Tag Question

Tag Question

            Tag Question is a short form of question that goes to the end of a sentence. It is asked to justify the truth of something. It is widely used in Spoken English, often in dramas and informal (impolite) writings as well. 

Some contractions we need to remember:

Full Form	Short Form	Full Form	Short Form	Full Form	Short Form
I am- I have- I will- I would/ had- You are- You have- You would/had- He is/ has- He will- He would/ had- She is/has- She will- She would/ had- We are- We have- We will- We would/had-	I’m I’ve I’ll I’d You’re You’ve You’d He’s He’ll He’d She’s She’ll She’d We’re We’ve We’ll We’d	They are- They have- They will- They would/had- There is/has- There will- There would/had- Are not- Cannot- Could not- Dare not- Did not- Does not- Do not- (Am not, Are not, Is not, Have not, Has not)-	They’re They’ve They’ll They’d There’s There’ll There’d Aren’t Can’t Couldn’t Daren’t Didn’t Doesn’t Don’t Ain’t	Need not- Ought not- Shall not- Should not- Used not- Was not- Were not- Will not- Would not- Am not- May not- It is /has- It would/had-	Needn’t Oughtn’t Shan’t Shouldn’t Usedn’t Wasn’t Weren’t Won’t Wouldn’t Aren’t Mayn’t It’s It’d

Rule (1): Sentence যদি Affirmative হয় তাহলে আমা‡`i‡K Negative G DËi Ki‡Z n‡e|

            Mr. Mahabub is your English teacher, isn’t he?

            I hit him, didn’t I? I am a photographer, aren’t I? A story is told by him, isn’t it?

            Bangladesh is a small country, isn’t she? The sun rises in the east, doesn’t he?

Rule (2): Sentence যদি Negative হয় তাহলে আমা‡`i‡K Affirmative G DËi Ki‡Z n‡e|

            He has no dictionary, does he? He never tells a lie, does he? 

            A barking dog seldom bites, does it? Nothing can prevent me from going there, can it?

Nasim knows little about it, does he?

           

            Note: Try to find out, if there is any negative sing in a sentence. The negative signs are: (never, hardly, seldom, scarcely, none, no one, nobody, nothing, barely, hardly ever, little). If they exist in a sentence, the sentence is a Negative Sentence. So, we do not use ‘not’ in a Tag Question here.

Rule (3): Imperative Sentence, Negative ‡nvK Avi Affirmative- ই †nvK, Avgiv ‘will you’ e¨envi Kwi|    

            Do not hate the poor, will you?  Let us go home, shall we?

            Go there, will you? Always speak the truth, will you?

            Do not waste your time, will you? Let him learn English grammar, will you?

Rule (4): Everybody, everyone, everything, neither of them, no man, nobody, none, (every + noun), one, plural noun, take ‘they’ as a subject   

            Every mother loves her child, don’t they? Neither of them came to help me, did they?

            None can avoid death, can they? Nobody dislikes flowers, do they?

Rule (5): Exclamatory Sentence

            How sweetly the bird sings, doesn’t it?

            What an interesting book it is, isn’t it? What a cute butterfly it is, isn’t it?

Rule (6): We do not change Modal Auxiliaries here. They are: (Can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, need, dear, ought to, used to and must)

            We ought to love our country, oughtn’t we? You should not defy God, should you?

            He may excuse the fault, mayn’t he? You need not do it, need you?

Rule (7): There (no change), it (no change), Abstract Noun (it), lower animal (it), baby (it), nothing (it)

            There is no mistake in my writing, is there?   The puppy is so cute, isn’t it? The baby is crying, isn’t it? The mother in her rose up, didn’t it? Nothing helps me do it, does it?

