksheets, rules, examples: You must have the
knowledge of active and passive sentences (What is a sentence?) as an English
learner. If you are a speaker of English then you may experience those situations
too where you have to use both the form of tenses i.e. active form and passive
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form. On the basic of form we have two types of voice, active voice and passive
voice given below.
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Active voice: In active sentences, the subject is active or the subject performs the
actions. For example: The cow (Subject) is eating (Verb) grass (Object).—
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Active Voice
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Passive voice: In passive sentences, the subject is no longer active or the subject is
acted upon by the verb(What is verb?). For example

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Grass (Subject) is being eaten (Verb) by the cow (Object).—Passive Voice
Active and passive voice with tenses

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Simple Present Tense
is,am,are+3rd verb
Active Voice Passive Voice
He lights the candle. The candle is lighted by him.
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He does not light the candle. The candle is not lighted by him.
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Do you eat meat? Is meat eaten by you?
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Present Continuous Tense

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is,am,are+being+3rd verb
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I am driving a car. A car is being driven by me.
I am not driving a car. A car is not being driven by me.

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Am I driving a car? Is a car being driven by me?
Present Perfect Tense
has,have+been+3rd verb
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She has stolen my book. My book has been stolen by her.
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She has not stolen my book. My book has not been stolen by her.
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Has she stolen my book? Has my book been stolen by her?

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Simple Past Tense

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was,were+3rd verb
She finished work. Work was finished by her.

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She did not finish work. Work was not finished by her.
Did she finish work? Was work finished by her?
Past Continuous Tense
was,were+being+3rd verb
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He was revising his books. His books were being revised by him.
LU
He was not revising his books. His books were not being revised by him.
PN
Was he revising his books? Were his books being revised by him?
H
Past Perfect Tense
had+been+3rd verb

ENGLISH-II
I had completed the assignment. The assignment had been completed by me.
I had not completed the assignment. The assignment had not been completed by me.
Had I completed the assignment? Had the assignment been completed by me?
Simple Future Tense
LA
will,shall+be+3rd verb
IM
SH
LU
My uncle will pay my tuition fee. My tuition fee will be paid by my uncle.
PN
My uncle will not pay my tuition fee. My tuition fee will not be paid by my uncle.
H
Will my uncle pay my tuition fee? Will my tuition fee be paid by my uncle?
Future Perfect Tense
will, shall+ have been+3rd verb

ENGLISH-II
We shall have done our home-work. Our home -work shall have been done by us.
Our home -work shall not have been done by

We shall not have done our home-work.
us.
LA
Shall We have done our home –work? Shall our home -work have been done by us?
IM
Note: In Present perfect continuous tense, Past perfect continuous tense, Future
SH
perfect continuous tense, Future perfect tense, we use the same sentence in passive
voice. It means these tense cannot be changed in passive form.

LU
Active and passive voice with modals (What is a Modal?)

PN
Auxiliary Verb
H
Modals Active Voice Passive Voice

in Passive Voice
I can solve these sums. These sums can be solved by me.

Can/ Can/Could+ be+
Could 3rdverb
I cannot solve these sums.
These sums cannot be solved by

ENGLISH-II
me.
Can I solve these sums? Can these sums be solved by me?
Has to/ Has to/ Have He has to complete his His assignment has to be
Have to to+3rdverb assignment. completed by him?
LA
Must Must+3rd verb You must learn this book. This book must be learnt by you.
May may+be+3rd verb I may buy the book.

IM The book may be bought by me.
SH
might+ be+
LU
Might They might play chess. Chess might be played by them.

rd
3 Verb
PN
should+ Students should learn all All lessons should be learnt by

Should
H
be+3rd verb lessons. students.
Active and passive voice with Imperative Sentences
These are the sentences in which we express our feeling and emotions like
command, order, advice, and request.

ENGLISH-II
Rules
1. Lets + new object + be/Not be +past participle or 3rd form.
2. For sentences containing, Request, advice and order, we will use you are
Requested to, advised to and ordered to.
Note: Always remove please and kind if they are given in the sentence.
LA
IM
SH
Shut the door. Let the door be shut.
LU
Post the letter at once. Let the letter be posted at once.

PN
Always speak the truth. Let the truth always be spoken.

H
Do not starve the cow. Let the cow not be starved.
Let him help his brother. Let his brother be helped by him.
Clean your room. Let your room be cleaned.

ENGLISH-II
Learn your lesson. Let your lesson be learnt.
Please do me a favor tonight You are requested to do me a favor tonight.
Get out of my house. You are ordered to get out of mu house.
You are requested not to smoke in public

Kindly do not smoke in public place.
LA
place
IM
To make passive voice, first of all you have to use following rules.
SH
1. Change the object into subject. If in object, we have a pronoun (What is a
LU
Pronoun?) of object case convert that by following rules.

PN
me I
H
You You
her She
them They

ENGLISH-II
us We
him He
it It
whom Who
LA
2. Change the subject into object. And use by before the object. If in subject, we
IM
have a pronoun of nominative case convert that by the following rules.
SH
I by me
LU
You by you
PN
She by her
H
They by them
We by us

ENGLISH-II
He by him
It by it
Who by whom
Some basic rules of active voice and voice are given below
LA
 First of all, find subject, object and the main verb it means find SVO.
 Convert the object into subject.

IM
SH
 Use the suitable helping verb or auxiliary verb according to the tense. If helping
verb is given, use verb as it is. But note that the helping verb used should be
LU
according to the object.
 Convert the verb into past participle or 3rd form of the verb.
PN
 Use the preposition (what is preposition?) “by”.

H
 Convert the subject into object.
Direct and indirect speech
If we want to say what other people said, thought or felt, we can use the direct or
indirect speech.

ENGLISH-II
The direct speech: "I like it," he said. "Irene is late," he thought. "I will pass the
exam," she hoped.
The indirect speech: He said he liked it. He thought that Irene was late. She hoped
she would pass the exam.
The indirect speech is typically introduced by verbs such as say, tell, admit,
complain, explain, remind, reply, think, hope, offer, and refuse in the past tense.
LA
He said (that) he didn't want it.
She explained that she had been at the seaside.

IM
SH
LU
If these verbs are in the past tense, we change the following:

PN
a) verb tenses and verb forms
b) pronouns
H
c) the adverbs of time and place
A) Verb tenses
We change the tenses in the following way:
Present - past

ENGLISH-II
"I never understand you," she told me. - She told me she never understood me.
"We are doing exercises," he explained. - He explained that they were doing
exercises.
Present perfect - past perfect
"I have broken the window," he admitted. - He admitted that he had broken the
window.
LA
"I have been waiting since the morning," he complained. - He complained that he
had been waiting since the morning.

IM
SH
Past - past perfect
LU
"She went to Rome," I thought. - I thought that she had gone to Rome.
PN
"He was thinking of buying a new car," she said. - She said he had been thinking of
buying a new car.

H
Will - conditional
Will changes into the conditional.
I will come on Sunday," he reminded me. - He reminded me that he would come
on Sunday.

ENGLISH-II
As you can see, both the past tense and the present perfect change into the past
perfect.
Notes
1. I shall, we shall usually become would.
LA
"I shall appreciate it," he said. - He said he would appreciate it.
2. I should, we should usually change into would.
IM
SH
"We should be really glad," she told us. - She told us they would be really glad.
3. May becomes might.

