Advertisements
Advertisements
प्रश्न
When do you have flashes of sympathy and admiration for Lady Macbeth in the course of the play? Explain by citing examples from the Acts studied. Write your answer in about 200-250 words.
Advertisements
उत्तर
Throughout "Macbeth," Lady Macbeth is primarily portrayed as a ruthless and ambitious character, but there are moments when the audience might feel flashes of sympathy and admiration for her.
Initially, in Act I, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth's ambition and determination are admirable. Upon reading Macbeth's letter about the witches' prophecies, she immediately resolves to propel her husband to the throne. Her famous soliloquy, "unsex me here," reveals her willingness to cast aside her femininity and embrace ruthlessness to achieve her goals. This moment can evoke a sense of admiration for her strength and resolve, even if her methods are morally questionable.
However, as the play progresses, flashes of sympathy for Lady Macbeth emerge, particularly in Act V. By this time, the consequences of their actions have taken a severe toll on her mental state. In Act V, Scene 1, Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene reveals her profound guilt and torment. She is seen trying to wash the imagined bloodstains from her hands, repeatedly uttering, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" This powerful scene exposes her vulnerability and the psychological burden she carries, eliciting sympathy from the audience. Her descent into madness underscores the heavy price she pays for her ambition, highlighting her humanity.
Moreover, Lady Macbeth's isolation and despair in her final moments also evoke sympathy. In Act V, Scene 5, Macbeth receives news of her death with a sense of inevitability, reflecting on the futility of life. Her tragic end, marked by overwhelming guilt and loneliness, contrasts sharply with her earlier strength and ambition. This contrast makes her a more complex and pitiable character, as she ultimately succumbs to the very forces she sought to control.
In conclusion, while Lady Macbeth is often seen as a manipulative and ambitious figure, moments of vulnerability and psychological torment reveal her human side. Her initial determination can be admired, and her eventual downfall elicits sympathy, making her one of Shakespeare's most complex and tragic characters.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
The Shehnai of Bismillah Khan Thinking about the text :
Tick the right answer.
The (shehnai, pungi) was a ‘reeded noisemaker.’
Answer this question in 30–40 words.
Find at least two instances in the text which tell you that Bismillah Khan loves India and Benaras.
Can you think of some other ending for the story?
Understanding the Connectors.
Connectors are joining words. They join any of the following:
| 1. One word with another | tired but happy. |
| 2. One phrase with the other | ready to go and eager to start. |
| 3. One clause with another | I went home because I had finished my work. |
| 4. One sentence with another | It was raining along heavily. So we took along an umbrella. |
The next man looking 'cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And Couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Why did the rich man refuse to use his stick of wood?
The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in death's still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Why did the black man refuse to use his stick of wood?
Old Kaspar took it from the boy,
Who stood expectant by;
And then the old man shook his head,
And,with a natural sigh,
"Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,
"Who fell in the great victory.
"I find them in the garden,
For there's many here about;
And often when I go to plough,
The ploughshare turns them out!
For many thousand men,"said he,
"Were slain in that great victory."
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
What does the tone of Kasper’s words suggest?
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink....
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK - HE ONLY SEES!
Read the lines given above and answer the question given below.
Explain with reference to context.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in springhtly dance.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
What were the daffodils doing? Which literary device is used here?
An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road. There was a pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, and men, women and children were crossing it. The mule-drawn carts staggered up the steep bank from the bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the wheels. The trucks ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle deep dust. But the old man sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What does the term “pontoon bridge” mean?
He looked at me very blankly and tiredly, and then said, having to share his worry with someone, “The cat will be all right, I am sure. There is no need to be unquiet about the cat. But the others. Now what do you think about the others?”
“Why they’ll probably come through it all right.”
“You think so?”
“Why not,” I said, watching the far bank where now there were no carts.
“But what will they do under the artillery when I was told to leave because of the artillery?”
“Did you leave the dove cage unlocked?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then they’ll fly.”
“Yes, certainly they’ll fly. But the others. It’s better not to think about the others,” he said.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Which animal is the old man least concerned about?
Mr. Oliver, an Anglo-Indian teacher, was returning to his school late one night on the outskirts of the hill station of Shimla. The school was conducted on English public school lines and the boys – most of them from well-to-do Indian families – wore blazers, caps and ties. “Life” magazine, in a feature on India, had once called this school the Eton of the East.
Mr. Oliver had been teaching in this school for several years. He’s no longer there. The Shimla Bazaar, with its cinemas and restaurants, was about two miles from the school; and Mr. Oliver, a bachelor, usually strolled into the town in the evening returning after dark, when he would take short cut through a pine forest.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why was the school where Mr Oliver worked called the Eton of the East?
After washing from his hands and face the dust and soil of work, Joe left the kitchen, and went to the little bedroom. A pair of large bright eyes looked up at him from the snowy bed; looked at him tenderly, gratefully, pleadingly. How his heart swelled in his bosom! With what a quicker motion came the heart-beats! Joe sat down, and now, for the first time, examining the thin free carefully under the lamp light, saw that it was an attractive face, and full of a childish sweetness which suffering had not been able to obliterate.