Rule (8): Principal Clause ‡_‡KB Avgv‡`i subject নিতে হেবে Sub-ordinate Clause †_‡K bq|

            When he came here, I was sleeping, wasn’t I? (Principal Clause)

            You know who I am, don’t you? (Principal Clause)

            As soon as I reached my school, the bell rang, didn’t it? (Principal Clause)

             If you punch me, I certainly feel pain, don’t I? (Principal Clause)

Rule (9): Subject যদি as well as, together with, along with, accompanied with, (and not + noun) দিয়ে যুক্ত থাকে তাহলে প্রথম subject চি Tag Question এর জন্যৃ ব্যাবহার করতে হয়।

            Jessica as well as her friends may come, mayn’t she? Peter as well as his parents went there, doesn’t he? Ripon and not his brothers got the prizes, didn’t he?

Rule (10): (The + Adjective) plural noun হিসাবে ধরা হয়, আর তাই আমরা এদের Tag Question এর সময় ‘they’ subject হিসাবে ব্যবহার করি।

            The brave deserve the fair, don’t they? The brave can do this, can’t they? The unfed lead a miserable life, don’t they?

Md. Saiful Alam

BA Honours (Englih), BEd (1st Class), and MA (English)

Assistant Teacher of English 

Machkhola Secondary School, Satkhira

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.

Of Studies

Of Studies Sir Francis Bacon

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them: For they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: That is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with Abeunt studia in mores. Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again: If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores: If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases; so every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

Elizabethan Essayist

diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.

Md. Saiful Alam

B. A. Honours and M. A. in English

Lecturer of English

Queen’s College, Dhaka

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any correction or suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my level best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.

 

Social Satire in "The Rape of the Lock"

Question: ( 1 ) : “The Rape of the Lock” is a satire on contemporary society – justify your answer.

Answer: The word ‘satire’ is derived from the Latin word ‘satira’ which is a literary attack on the follies and vices of an individual or a society with a view to correcting them through laughter and ridicule written either in prose or verse. However, as Shakespeare is the poet of man, Alexander Pope is a poet of society. “The Rape of the Lock” is a social document because it mirrors contemporary society and contains a social satire, too. Pope paints about England in 18th century. The whole panorama of “The Rape of the Lock” revolves around the false standard of 18th century. Pope satirizes the young girls and boys, aristocratic women and men, their free time activities, nature of husbands and wives, the professional judges and politicians of the day.

Victorian Social Satire by Alexander Pope

Pope clearly depicts the absurdities and the frivolities of the fashionable circle of the 18th century England. The world of Belinda – the world of fashion is a trivial world. The whole life of Belinda is confined to sleeping, make-up, enjoyment and alluring the lords. There are no transcendental elements in her life. This life is marked by ill-nature, affectation, mischievousness, coquetry, yielding and submissive nature, fierce and unruly nature, infidelity, cheapness, meanness, trivialities and frivolities. Belinda represents all the fashion struck women, busy in such stupidities.

The gallants of the time have not been spared by Pope. Baron not only represents Peter but also typifies the aristocratic gallants of the age. Pope satirises man’s nature that is always weak at beauty. Men sacrifice everything at the altar of beauty and even the most intelligent man behaves foolishly when he falls a victim to beauty.

“With tender Billet-doux he lights the Pyre,
And breathes three am'rous Sighs to raise the Fire,
Then prostrate falls, and begs with ardent Eyes

Soon to obtain, and long possess the Prize:”

In order to make his satire sharper and all the more effective, Pope introduces the aerial machinery, which facilitates the satire. Through this weapon, the poet throws in contrast the weaknesses of the fashionable women of that age. He satirises women who are interested in fashionable life and its pursuits and who go on exercising their evil influence even after their death. For the sake of worldly grandeur, they can bid farewell even to their chastity and honour. He satirises women of fiery, coquettish mischievous and yielding nature and gives them different names. It also provides the poet with an opportunity to satirise the class consciousness of women.

Belinda in her bed

All the women and beaus gather at the place where they exchange talks on trivial things such as visits, balls, films, motions, looks, eyes, ‘at every word’ and ‘a reputation dies’.

“A beau and witling perished in the throng,
One died in metaphor, and one in song.”

Man’s favourite activity is to take suffered women to play with fan. There is singing, dancing, laughing, ogling and nothing else. Women are busy alluring the dukes and lords. The poet reflects the hollowness of men in the character of Sir Plume who is coward, foolish and senseless, lacking courage. Women are on the whole irresolute and they have made toyshops of their hearts. They have even illicit relations with the beaus. Women are meant only for the entertainment of men, who play toy with them.