LU
"I may write to him," she promised. - She promised that she might write to him.
PN
H
The verb forms remain the same in the following cases:
If we use the past perfect tense.
Eva: "I had never seen him." - Eva claimed that she had never seen him.
If the reporting verb is in the present tense.
Bill: "I am enjoying my holiday." - Bill says he is enjoying his holiday.

ENGLISH-II
Sandy: "I will never go to work." - Sandy says she will never go to work.
When we report something that is still true.
Dan: "Asia is the largest continent." - Dan said Asia is the largest continent.
Emma: "People in Africa are starving." - Emma said people in Africa are starving.
When a sentence is made and reported at the same time and the fact is still true.
LA
Michael: "I am thirsty." - Michael said he is thirsty.
IM
With modal verbs would, might, could, should, ought to, used to.
SH
George: "I would try it." - George said he would try it.
Mimi: "I might come." - Mimi said she might come.

LU
Steve: "I could fail." - Steve said he could fail.

PN
Linda: "He should/ought to stay in bed." - Linda said he should/ought to stay in

H
bed.
Mel: "I used to have a car." - Mel said he used to have a car.
After wish, would rather, had better, it is time.
Margo: "I wish they were in Greece." - Margo said she wished they were in
Greece.

ENGLISH-II
Matt: "I would rather fly." - Matt said he would rather fly.
Betty: "They had better go." - Betty said they had better go.
Paul: "It is time I got up." - Paul said it was time he got up.
In if-clauses.
Martha: "If I tidied my room, my dad would be happy." - Martha said that if she
LA
tidied her room, her dad would be happy.
In time clauses.
IM
SH
Joe: "When I was staying in Madrid I met my best friend." - He said that when he
was staying in Madrid he met his best friend.

LU
We do not change the past tense in spoken English if it is clear from the situation
PN
when the action happened.
"She did it on Sunday," I said. - I said she did it on Sunday.

H
We must change it, however, in the following sentence, otherwise it will not be
clear whether we are talking about the present or past feelings.
"I hated her," he said. - He said he had hated her.

ENGLISH-II
We do not usually change the modal verbs must and needn't. But must can become
had to or would have to and needn't can become didn't have to or wouldn't have to
if we want to express an obligation.
Would/wouldn't have to are used to talk about future obligations.
"I must wash up." - He said he must wash up/he had to wash up.
"I needn't be at school today." - He said he needn't be/didn't have to be at school
LA
that day.
IM
"We must do it in June." - He said they would have to do it in June.
SH
If the modal verb must does not express obligation, we do not change it.
LU
"We must relax for a while." (suggestion) - He said they must relax for a while.
PN
"You must be tired after such a trip." (certainty) - He said we must be tired after
such a trip.
H
Articles—a, an, the
Is the noun general? If the noun is general, use “a” or “an.”
 A and an are indefinite articles and are used to indicate a single item.
 Take a pencil. (Take one pencil.)

ENGLISH-II
 I won a hundred dollars. (I won one hundred dollars.)
 Do not use a or an with a plural noun.
 Incorrect: “They talked about a good restaurants.”
 Correct, Unspecific reference: “They talked about a good restaurant to visit.”
 Correct, Specific reference: “The talked about the good Italian restaurant on
Main Street.”
 Use a as an unspecific reference before a consonant.
LA
 He likes to read a book. (She likes to read any book, not a specific one.)
IM
 That was a funny story. (That was one of many funny stories.)
SH
 Use a when the word following it starts with a consonant sound.
 a book, a hospital, a leg, a one-inch pipe, a youth

LU
 Use an as an unspecific reference before a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u).

PN
 an apple, an opera, an eagle, an idea, an SOS (the s here is an es sound)
 Words that begin with u or h can have either a vowel or a consonant sound.
H
Make the choice based on the sound of the first word after the article, even if
that word is not the noun.
 a union, a uniform (use a when the u sounds like the y in you)
 an unbelievable event, an umbrella, a unique umbrella
 an honor, an hour, an honest person
 a hotel, a history book, a historian

ENGLISH-II
 an historian, an historic event (NOTE: words like historic can take either a
or an)
 Use the as a specific reference to a common noun or something that is
one of a kind.
 Give me the book on the table. (identifies a specific book)
 The sun rose at seven o'clock. (identifies something that is one of a kind)
 Use a or an to introduce a noun the first time it is mentioned, and then
LA
the is used afterwards whenever the noun is mentioned.

IM
I bought a sandwich for lunch. I shared the sandwich with my friend.
SH
 The articles a, an, and the help your readers understand whether you’re using
a noun in an indefinite (general) or definite (specific) way.

LU
 Most proper nouns do not use an article. However, some do.

PN
 A proper noun names unique person, place, or thing (New York City, Walt
Disney, The United States of America)

H
 Correct: “I went to New York City.”
 Incorrect: “I went to the New York City.”
 An exception is the proper nouns with “of” as part of the name:
 the Fourth of July
 the University of Virginia
 the United States of America

ENGLISH-II
 the President of Mexico
 the Statue of Liberty
 Plural proper nouns use the:
 the Chicago Bulls
 the Johnsons
 the Blue Ridge Mountains
 A proper noun that names a group (a collective noun) also uses the:
LA
 the Commonwealth of Virginia
 the United Arab Emirates

IM
SH
 the Society of Friends
 Some geographical features use the:

LU
 the Gobi Desert

PN
 the Atlantic Ocean
 the Pyramids
H
 the Amazon
 But other geographical features do not use the:
 Lake Superior
 Albemarle County
 Route 29
 Mount Vesuvius

ENGLISH-II
Introduction
Article The articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are
difficult for many non-native speakers of
Usage
English to learn to use properly. Some
of the rules that govern article usage are
very subtle; only years of experience
with the language will enable you to
The Writing Center understand and apply these rules.
However, Table 3 will help you eliminate
At Rensselaer many errors in article usage from your
writing.
4508 Sage Lab
518/276-8983
In order to use Table 3, however, you
writingcenter@rpi.edu
have to understand two concepts:
www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter
countability and definiteness. These
LA
concepts are explained in detail below.
Developed by:
The last part of this handout, beginning
John Kohl
on page 7, discusses article usage with
Susan Katz
IM
proper nouns as well as the difference
between “a” and “an.” At the very end of
the handout is an exercise that you can
SH
do to test your understanding.
LU
PN
H
Revised 05/02, Page 1

ENGLISH-II
Countability
Countable nouns refer to people, places, or things that can be counted (one dollar/two
dollars, one house/two houses). They can always be made plural—usually by adding -s
or some other variation of the plural ending (students, countries, children). A few words
are the same in both the singular and plural forms (deer, sheep).
Uncountable nouns often refer to food, beverages, substances, or abstractions (meat,

tea, steel, information); some uncountable nouns (but not the abstract ones) can be
made countable by adding a count frame in front of them (two gallons of milk, six
blocks of ice, a bar of soap, a bunch of celery).
Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut distinction between countable and uncountable

nouns. Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable even without adding count
LA
frames. For example, as an uncountable noun, “experience” refers to abstract
knowledge or skill that can be gained by observing or participating in events. As a
singular or plural countable noun (“experience/experiences”), it refers to a particular
IM
instance (or instances) of participation in events. Similarly, the uncountable noun “glass”
is a substance made from silicates; “a glass” (singular) is something you drink out of;
SH
and “glasses” (plural) are frames containing lenses that correct imperfect vision.
There are other exceptions to the countable/uncountable distinction as well. Moreover,

a noun that is countable in your native language may be uncountable in English, and
LU
vice-versa. For example, “soap” is countable in Spanish but uncountable in English.