“Your name is Maggie?” he said, as he sat down and took her soft little hand in his.
“Yes, sir.” Her voice struck a chord that quivered in a low strain of music.
“Have you been sick long?”
“Yes, sir.” What a sweet patience was in her tone!
“Has the doctor been to see you?”
“He used to come”
“But not lately?”
“No, sir.”
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
How did Maggie look at Joe when he entered her room?
Sibia sprang.
From boulder to boulder she came leaping like a rock goat. Sometimes it had seemed difficult to cross these stones, especially the big gap in the middle where the river coursed through like a bulge of glass. But now she came on wings, choosing her footing in midair without even thinking about it, and in one moment she was beside the shrieking woman. In the boiling bloody water, the face of the crocodile, fastened round her leg, was tugging to and fro, and smiling. His eyes rolled on to Sibia. One slap of the tail could kill her. He struck. Up shot the water, twenty feet, and fell like a silver chain. Again! The rock jumped under the blow. But in the daily heroism of the jungle, as common as a thorn tree, Sibia did not hesitate. She aimed at the reptile’s eyes. With all the force of her little body, she drove the hayfork at the eyes, and one prong went in—right in— while its pair scratched past on the horny cheek. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, till half his lizard body was out of the river, the tail and nose nearly meeting over his stony back. Then he crashed back, exploding the water, and in an uproar of bloody foam he disappeared. He would die. Not yet, but presently, though his death would not be known for days; not till his stomach, blown with gas, floated him. Then perhaps he would be found upside down among the logs at the timber boom, with pus in his eye. Sibia got arms round the fainting woman, and somehow dragged her from the water.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What would happen to the crocodile?
Then, trying to hide my nervousness, I added, “How are you?”
“I’m fine. The question is: How are you?“
“What do you mean?” 1 asked “Something must be eating you,” he said—proud the way foreigners are when they’ve mastered a bit of American slang. “You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed.”
“Believe me, I know it,” I told him—and it felt good to say that to someone.
For the next few minutes we talked together. I didn’t tell Long what was “eating” me, but he seemed to understand my anger, and he took pains to reassure me. Although he’d been schooled in the Nazi youth movement, he didn’t believe in the Aryan-supremacy business any more than I did. We laughed over the fact that he really looked the part, though. An inch taller than I, he had a lean, muscular frame, clear blue eyes, blond hair and a strikingly handsome, chiseled face. Finally, seeing that I had calmed down somewhat, he pointed to the take-off board.
“Look,” he said. “Why don’t you draw a line a few inches in back of the board and aim at making your take-off from there? You’ll be sure not to foul, and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify. What does it matter if you’re not first in the trials? Tomorrow is what counts.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did Jesse Owens foul the first two jumps in the trial?
Margot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass. “What’re you looking at ?” said William. Margot said nothing. “Speak when you’re spoken to.” He gave her a shove. But she did not move; rather she let herself be moved only by him and nothing else. They edged away from her, they would not look at her. She felt them go away. And this was because she would play no games with them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after them and did not follow. When the class sang songs about happiness and life and games her lips barely moved. Only when they sang about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
When did Margot react ?
Why did it make Mr. Purcell feel “vaguely insulted”?
What is the secret that Meena shares with Mridu in the backyard?
Read the following sentence.
(a) If she knows we have a cat, Paati will leave the house.
(b) She won’t be so upset if she knows about the poor beggar with sores on his feet.
(c) If the chappals do fit, will you really not mind?
Notice that the sentence consists of two parts. The first part begins with ‘if’. It is known as if-clause. Rewrite each of the following pairs of sentences as a single sentence. Use ‘if’ at the beginning of the sentence.
Don’t tire yourself now. You won’t be able to work in the evening.
Complete the sentence below by appropriately using anyone of the following:
if you want to/if you don’t want to/if you want him to
He’ll lend you his umbrella______________.
During which time of the day would the hermit would leave the forest and go out?
What was the farmer’s comment on his wife’s fears?
What does the last sentence of the story suggest? What would the crocodile tell his wife?
Watch a tree or a plant, or walk across a field or park at the same time everyday for a week. Keep a diary of what you see and hear. At the end of the week, write a short paragraph or a poem about your experiences. Put your writing up on the class bulletin board.
Use the clues given below to complete this crossword puzzle.
Across
1. very tired
2. had an angry look on the face
3. short trousers
4. a fault in a machine that prevents it from working properly
5. a small and naughty boy-fairy
Down
6. work that must be done every day, often boring
7. a basket with a lid
8. gave a short, high-pitched cry
Multiple Choice Question:
The word ‘caring’ in the passage means ______
Answer the following question:
An old man won a clock and sold it back to the shopkeeper. How much money did he make?
Can there be a good reason behind speaking when everybody else is silent?
What was Mr Gessler’s complaint against ‘big farms’?
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason.
In the short story, Indigo, Aniruddha asked Sukhanram if there were ghosts in the bungalow because ______.