Pope also satirises of the husbands and wives of the day. Husbands always suspect their wives. They think that their wives have been merry-making with their lovers. On the other hand, wives are also not virtuous at all. They love their lap-dogs more than their husbands. And the death of husbands is not more shocking than the death of a lap dog or the breakage of a china vessel.

“Not louder shrieks to pitying Heave are cast,

When husbands, or when lapdogs breathe their last;”

So through the medium of satire, Pope paints a picture of 18th century English society. His satire is didactic and impersonal. It is not inflicted against any person or individual, rather against the society and that, too, owing to some moral faults. He is dissatisfied with the society around which he wants to reform. The society he pictured is the aristocratic group of 18th century fashionable English society. But there are several allied subjects, too, on which he inflicts his satire. For example, he satirized the judges who make hasty decisions.

“The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine”

He also satirized those friends whose friendship is but lust, those politicians who do not have a deeper insight and cannot see beyond the shows and take steps just for their own interests and ends.

To sum up, the poem is a reflection of this artificial and hollow life, painted with a humorous and delicate satire. Pope’s satire is intellectual and full of wit and epigram.  And it is quite true that no other poet or writer could depict the contemporary society so vastly and perfectly as Pope did and hence, he is regarded as the true representative poem of the 18^th century English society.

Md. Saiful Alam

B. A. Honours and M. A. in English

Lecturer of English

Queen’s College, Dhaka

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any correction or suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my level best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.

 

Dramatic suspense in "Agamemnon"

Question: 1. How does Aeschylus build intense dramatic suspense around Agamemnon's home coming in the play “Agamemnon”?

Answer: “Agamemnon” is the masterpiece of Aeschylus. In it the action takes place before the palace of Agamemnon in Argos at the time of his victorious return from the Trojan War. Besides, the grand theme of the play based on sin, murder, punishment and a fatalistic conception of human life', the intense dramatic suspense around Agamemnon's homecoming occupies an important theme of the play. In order to create this dramatic suspense, Aeschylus imposes his creative and dramatic genius and we see how he was interested to represent this dramatic suspense. Although this dramatic suspense operates no serious purpose for the main action of the play it enhances our dramatic interest to a great extent. The suspense is created before Agamemnon's arrival by the speeches of Watchman, Elders of Argos, Herald and so on. There is hope and also forbidding in the speeches.

The dramatic suspense is firstly created by the Watchman who waits in the dead of night and suddenly sends out a cry of joy as the signal blazes forth announcing the imminent return of Agamemnon. The Watchman strikes the first note of approaching calamity by guarded hints and allusion to Clytemnestra's adulterous relation with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's mortal enemy.

Dramatic suspense lies among the mixed feeling in the expression of Chorus. The Chorus' emphasis is stronger on foreboding. It is not only Clytemnestra who arouses their fear - they trust Agamemnon to find a way to deal with her when he returns, but they know that the King himself is burdened with guilt. They recount in detail how Agamemnon, inheriting the family curses from Atreus; found himself faced with a fearful dilemma, and made the wrong choice to sacrifice his daughter. However, Aeschylus and Sophocles contain excellent dramatic motivation. Oracles, divinities and sooth Sayers as well as the chorus and main actors were frequently used in the foreshadowing. Foreshadowing (giving intimation or hints of action yet to come,) which helped to achieve both suspense and dramatic irony was employed.

The Watchman of this play feels sway in his condition for the suspense of situation. The Watchman describes that sleep's enemy ‘fear’ stands beside him to forbid his eyes one instance closing. As the beacon shines out, before the Watchman the suspenseful circumstance further deepens:

"0 welcome beacon, kindling night to glorious day,

Welcome! You'll set them dancing in every street in Argos

When they hear your message. Ho there! Hullo! Call

Clytemnestra!"