However, as long as you are aware of these differences, they probably won't cause you
much difficulty.
PN
Learning Hint #1: The best thing to do is to memorize some of the most frequently
occurring uncountable nouns (shown in Table 1), and to look up other nouns in a
H
dictionary if you are not sure whether they are countable or uncountable. If your
dictionary does not indicate whether nouns are countable or uncountable, then you
should consult another dictionary, such as The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. This
dictionary is available for you to use at the Writing Center.
In the Oxford dictionary, nouns are countable unless they are designated by the letter
[u]. If a noun can be either countable or uncountable (with different definitions, as in the
examples given above), then the uncountable definitions are preceded by [u], and the
countable definitions are preceded by [c], as in the following example.

ENGLISH-II
ad.ven.ture n 1 [c] a strange or unusual happening (The explorer told the boys about
his adventure in the Artic). 2 [u] risk; danger (Robin Hood lives a life of adventure.)
Table 1: Some Common Uncountable English Nouns
Food and drink: bacon, beef, beer, bread, broccoli, butter, cabbage, candy,
cauliflower, celery, cereal, cheese, chicken, chocolate, coffee, corn, cream, fish, flour,
fruit, ice cream, lettuce, meat, milk, oil, pasta, rice, salt, spinach, sugar, tea, water,
wine, yogurt
Nonfood substances: air, cement, coal, dirt, gasoline, gold, ice, leather, paper,
petroleum, plastic, rain, rubber, silver, snow, soap, steel, wood, wool
Abstract nouns: advice, anger, beauty, confidence, courage, employment, fun,

happiness, health, honesty, information, intelligence, knowledge, love, poverty,
LA
satisfaction, truth, wealth
Others: biology (and other areas of study), clothing, equipment, furniture,
IM
homework, jewelry, luggage, lumber, machinery, mail, money, news, poetry,
pollution, research, scenery, traffic, transportation, violence, weather, work
SH
Definiteness
A noun is definite if it refers to something specific that is known to both the
LU
writer/speaker and the reader/listener. (Note: You should memorize this definition!) For
example, if Jane needs to drive somewhere, she might ask her father, “May I use the
car?” She uses the definite article “the” because both she and her father know which
PN
car Jane is referring to (the family car). But later she might say to her friend Bill, “I saw
a funny-looking dog today.” She uses the indefinite article “a” because she knows
which dog she saw, but Bill doesn't.
H
Table 2 illustrates that there are four possible conditions involved in this decision, but
only one results in a noun that is definite.
Table 2: Matrix of Definiteness/Indefiniteness*
Knows specifically what is being referred to?

Writer/speaker Reader/listener
definite: Can I use the car? Yes Yes
indefinite: I saw a funny-looking dog today. Yes No
indefinite: I heard that you once wrote a No Yes
book about ecology.
indefinite: I need to buy a new belt. No No
* adapted
FOR PRIVATEfrom Brown, R. AONLY
CIRCULATION First Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973.
HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.112
ENGLISH-II
Five Sources of Definiteness

There are five principal ways in which a reader/listener can know specifically what a
noun is referring to (that is, five reasons a noun might be considered definite):
1. The noun has been previously mentioned.
I saw a funny-looking dog yesterday [first mention, indefinite]. It looked like a

cross between a Pekinese and a German shepherd. When it saw my cat, the
dog ran away [second mention, definite].
2. A superlative or ranking adjective makes the noun's identity specific.
The tallest girl in the class is 6’2” tall. [There can be only one girl who is the
LA
tallest.]
Please read the fourth paragraph on page 3. [There can be only one fourth
paragraph.]
IM
Today is the most important day of my life. [There can be only one day that is
SH
the most important.]
3. The noun describes a unique person, place, or thing.

LU
The earth revolves around the sun once every 365 days. [There is only one
earth and only one sun--in our solar system, that is!]
PN
4. A modifying word, phrase, or clause follows the noun and makes it clear which
specific person or thing you are referring to. But not every noun that is
modified in this way is definite; it depends largely on the situation and on what
H
you can reasonably expect your listener/reader to know about.
Do you remember the girl who went camping with us?

[Using the here implies that there was only one girl who went camping with
you; otherwise the clause who went camping with us would not be sufficient to
identify the particular girl that you are referring to. If there were two girls, then
you would have to be more specific, saying perhaps “Do you remember the girl
from Iowa who went camping with us last May?”]
John is reading a book about quantum physics.

[Here the noun book is modified by the phrase about quantum physics. But
there is undoubtedly more than one book about quantum physics. Therefore,

ENGLISH-II
to make book definite, we would have to add more information: the book about
quantum physics that was assigned by Professor Jackson last week.]
5. The context or situation makes the noun’s identity clear. For example, you
might ask someone to “Close the door.” You would use the because it would
undoubtedly be clear to both of you which door you were referring to. Similarly,
if you tell someone that you are going to the library, that person will assume
that you are talking about whichever library is most familiar to both of you—
RPI's Folsom Library, for example.
Again, you have to be sure that your reader or listener has the same context or situation
in mind that you are thinking of; otherwise, he or she will be confused by your use of
the. For example, one student wrote the following sentence.
LA
This magazine helps women analyze the problematic situation and offers
possible remedies.
IM
But this was the first time she had mentioned a problematic situation. Her readers were
SH
therefore confused, because her use of the word the implied that they were already
supposed to know which problematic situation she was referring to.
Choosing the Appropriate Article

LU
In order to choose the appropriate article for a noun, you first need to decide whether
the noun is singular. One way to determine this is to ask yourself whether you could put
the number “one” in front of it. For example, you can say “one experiment,” but not “one
PN
knowledge” or “one examples;” therefore, “experiment” is singular, whereas

“knowledge” is uncountable and “examples” is plural.
H
Table 3 shows that if the noun is singular, you must use either “the” or “a”/”an” in front
of the noun, depending on whether it is definite (known to both yourself and your
readers) or not.
If the noun is not singular, then it must be either plural or uncountable. Table 3 shows
that article usage is the same for both plural and uncountable nouns: you will use either
“the” or “0” (no article) in front of the noun. Again, the final decision depends on
whether the noun is definite or not.

