House of Notes

Q 9:  What is Methodism? Is “Adam Bede” a propagation of this religious phenomenon?   Answer:  Methodism may be defined as “a movement of reaction against the apathy of the Church of England that prevailed in the early part of 18 th  century. John Wesley, who was a student at Oxford and took holy orders in 1725, founded this movement. Methodist society was formed in 1729 when a few young men at Oxford came together under his leadership. Their object was the promotion of piety and morality. The greatest success of this movement was among the lower classes. When the Methodist movement strengthened, lady preachers were appointed to meet the need. First Wesley Conference was held in1744, in which women were allowed to preach but later they were restricted to preach. In the beginning, this movement worked under the established church, but as the society grew, it became more independent. However, separation was made after the death of Wesl...

Q 8:  Discuss George Eliot as a moralist. Or  “Adam Bede” is dramatization of ultimate best in man. What is your opinion?  Or   Adam Bede learns through pains. His knowledge of suffering makes him the man of high standing. Do you agree?    Answer:  In her youth, George Eliot came in contact with intellectual figures of her age. When her vision widened, she lost faith in Orthodox (Christianity, and after that she could not believe in the supernatural concepts and immortality of human soul throughout her life. For this reason she has been accused of being agonistic   and atheist. But she never appears as an atheist in her stories, only her approach to religion is intellectual. She could not believe in dogmatic parts of religion, but she had faith in its ethical preaching. She was concerned with only moral aspects of religion. Her standards of right and wrong were exactly those of the puritans. Her spiritua...

Q 6:  Discuss George Eliot as a modern novelist.   Answer:  George Eliot has a distinction of being regarded as the first modern novelist in the real sense of the word. She introduced a conception of novel which is still a continuing effect on the current pattern of novel writing. The main reason of her fame is that she is first modern novelist in English. The first period of the English novel begins with Fielding and ends with Trollope. The second period is of  Henry James and Meredith. Third period started with George Eliot and is hardly over today. Though, she was not are evolutionary genius like Emily Bronte, yet her mode of writing and her personal temperament were cautious and scholarly. Her books do have a shadow of his predecessors as she learnt a lot from them. Although, her mode of writing was very much like Victorian yet there are some important differences as well. Though, she does not break the old tr...

Q5:  Discuss the local colour and comic relief in Adam Bede.   Answer:  As a literary term, local colour refers to description of life and character in particular locality. The customs of the people, their speeches, their particular way of looking at things is presented to the reader often in a slightly sentimentalized or desirous way. Dickens and Bret Harte are probably the best known practitioners of this type. Comic relief is familiar term which needs careful examination. An author wants to relive the intensity of the serious plot-line by inserting comic characters or situations. These entertaining devices help keep the reader’s interest lively and balance out the fictional picture of the half tragic, half comic world. Probably, the most famous comic relief in English literature is the knocking at the gate in “Macbeth”, where sight of drunken porter relaxes the audiences after the murder of Duncan. Eliot uses both these devices in “Adam Bede”. In a stri...