The Watchman descends and another dramatic suspense starts by a cry of triumph from Clytemnestra and is echoed by other women. The hurried coming of a messenger followed by the attendants, going in various directions, and carrying jars and bowls with oil and incense for sacrifice increase the suspenseful situation. There is suspense in the circumlocutory speeches of the chorus and their conversations and interrogation with Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra creates confusion and suspicion by her speeches when she herself says that the victors would avoid being vanquished in their turn. Clytemnestra says that only, let no lust of unlawful plunder tempt the soldiers' hearts with wealth, to their own harm. .

Clytemnestra finishes her words by saying that these are a woman's words while the chorus says that your words are like a man's. After the finishing of chorus' speech suspense arises when the sound of women voices excitedly begins the shout and cheer. One or two Elders go out, and return immediately to report the following remarks as made severally by various members of the chorus;

“Since the beacon's nears was heard

Rumour flies through every street.

Ought we to believe a word?

Is it some inspired deceit?”

All doubts that remain about the truth of the beacon message are now dispelled by the arrival of the herald from the Trojan expeditionary force. This herald concludes the precious suspense but loads immense suspense in his speeches. The herald announces that Agamemnon, homeward bound has been separated from the rest of his fleet He salutes, in touching words, his country and her gods, and the palace of Agamemnon, which now shines its best to welcome its monarch, who comes like dawn out of darkness. The herald's speech brings dramatic suspense to the audience because they know the mischievous revengeful attitude of Clytemnestra. As the time of Agamemnon's reaching shortens, our suspense begins to enhance in every moment. When Agamemnon reaches Argos all the suspense are dissolved and he is heinously butchered by his wife.

Agamemnon’s arrival in the palace in confirmed by the Chorus’ welcome to him as it says:

“…you have come victorious home;

Now form our open hearts we wish you well.”

The opening scene of Aeschylus’s “Agamemnon” prepares the audience psychologically for the events to come later. It introduces Clytemnestra, the most dominant character of the play, as a female having male traits. The watchman, through his representation of the Argive people, informs us of the unrest inside and outside the Argos palace at the prolonged absence of Agamemnon. Considering everything, it may be said that the opening scene is not a necessary, rather a preparatory part of the play. Thus, Aeschylus in his tragedy “Agamemnon” creates dramatic suspense around Agamemnon's homecoming and it enhances the dramatic brilliance of the tragedy to a great extent.

Md. Saiful Alam

B. A. Honours and M. A. in English

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any correction or suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.

 

"The Rape of the Lock" as a mock epic

Question: ( 2 ) : Consider the poem ‘The Rape of the Lock’ as a mock epic.

Answer: Mock epic is a narrative poem which aims at mockery and laughter by using almost all the characteristic features of an epic but for a trivial subject. Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock” is a famous mock-epic. In it, there are invocation to Muses, proposition of subject, battles, supernatural machinery, journey on water, underworld journey, long speeches, feasts (coffee house), Homeric similes and grand style but all for a simple family dispute instead of a national struggle. The grand treatment of a low subject produces hilarious laughter and makes the story more ridiculous.

Firstly, “Paradise Lost” a long epic poem by John Milton begins with the proposition of justification of God’s way to man with nice invocation to the Muses. And another epic poem titled “The Faerie Queene” by Edmund Spenser follows the same manner. The subject matters in both of the epic poems are grand. Like the epic poems, the poem “The Rape of the Lock” opens with the proposition of the subject matter and Pope’s invocation to the Muses to help him compose the literary art. Such a grand treatment of a trivial subject matter like the clipping of the lock of Belinda provokes laughter when the poet says:

“I sing – this verse to Caryll, Muse! Is due:

This, ev’n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:”

Secondly, in “The Iliad”’, Homer describes in considerable detail the armour and weaponry of the great Achilles, as well as the battlefield trappings of other heroes. In the poem “The Rape of the Lock” Pope describes Belinda preparing herself with combs and pins – with "Puffs, Powders, Patches" – nothing that "Now awful Beauty puts on all its Arms." This is nothing but funny.