ENGLISH-II
Table 3: Choosing the Appropriate Article
Singular Nouns (one of something that is countable)

Is the noun definite?
Yes: Use “the”
The painting in the living room was given to me by an old friend.
“Painting” and “living room” are singular because we are referring to only one painting and one living room. “Painting”
is definite because the following phrase, in the living room, makes it clear which painting we are referring to (reason
4, above). (However, it could be indefinite if there is more than one painting in the living room that the speaker could
be referring to; in that case, the speaker would say “A painting....”). “Living room” is definite because it is clear from
the context of the situation that the speaker is referring to the living room closest to where he and the listener are
standing (reason 5, above).
LA
No: Use “a” or “an”
Eugene’s lunch consisted of a sandwich, two cookies, and a can of soda.
IM
“Sandwich” and “can” are both singular (there is only one of each). They could be definite if the listener/reader had
seen Eugene's sandwich and can of soda, or if they had been mentioned before. However, the speaker/writer's
SH
choice of the indefinite article “a” for both nouns tells us that they are unknown to the listener/reader.
Plural or Uncountable Nouns

Is the noun definite?
LU
Yes: Use “the”

The technical reports that I gave you are top secret. (plural and definite)
“Reports” is plural (ends in -s) because we are talking about more than one report. It is definite because the following
PN
phrase, that I gave you, makes it clear to the reader/listener which reports you are referring to (reason 4, above).
The wool that is produced in Scotland is used to make sweaters. (uncountable and definite)
H
“Wool” is uncountable (you cannot say “one wool”). It is definite because the following clause, that is produced in
Scotland, makes it clear which wool you are referring to (reason 4, above).
No: Use 0 (no article)

Long reports are difficult to write. (plural and indefinite)
“Reports” is plural (note that it ends in -s). The lack of an article in front of it means that the speaker/writer is talking
not about particular reports that are known to the listener/reader, but about all long reports in general.
Scotland's major exports are wool and oil. (uncountable and indefinite)
“Wool” and “oil” are both uncountable nouns (you cannot say “one wool” or “one oil” in this context). They
are indefinite because they refer to these two substances in general, not to particular shipments of wool
and oil that are known to the reader/listener.

ENGLISH-II
Learning Hint #2: One of the most common mistakes that non-native speakers make
with articles is using “a” or “an” with plural or uncountable nouns (a students and a
research would be incorrect). But consider that the articles “a” and “an” are derived
from the word “one.” Thus, it is illogical to use “a” or “an” with a plural noun, isn't it?
It is also illogical to use “a” or “an” with an uncountable noun--After all, how can you
have “one” of something that is uncountable?
An easy way to eliminate a lot of mistakes is to look through your writing for every
occurrence of “a” and “an.” Then examine the noun that follows each “a” or “an.” If the
noun is either plural or uncountable, then you have made a mistake, and you should
refer to Table 3 to determine whether to use “the” or “0” instead.
LA
Learning Hint #3: Often mistakes occur not because a writer has used the wrong article
(e.g., “a” or “an” instead of “the”), but because the writer has used no article at all for a
singular noun. Notice in Table 3 that every singular noun must have an article in front
of it.
IM
SH
Learning Hint #4: Notice that every definite noun takes the article “the,” regardless of
whether it is singular, plural, or uncountable. Therefore, if you cannot decide whether a
noun is singular, plural, or uncountable, go on to the next step and ask yourself whether
LU
it is definite (known to both the writer/speaker and the reader/listener) or not. If it is

definite, then use “the.”
PN
Using Articles With Proper Nouns

So far we have been talking only about using articles with common nouns. The rules for
H
proper nouns are more complex.
Proper nouns are names of particular people, places, and things (John F. Kennedy,
New York City, Notre Dame Cathedral), and for that reason they are inherently definite.
Nevertheless, the definite article is not used with most singular proper nouns. For
example, if you are referring to your friend George, you wouldn't say “The George and I
went to a movie last night.” The only times “the” is used with a name like this are: a)
when you want to be emphatic, as in “the Elizabeth Taylor” (to emphasize that you are
talking about the famous actress, and not about another woman with the same name),
and b) when you are actually using the name as a common noun, as in “the George that
I introduced you to last night” (the real meaning of this phrase is the man named

ENGLISH-II
George...”). Plural names, on the other hand, are always preceded by “the”: the
Johnsons, the Bahamas, etc.
Singular geographical names are very irregular with respect to article usage. For
example, singular names of continents (Asia, Africa), mountains (Mount Fuji), and bays
(San Francisco Bay) do not take the article “the,” but regions (the Crimea), deserts (the
Sahara), and other geographical entities do.
Indeed, the use of articles with singular proper nouns is complex and hence difficult to
learn, as indicated by the examples below. For this reason, the best thing to do is to
memorize whether the proper nouns that you use frequently are used with or without
“the.”
LA
Examples:
State Street
the Empire State Building
IM
Delaware County
Great Britain
SH
the Soviet Union
the University of Virginia
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
the United Nations (the U.N.)
LU
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (but “OPEC,” not “the

OPEC”)
PN
“A” Versus “An”

This last topic is undoubtedly the easiest, because most non-native speakers already
know about the difference between “a” and “an.” They are simply two variations of the
H
indefinite article. “A” is used before words that begin with consonant sounds (a rock, a
large park) and “an” is used before vowel sounds (an interesting subject, an apple).
However, note that the choice of “a” or “an” depends on pronunciation, not spelling.
Many words that begin with the vowel -u- are preceded by “a” instead of “an” because
the -u- spelling is often pronounce -yu-, as in useful (“a useful idea”), and uranium (“a
uranium isotope”). In addition, in a few words that were borrowed from French, the
initial consonant -h- is not pronounced: an heir to the throne, an hour-long lecture, an
honorable agreement, etc.

ENGLISH-II
A Strategy For Success

Keep in mind that native speakers of English seldom use articles incorrectly; therefore,
any errors that you make are very noticeable and distracting to them. That is why you
should make an effort to use articles correctly.
Study this handout – particularly the “Five Sources of Definiteness,” Table 3, and the
learning hints. Memorize the definition of definiteness (“known to both the
writer/speaker and the reader/listener”). Then try the Exercise toward the end of this
handout; the correct answers are provided on the following page so that you can check
your work.
In the future, whenever you write in English, you will need to proofread your writing
carefully and to apply the rules for article usage very deliberately. Then come to the
LA
Writing Center and ask a tutor specifically to correct any remaining errors in your article
usage. With practice, you can learn to use articles correctly!
IM
References
SH
Brown, Roger. A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1973. (Folsom library P136 .B7)
Celce-Murcia, Marianne, and Larsen-Freeman, Diane. The Grammar Book: An

LU
ESL/EFL Teacher's Course. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1983. 171-202.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook for Writers. Boston: St. Martin's, 1991. 312-17.
PN
(Available at the Writing Center)
Hornby, A.S. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English. 3rd ed.
H
London: Oxford U P, 1974. (Available at the Writing Center)
Master, Peter A. “Teaching the English Article to Foreign Technical Writing Students.”
The Technical Writing Teacher 13.3 (1986): 203-10. (Folsom library reserve 808
.T49)
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. A

Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. New York: Longman, 1985.
(Folsom library PE1106 .C65 1985)


ENGLISH-II
Preposition Chart
Preposition How It’s Used Example
Showing Time
At exact times pm

at 3
meal times inner

at d
parts of the day at s

undown
age ge 21
at a
By a limit in time by s
undown
LA
in the sense of
at the latest by t
he due date
IM
In seasons in
the summer
months ovember
in N
SH
years in
1992
durations in t
he same year
LU
after a certain period of time n hour

in a
On days of the week ednesday

on W
PN
parts of the day where the riday night

on F
day is named
H
dates ecember 4th

on D
Ago a certain time in the past 2 years

ago
After a point in time that follows after after t

the game; he
another point in time surgery
Before a point in time that precedes before l

eaving;
before
another point in time before
breakfast; 2004
During something that during

the night;
during
happened/will happen in a war
specific period of time
For over a certain period in the for

years
2

CWAC: Center for Writing Across the Curriculum
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Summer 2015
Page No.119

ENGLISH-II
Preposition Chart
past
Past telling the time past

ten six (6:10)
Since from a certain period of time since1980;

since
the
accident
Throughout something that throughout t

he year;
happened/will happen throughout
the ordeal
continuously in a specific
period of time
To telling time to
ten six (5:50)
LA
from an earlier time to a to
1pm 3pm
later time
Until up to a certain point in time until until

the end; sunrise
IM
how long something is going
to last
SH
Up (to) from an earlier point to a up (to)
now
later point
Showing Place
LU
At an object’s settled position or at t

the airport; a the
position after it has moved ceremony
PN
meeting place or location at at

home; the desk
point of direction at

turning the intersection
H
a target throwing the snowball

at
Lucy
By close to by
the school
alongside of by
the window
In in an enclosed space in

the garage;
in
an envelope
in a geographic location in in

San Diego; Texas
in a print medium in in

a book; a magazine

Page No.120

ENGLISH-II
Preposition Chart
On for a certain side on

the left
for a river/lake on
London lies the Thames
for a floor in a house on

the floor
for public transport on

a bus
for television, radio on on

the air; TV
About around or outside of about

town
at but not exactly on about

five feet tall
LA
related to about
my father’s business
Above suspended higher than above

the door
IM
something else
superior to above
me in rank
SH
After pursuit after
chasing the robbers
a point further from an after

the corner the big
earlier point house
LU
Against leaning on against

the door
PN
opposite to or facing against

the wall
Along tracing the length of, without along the hallway;

along
emphasis on the ends the river
H
Among in the company of (three or among

friends
more)
among
the masses
in a crowd
among
other things
the end of a long list
Around location of something around

drive the block
explaining a period of time around

3 o’clock
Before in the front in terms of space before

the emperor;
before
God

Page No.121

ENGLISH-II
Preposition Chart
Behind on the back side of a point in behind behind

the car; her
space smile
Below something lower than or below the stairs;

below
underneath something else expectations
From in the sense of

where from flower f
a rom the garden
Into enter a room/building into

go t
he kitchen/house
Onto movement to the top of onto

jump the table
something
Over covered by something else over

put a jacket your shirt
LA
“more than” over

16 years of age
“getting to the other side” over t

walk he bridge
overcoming an obstacle
IM over
climb the wall
SH
Through something with limits on through
drive the tunnel
top, bottom and the sides
Towards movement in the direction of towards

go 5 steps t
he house
something (but not directly
LU
to it)
Other Important
PN
Prepositions
About for topics, meaning

what about
we were talking
you
about
H
At For
age she learned Russian 5
at 4
By who made it a book ark Twain

by M
rise or fall of something prices have risen 1

by0
percent
travelling (other than
walking or horseriding) by
car,
us
by b
From who gave it from

a present ane
J
In entering a car/taxi in t
get he car
Of who/what did it belong to of

a page the book

Page No.122

ENGLISH-II
Preposition Chart
what does it show of

the picture a place
Off leaving a public transport off

get the train
vehicle
On walking or riding on on

f n
oot,
o horseback
horseback
on
get
the bus
entering a public transport
vehicle
Out of leaving a car/taxi out

get
of the taxi

LA

For more information on using prepositions, see the following resources:
Beason, Larry and Mark Lester. A Commonsense Guide to Grammar and Usage , 6th ed.
Johnston, Ted and Joe Old.

IM
Understanding and Using English Grammar
Azar, Betty S. and Stacy A. Hagen.
English Beyond the Basics
, 2nd ed.
, 4th ed.
SH
LU
PN
H

Page No.123
ENGLISH-II
GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS

Using Prepositions
A preposition may be defined as a connecting word showing the relationship between a noun or a
noun substitute to another word or combination of words in a sentence, for example, “The young
man in the first row is an excellent student.” In this sentence, the preposition “in” shows the
relationship between a noun (“the young man”) and a combination of words that illustrate
location (“the first row”).
The most commonly used prepositions include the following: in, with, to, from, at, of, by, for,
and on.
Prepositions cause problems for several reasons: sometimes they can be used interchangeably
(“He sat on the chair.”/“He sat in the chair.”); prepositions are often combined with verbs to
LA
create phrasal verbs (to look after someone/to look down on someone); and because a single
preposition can be used to express several different ideas (“He is tall for his age.”/“I swam for
an hour.”).
IM
The most efficient method of study is to familiarize yourself with prepositions and prepositional
phrases through practice and memorization. This is particularly helpful for bilingual students,
who often seem to find preposition usage one of the most difficult parts of the English language.
SH
USING PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions are used to express a number of relationships, including time, location (place or
direction), means or agent, manner, state or condition, quantity or measure, and purpose or
LU
reason.
Time
PN
about: about noon (approximately) in: in April

after: after the game in 1987
H
after lunch in six months (at the end of)

after three in time (early enough)
at: at five o’clock on: on Tuesday (day of the
week)
at last (finally) on May 8 (date)
by: by midnight (no later than) on time (punctual)
for: for an hour (duration) past: a quarter past three (15
minutes after)
in: in the morning to: a quarter to three (15 minutes
in the fall before)
Dr. Murray and Anna C. Rockowitz Writing Center, Hunter College, City University of New York

ENGLISH-II
Place or Direction
around: She walked around the car. inside: Put it inside the house.
at: They are at home. of: We moved south of Montreal.
We were at the restaurant.
He smiled at her. on: We sat on the ocean pier.
She looked at the menu. She left on the train.
down: They lived down the hall. through: They drove through the tunnel.
The cat walked down the stairs.
from: We immigrated from Peru in 1991. to: He went to Prague.
The restaurant is one mile from here. Give it to me.
in: He lives in a trailer. up: He walked up the stairs.
We waited in the bus. with: He went with me.
Means or Agent
LA
by: He was hit by a ball. from: His success results from
She came by train. careful planning.
IM
It came by special delivery. on: They live on bread and water.
He got there by swimming. with: He chased the mongoose with
a stick.
SH
Manner
by: By doing it yourself, you save time. like: He looks like a hero.
LU
in: He left in confusion. on: I swear it on my word of honor.

The room was in turmoil. with: He ate it with a fork.
You can do it in a day.
PN
State or Condition
as: I see her as a good person. for: I mistook you for someone else.
H
at: My friend is at work. in: He is in a state of confusion.

She is at home. on: He is on duty. (scheduled to work)
by: They are by themselves. (alone)
Quantity or Measure
by: We bought them by the kilo. for: We drove for twenty miles.
We bought it for ten cents.
Purpose or Reason
for: He bought it for an emergency
She went to the city for sightseeing.
He loved her for her thoughtfulness.