Thirdly, the ritual sacrifices the Baron performs in the pre-dawn hours are another mock-heroic element of the poem, mimicking the epic tradition of sacrificing to the gods before an important battle or journey, and drapes his project with an absurdly grand import that actually only exposes its triviality. The fact that he discards all his other love tokens in these preparations reveals his capriciousness as a lover. Earnest prayer, in this parody scene, is replaced by the self-indulgent sighs of the lover.

“Then prostrate falls and begs with ardent eyes

Soon to obtain and long possess the prize:”

Fourthly, an epic poem must contain episodes also. In keeping with this practice Pope has introduced the episodes of the game of Omber which suggests the mighty battle and the cards imply the soldiers described in great detail. Then there is the battle between the lords and ladies just like the battles in epic poetry. But in true mock-heroic style this battle is fought with fans and snuff instead of with swords and spears. There are single combats also between Belinda and the Baron and between Clarissa and Sir Plume. This symbolises nothing but a battle of sexual perversion near Hampton Court just the opposite to the mighty battles that we find in “The Aneid” and in “The Faerie Queene” Red Cross Knight’s battle with the monster Error.

Fifthly, another vital element of an epic poem is the active participation of supernatural machinery just as Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, who rescues Aeneas in “The Iliad” when he is attacked by Diomedes. In “The Rape of the lock”, there are the sylphs and gnomes. These aerial spirits are small and insignificant things, and are, therefore, exactly in keeping with the triviality of the theme. They guard the person of the heroine and when there is fight between the followers of Belinda and those of the Baron, they take part in fight, like gods and goddesses in the Trojan War. Pope has described the protecting sylphs under Ariel. In that the sylphs are the parodies of epic deities. 

Sixthly, a long perilous journey on water is a must in an epic. But here in the poem Belinda takes a comfortable journey on water without any tension and peril. She travels up the Thames in a boat to join Hampton Court to play the game of Omber adorning her attractively.  

Seventhly, it is another important event of epic to take an underworld journey. It is generally done in order to take some effective pieces of advice from the lower world, Hades.  Like supernatural beings in classical epics, a gnome named Umbriel descends to the Underworld on Belinda’s behalf and obtains a bag of sighs and a vial of tears from the Queen of Spleen. With these magical gifts, he means to comfort poor Belinda. First, he empties the bag on her in stead. The reversal of the epic quality is nothing but mocking in tone.

“Repair’d to search the gloomy cave of Spleen.

Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome,”

Eighthly, the mock-heroic character of the poem is perceived in the very title. Rape is a serious moral offence which means the violation of a woman’s chastity by force. It also refers to the seizure of a lady by some ruffians in grossly inhuman manner. In any case, rape is a grave crime, affecting the social decency of a human being. Pope has used this term in an amusing manner. The possession of the hair of Belinda by the Baron is described by him in a mock vein. The title evokes nothing but the mock heroic sensation and well indicates the mock-heroic character of Pope’s work.

Ninthly, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil's Aneid all end happily for their respective heroes, though perhaps at the expense of their enemies. Pope, wisely following his own advice, likewise concludes the poem with a mocking consolation to Belinda that:

"This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,

And mid'st the stars inscribe Belinda's name!"

Pope's ending is just one example of how he mocks society through epic form, as well as mocks earlier literary works. A lock of hair is a ridiculous object to eternally memorialize.

From above discussion, it becomes clear that Pope follows the epic conventions of Homer, Dante and Virgil very minutely but for trivial a matter and he has heightened the title, exalted the insignificant, in order to make the little and the insignificant look more ridiculous. He employs the mock-heroic form, not to mock the epic form, but to show the triviality of mean things by contrasting them with great things. This is the true mock-heroic style. So it can be undoubtedly said that the poem “The Rape of the Lock” is a successful mock-epic.

Md. Saiful Alam

BA Honours (English), BEd (1st Class), MA (English)

Assistant Teacher of English

Machkhola Secondary School, Satkhira

E-mail: suman64924@gmail.com

My affectionate Readers,

Please, never hesitate to comment and any correction or suggestion regarding my writings will be largely appreciated and valued and you can ask me any grammatical questions regarding English. I promise I would try my best to assist you, all. Thank you very much.