ENGLISH-II
USING PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and includes the object of the preposition (a
noun, pronoun, or other word group) and its modifiers (in the park, on the table, under the desk,
after the storm, with the group).
The president of the company reflected on the growth of domestic and global assets and
the potential for continued success in the upcoming fiscal year.
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase “of the company” begins with the preposition “of” and
includes the object of the preposition “company” and the modifier “the”; other prepositional
phrases are “on the growth,” “of domestic and global assets,” “for continued success,” and “in
the upcoming fiscal year.” Prepositions that indicate time and location and usually appear as part
of a prepositional phrase are often the most problematic to use correctly, especially the
prepositions on, in, at, and by, as illustrated below:
LA
Prepositional Phrases that Show Time
IM
on on a specific day (on Wednesday) or date (on June 20)
in in a part of a particular day (in the evening), a specific month (in June), a
specific year (in 1965), or a specific period of time (in two hours)
SH
at at a particular time (at 6:30, at midnight)
by by a particular time (by the end of next week)
Prepositional Phrases that Show Location

LU
on on a surface (on the desk), a specific street (on Seventh Avenue), or an

electronic medium (on the Internet)
PN
in in a particular space (in the apartment), a geographic location (in New

York City), or a print medium (in the newspaper)
at at a particular place (at the store) or location (at the center)
by by a familiar place (by the house)
H
USING ADJECTIVE AND VERB + PREPOSITION COMBINATIONS

Many adjectives and verbs can be combined with prepositions to appear together in idiomatic
phrases.
Adjective + Preposition Combination

He was angry with his brother-in-law. (the adjective “angry” is used with the
preposition “with”)
Verb + Preposition Combination

He forgot about the appointment. (the verb “forgot” is used with the preposition
“about”)

ENGLISH-II
Common Adjective + Preposition Combinations

according to dependent on / upon involved in / with
accustomed to different from / than known as / for
addicted to disappointed in limited to
angry about (something) due to made of / from
angry at (someone) engaged to married to
angry with (someone) excited about opposed to
ashamed of familiar with preferable to
aware of followed by proud of
based on fond of related to
capable of full of responsible for
committed to guilty of resulting from
composed of have respect for satisfied with
concerned about / with in accordance with scared of
LA
connected to independent of / from similar to
content with in regard to tired of
dedicated to interested in worried about
Sample Verb + Preposition Combinations IM

SH
account for consist of object to
agree on (something) convince (someone) of participate in
agree with (someone) (something) plan on provide for
apologize to count on provide with
LU
apply for / to decide on / upon recover from

approve of depend on / upon remind (someone) of rely on
argue with (someone) disagree with reply to
PN
arrive at / in dream about / of respond to

ask for feel like result in
believe in forget about search for
belong to get rid of see about
H
blame (someone) for (something) happen to speak to / with

blame (something) on (someone) hear about / from / of stare at
borrow from hope for substitute for
call on / upon insist on / upon succeed at / in
care about / for invite (someone) to talk about / of
compare to / with laugh at talk of
compliment (someone) on listen for / to think about
come from look at think of
concentrate on look for wait for / on
consent to look forward to

ENGLISH-II
Module 3
Reading Strategy
To understand and to learn reading skills, one must be aquainted with
the four main types of reading techniques are the following:
Skimming
LA
Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading. Skimming may help in order to
IM
know what the text is about at its most basic level. You might typically do this with
a magazine or newspaper and would help you mentally and quickly shortlist those
SH
articles which you might consider for a deeper read.
LU
Scanning
Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentence and is used
PN
to get just a simple piece of information. Interestingly, research has concluded that
H
reading off a computer screen actually inhibits the pathways to effective scanning
and thus, reading of paper is far more conducive to speedy comprehension of texts.
Intensive Reading
This type of reading has indeed beneficial to language learners as it helps them
understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context. It moreover,

ENGLISH-II
helps with retention of information for long periods of time and knowledge
resulting from intensive reading persists in your long term memory.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading involves reading for pleasure. Because there is an element of
enjoyment in extensive reading it is unlikely that students will undertake extensive
reading of a text they do not like. It also requires a fluid decoding and assimilation
LA
of the text and content in front of you. If the text is difficult and you stop every few
IM
minutes to figure out what is being said or to look up new words in the dictionary,
SH
you are breaking your concentration and diverting your thoughts.
LU
Unseen Passage:
PN
Nationalism, of course, is a curious phenomenon which at a certain stage in a

H
country's history gives life, growth and unity but, at the same time, it has a
tendency to limit one, because one thinks of one's country as something different
from the rest of world. One's perceptive changes and one is continuously thinking
of one's own struggles and virtues and failing to the exclusion of other thoughts.
The result is that the same nationalism which is the symbol of growth for a people
becomes a symbol of the cessation of that growth in mind. Nationalism, when it

ENGLISH-II
becomes successful sometimes goes on spreading in an aggressive way and
becomes a danger internationally. Whatever line of thought you follow, you arrive
at the conclusion that some kind of balance must be found. Otherwise something
that was good can turn into evil. Culture, which is essentially good become not
only static but aggressive and something that breeds conflict and hatred when
looked at from a wrong point of view. How are you find a balance, I don't know.
Apart from the political and economic problems of the age , perhaps, that is the
LA
greatest problem today because behind it there is tremendous search for something
IM
which it cannot found. We turn to economic theories because they have an
SH
undoubted importance. It is folly to talk of culture or even of god. When human
beings starve and die. Before one can talk about anything else one must provide the
LU
normal essentials of life to human beings. That is where economies comes in.
Human beings today are not in mood to tolerate this suffering and starvation and
PN
inequality when they see that the burden is not equally shared. Others profit while
H
they only bear the burden.
1. The greatest problem in the middle of the passage refers to the question
A.how to mitigate hardship to human beings B.how to contain the dangers of
aggressive nationalism. C.how to share the economic burden equallyD. how
to curb international hatred

ENGLISH-II
Ans: B
2. Negative national feeling can make a nation
A. selfishB. self-centredC. indifferentD. dangerous
ANS: B
3. Suitable title for this passage can be
LA
A. Nationalism breeds unityB. Nationalism - a road to world unityC.
Nationalism is not enoughD.

IM
Nationalism and national problems
SH
Ans:C
LU
4. 'Others' in the last sentence refers to

PN
A.other peopleB. other nationsC. other communitiesD. other neighbours

H
Ans:A
5. Aggressive nationalism
A. breeds threat to international relationsB. Leads to stunted growthC.
Endangers national unityD. Isolates a country
Ans:D

ENGLISH-II
NOTES ON ENGLISH
PHONETICS
(Introductory - Corrective Course)
/6
LA
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R S T
IM
SH
U V WX Y Z
LU
PN
H
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION

HPNLUONLY
SHIMLA Page No.132
ENGLISH-II
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics which deals with the investigation of the sound
means of the language from the point of view o f their articulation, acoustic qualities and
semantics.
The phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit which is capable of differentiating the
meaning and the grammar forms o f words.
Phonemes are elements o f the language. The number of them is quite definite for every
separate language. In British English there are 44 phonemes, 20 vowel phonemes and 24
consonant ones. In speech they manifest themselves in form of phonemic variants or
allop hones.
The allophone is a material representation o f the phoneme in speech. They appear in
connected speech as a result of assimilation or reduction, or due to individual speech habits.
The number o f allophones in a language is unlimited.
Phonetic transcription and its types
Phonetic transcription is a sort of phonetic alphabet, a system of symbols in which
every phoneme is supposed to have its own symbol. It helps in learning a foreign language.
It is possible to speak about three types of phonetic transcription.
1. The International phonetic transcription. It was introduced by the International
LA
Phonetic Association in 1887. But the science of phonetics has been considerably developed
since then. And drawbacks of that system are quite evident; it suggests the same symbols
IM
for different phonemes: [i: - i], [); -o], [ u: - u ], [d'-ifcl, which gives the wrong impression
that those phonemes differ only in duration ( length).
2. The phonemic transcription (broad). In phonemic transcription every phoneme is
SH
given an individual symbol, the number of which is 44 (according to the number of
phonemes in British English). It introduces four more symbols: 111 for | i J, /1/7 for [If], It)I
for [j)]> /A-7 for jT:]. Words and sentences transcribed with the help of this phonetic script are
LU
placed between the slanting brackets, e.g. /pa:t/. This type of transcription is used in
studying English as a speciality.
3 . The allophonic transcription (narrow). In this type of transcription every
PN
allophone has either a special symbol or a diacritical mark. It is used in doing research work
in the field o f phonetics.
The English Vowel System
H
The vowel is a speech sound in the production of which the air stream coming out of
the lungs meets no obstruction on its way.
The English vowel system consists of 2« vowel phonemes. According to the stability
o f articulation we distinguish 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs.
According to the duration w e distinguish long and short vowel phonemes.
The monophthong is a vowel in the The diphthong is a monophonemic combination
production of which the organs of of two vo.wel elements with gliding articulation.
speech do not change their position The first stressed element is called the nucleus,
throughout the whole duration of the the second one is called the glide. According !o
vowel. the type of glide they are grouped into:
/B /, /01':/, /W/ / U l / j /31/ / 1 / gliding diphthongs, ? d l / / € 1 / / / 0 1 /
IVI gliding diphthongs, / g / j / / 2 / j /
/ D // A /v/t /de/,/1 / W gliding diphthongs, / £ / / / l/ a /
/ 6 /” / Q /

HPNLUONLY
SHIMLA Page No.133
ENGLISH-II
Vowels in Four Types of Syllables
Letters The first The second The third The fourth

syllable type syllable type syllable type syllable type
(open) (closed) (vowel + r) (vowel + re)
A
fate /7 C
e'Ji // fat /W far /a / fare A a /
mate mat car care '
O note . not . more / i 1/
sofa doctor U/ r / * A before /
E theme , ■ met . mercy /? r
here / r a /
Peter ' 1' / pen / her / 5 '/ serious
U tube / jU:/ CUP / / turn , _
summer '' Thursday
pure
7 cure
/IT 0 ;/
blue ' /u /
I fin ,, ,
fine
time // 40 - 1
1 // girl A '/
pin ' ■/ fir / J '/ IId /dJ3/
LA
Y myth ,
type / i- myrtle A y /d J » /
my / cif/ system ' 1 1
Graphical Rules
IM
SH
III
is represented in spelling by:
1. the letters “i, y” in closed stressed syllables - myth, syllable, sit, window.
2. the letters “y, ey” in unstressed syllables - money, trolley, city, baby
LU
3. the letters “ai, ay” in unstressed syllables - holiday, portrait, fountain, mountain
4 . tire letter “e” in prefixes - begin, decide.
Rare spellings: busy, build, biscuit, foreign, women.
PN
/ i: /
H

1. the letter “e” in open and historically open syllables - be, he, meter, these, theme.
2. the letters “ee” - meet, see, feel, tree.
“ea” - meat, sea, peace.
“ie” - piece, field, believe.
“ei” - ceiling, receive.
Rare spelling: people, key, breathe, wreath.

1. the letter” a” in closed syllables - lad, glad.
Note: A number o f disyllabic & trisyllabic words with the letter “a” in an open
syllable fall under this rule - palate, family, cavity.

HPNLUONLY
SHIMLA Page No.134
ENGLISH-II
le i
1. the letter “e” in closed syllables - bet, better.
2. the digraph “ea” before “d” - bread, head.
“th” - breath, weather.
Irregular readings: friend, deaf, heavy, measure, pleasure, pleasant, health, wealth,
meant, weapon, breakfast, sweat, sweater.
Rare spellings: any, many, bury, says, said.
/a/
1. the letter “a” in prefixes and articles - about, asleep, a big city
2. the suffixes “er” - teacher
“or” - doctor
“ar” - collar
“our” - neighbour
LA
“ous” - famous
3 . the letters “a, o, u” in unstressed syllables (hard reduction) - sofa, autumn, atom.
It>l
IM
SH
1. the letter “o” in closed stressed syllables - not, office, hot.
2. the digraph”wa” - was, want, except “ water”
3 . the letter combination “qua” - quality, quantity.
Rare spelling: because, cough, knowledge, sausage.
LU
IA /
PN
1. the letter “ u” in closed stressed syllables - hurry, uncle, consult.

2. the letter “o” followed by “m” - come, some
“n” - son, ton
H
“v” - love, glove, oven

“th” - mother, other.
3 . the digraph “ou” followed by “gh” - enough, tough
“bl(e)” - trouble, double & *■
“pl(e)” - couple
Remember: “ou” + other consonants - country, touch, courage, young, cousin,
Southern.
Rare and irregular spellings: blood, flood, worry.
IUI
1. the digraph “oo” followed by “k” - book, look.
2. the letter “u” after ”p, b, f ’ - pull, bull, full.
Exception: but, bus, butter, pulse, fun.

HPNLUONLY
SHIMLA Page No.135
ENGLISH-II
Rare spelling: could, should, would, bouquet, women, bosom, wolf.
Irregular spellings: good, food, wood, stood.
/sr/
1. the letter “a” in open stressed syllables - take, make.
2. the letters “ai” and “ay” in stressed position - main, plain, may, play.
3 . the letters “ei” and “ey” - vein, neighbour, grey, they.
4 . the letter “a” followed by “nge” and “ste” - range, change, haste, paste.
Irregular reading: key, height
tan
1. the letters “i, y” in open stressed syllables - tie, pie, try, final.
2. the digraph “igh” followed by “t” - light, night.
3 . the letter “i” followed by “id”- child, wild.
LA
“nd” - kind, blind.
Irregular readings: wind
Irregular spelling: either, neither. IM
1011
SH
1. the digraphs “ ol” boil, oil, join, poison
“ oy” loy, joy, employment.
LU
13 VI
is represented in spoiling by:
PN
1. the letter ”o” in upon syllables - go, home, moment.

2. the letter “ <>” followed by “ 11” - poll, roll
“Id” - old, told
H
“st” - most, post.

3 . the letter “ o' in word-final unstressed position - hero, photo, potato.
4 . the letters “ini' - boat, road.
5 . the letters “ow” in word-final position - low, show, know, window, tomorrow.
Exceptions: now, how, cow, row, brow.
Irregular spellings: shoulder,poultry, mould, soul, own, brooch.
Id VI
1. (he digraph “ou” - South, thousand, moulh.
2. the digraph “ow” in the medial position - town, towel, brown, crowd.
Irregular spellings: now, cow, how, vow, bow, brow, allow, bough,plough, drought.

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ENGLISH-II
iQl
1. the digraph “ar” - cart, party
2. the letter “a” followed by “ss” - pass, grass
“st” - past, fast
“sk” - ask, basket
sp” - grasp, clasp
“ft” - after, craft
“th” - path, father.
3 . the letter ”a” followed by “lm” - calm, palm
“ I f ’ - half, calf (the letter “ 1” is mute here)
4 . the suffixes “ance” and “and” - France, glance, demand, command.
Rare spellings: aunt, laughter, clerk, sergeant, heart, hearth, drama, aria, tomato,
banana, vase, moustache.
l u: I
LA
1. the letter “u” in open syllables - tune, mute /ju:/
It sounds /u: / preceded by “j, r, 1” - June, rule, blue, true.
2. the digraphs “eu”, “ew” /ju:/ - feudal, neutral, few, new
but: Jew, crew, flew /u:/
IM
3 . the digraph “ui” - suit, fruit, cruise.
SH
4. the digraph “oo” in all positions except when followed by “k” or “r” - moon, soon.
5 . the digraph “ou” in words o f French origin - soup, route, youth, wound, you.
Rare spelling: shoe, beauty, queue, who, whom, whose, two.
LU
10 :/
PN
1. the letters “or” ( the third syllable type) - port, sport.

2. the letters “oor” - floor, door
“our” - your, course
H
“oar” - board, roar.

3 . the letter “a” followed by “11” and “1 + cons.” - all, tall, salt, chalk.
4 . the letters “au” and ”aw” - autumn, author, law, saw, lawn.
5 . the letter combinations “ought” - ought, thought. f A .
“aught” - caught, taught.
6. the letters “war” - warm, ward.
Irregular reading: our, sour, flower, poor.
13:1
1. the letters “er”- term, service.
“ir” - bird, fir.
“ur” - turn, fur, nurse.
“yr” -myrtle.
Note: the third syllable type.

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ENGLISH-II
LL.B.-201
2. the digraph “ear” + cons. - earth, heard.
B.A./BB.A. LL.B. IInd Semester
3 . the letters “wor” - work, word.
Rare spellings: journey, journalist, were, colonel.
/ ia /
1. the letter combinations “ere” - here, severe
“ear” - hear, dear
“eer” - cheer, deer.
2. the letter combination “ier” - pier, cashier.
3 . the letter “e” followed by “r” + vowel - era, hero, period, serious.
Rare spellings: theory, museum, theatre, idea, beard, real
i& a i
1. the letter combinations “are” - care, fare, prepare.
“air” - chair, air, hair.
LA
2 . the letter ”a” followed by “r” + vowel - vary, Mary, parents, variant.
Irregular spellings: are /a:/, to bear, to wear, to tear, to swear, pear, where, there.
1031
IM
SH
1. the combination “ure” - cure, pure, sure.
2. by the letter “ u” followed by “r” +vowel - j 1117, fury, during.
Irregular spellings: poor, moor, tour(ist), Europe
LU
The English Consonant System

The consonant is a speech sound in the production o f which the air stream coming out
PN
of the lungs lias to overcome a certain obstruction on its way.

The English consonant system consists of 24 consonant phonemes.
/f, v / /m /f / n / / /n / /} /
H
/p , b /'
/ij/ /&'*//. /W , /,''/ /h/, /f/
• A ’.z - / J
/ M / /. , /
/ ij Graphical rules
/k /
1. the letter”k ” - keep, kitchen, kind.
2. the letter “ c” before “a, o, u “ - cat, cut, coat

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before consonants - cry, class
in final position - sync, music.
3 . the digraph “ck” - sick, back, buckwheat (only after short vowels)
! digraph qu” when stressed - question, queen
hen unstressed - conquer, unique.
10 /
is represented in spelling by J
1. the letter “g” before a, o, u and cons. - gave, good, gun, grammar.
Irregular readings: give, got, get, girl, finger, begin.
2. the digraph ”gu” - language.
/f /
1. the letter combination “sh” - shoe, she.
2. the letter “ c” and the letter combination “ci” - official, ancient, social, special.
3 . the suffixes “tion”, “sion”, “ssion” - expression, proposition, excursion, examination.
LA
Rare spellings: Asia, Russia, fascist, anxious, sugar, sure

/ s / IM
1. the letter ”s” - best, test.
SH
2. the letter “ c” before e, i, y - cent, cycle
/w /
LU
1. the letter “w ” - was, want

2. the letter combination “wh” + any vowel, but ”o” - what, wheat.
PN
IK]!
1. the letter combination “ng” - sing, thing, reading.
H
2. the letter combination ”nk” and “nc” - ink, think, uncle.
/
1. the letter combination “ch” and “tch” - church, bench, kitchen.
.2. the suffix “ture” / xj / - nature, culture, literature.
Irregular spellings: fortune, century, question,
ic h j
is represented in spelling by: J
1. the letter “g” before “e, i, y” - vegetables, huge, gin, gyps}', Egypt.
2. the letter combination “dg(e)” - edge, judge, budget.
3 . the letter “j ” in word-initial position before vowels - just, Jack, joke
Rare spellings: suggest, soldier.

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English-II: LLB 201 BALL.B./BBALL.

Course Content & Reading Material

Paper Code: LLB201

Course Developed: Dr. RuchiRaj Thakur

HIMACHAL PRADESH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

B.A./B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) PAPER CODE: LLB 201

English language and skills to communicate effectively to cater to his professional

comprehension skills, improve vocabulary, use proper grammar, acquire writing

further aims at adding a human touch to the understanding of future lawyers by

FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.1

and ecclesiastical establishments. It also discusses how sometimes innocent are

shouldering these responsibilities is a question which bothers the most. The

module discusses various shenanigans observed in the judiciary, judiciary which is

FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.2

considered to be one of the four main pillars of democracy. Solitary confinement is

another issue which is comprehensively discussed.]

[Topics] 1.1The Witch by Yashpal

1.2Four Paise by Yashpal

1.3A Case for the Defence by Graham Greene (Short Story)

1.4 The Cop and the Anthem by O.Henry (Short Story)

1.6 Justice by John Galsworthy

[Grammar and Usage/ Vocabulary] (Total Lectures –16 Lectures)

[A basic understanding of functional grammar and style is essential for effective

technical communication. This module on functional grammar illustrates important

It will help in improving readers’ understanding of functional grammar.]

 2.1Determiners (a, an, the), Prepositions

 2.2 Change of voice: Active &Passive voice

FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.3

 2.3 Change of Narration

 2.4One word substitution

[Developing Reading & Writing skills] (Total Lectures –15 Lectures)

[Honing of reading and writing skills is essential in order to achieve academic

success because academic performance depends on the quantity and quality of

structure, deciding on sentence lengths in technical writing. This will further

enable one to understand how to connect ideas logically within a sentence.]

 3.1 Reading Strategies

 3.2 Mechanics of Précis writing

 3.3 Paragraph Writing

 3.4 Comprehension- skill of reading and understanding English language-

Unseen passages of literature

 3.5 Legal essays

FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.4

Phonetic transcription (Total Lectures – 16 Lectures)

Jones. To purge off such differences, it is pertinent to learn appropriate

in speaking. It will enable an understanding of the concept of ‘acceptable English

knowledge about pronunciation guidelines related to consonants, diphthongs,

monophthongs and vowels.]

 4.1 IPA symbols, transcription

 4.2 English vowels and consonants

 4.3 The syllable – its structure and function

 4.4 Word stress in English

 4.5 Primary Stress and Secondary Stress

FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY HPNLU SHIMLA Page No.5

1) Yashpal(2005) The Second Nose.

2) Tendulkar, Vijay. (1967). Silence! The Court is in session.

3) John Galsworthy. (2001). Justice

4) NarangChanchal Ed., Promising Pleaders: A Text book of English For Law

Students. Publication Bureau Panjab University Chandigarh, 2018 ISBN: 81-

McGraw Hill, 2011.

7) Sethi, Anjanee and Adhikari,Bhavana. Business Communication. New Delhi:

McGraw Hill Education. 2010

8) Raman, Meenakshi and Singh, Prakash. Business Communication. New

University Press, 2006.

9) Madhukar, R.K. Business Communication. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing