प्रश्न बैंक - सह - उत्तर पुस्तक (Question Bank-Cum-Answer Book)
Class - 12
English Elective
4. Why The Novel Matters - D.H. Lawrence
Q1. How does the novel reflect the wholeness of a human being?
Ans-
According to the writer, the novel is the book of life but books are not so. A
novel, like most other literary genres, consists of characters. These
characters manifest as real human beings on paper. The author claims that he is
not a soul, not a body, a mind, an intelligence, a brain, a nervous system but
he is alive and greater than his soul, spirit, body, mind, consciousness or anything.
He says that the liveliness of the novel depends entirely upon its characters.
The novel exhibits several personality traits of characters. It peeps into deep
insight of the characters. In this way the novel reflects the wholeness of the
human being.
Q2. Why does the author consider the novel superior to
philosophy, science or even poetry?
Ans-
The author considers the novel superior to other genres like philosophy,
science or even poetry. He is of the opinion that all the books are not so
lively as a novel. The novel, like a tree, grows in all the dimensions, not in
a particular direction. A novel induces a kind of liveliness in the readers
which makes the entire man alive. In his opinion, the Bible, Shakespeare and
Homer all are great novels. Philosophy reflects different types of thoughts,
science considers all parts of the body as dead while poetry is known for
imagination. But on the contrary, the novel induces life in the readers. Thus,
a novel is considered superior to philosophy, science or even poetry.
Q3. What does the author mean by tremulations on ether' and the
novel as a tremulation'?
Ans-
The author means to say that 'tremulation on ether' induces a kind of life in
readers which the other books can't do. Other books do not stimulate the
readers so they seem similar to reading messages or hearing news over the
radio. Thus, the words, thoughts, sighs and aspirations of a philosopher are
the 'tremulations in the ether. They are not alive, but if a person accepts
them in his life, they become alive. Whereas 'the novel as a tremulation' is a
multi-dimensional review of the characters of the novel. Through the deeds of
the characters a reader can understand what needs to be done and what needs to
be avoided in life. It actually gives the reader an insight into the crucial
moments of life without actually having to experience them. In that way, a
person can mould his or his decisions and grow well. The novel as a tremulation
makes the readers tremble with life and the wisdom of life with its wholeness.
Thus, the novel is a life inducing agent of the writer's thought process which
has considerable effects on the readers.
Q4. What are the arguments presented in the essay against the
denial of the body by spiritual thinkers?
Ans-
Lawrence is of the opinion that our body is not merely a vessel for containing
the soul and that soul is the only living entity. He says that our hand itself
is alive. It hops from word to word to write something like a grasshopper. It
is as much active ones alive as the mind which dictates the words to be
written. In the same way, a person talks about the importance of souls in
Heaven. But according to Lawrence "paradise is in the palm of your
hand." A philosopher talks about infinity and the pure spirit who knows
everything. Hence, the body is alive, perhaps more alive than any other entity
and denying it is an erroneous decision by spiritual thinkers or priests.
Q5. What are the things that mark animate things from the
inanimate?
Ans-
The author says that all the things that are within our body are alive
including brain, soul, skin and hair. He says that animate things have flicker
in them but the inanimate things do not. Animate things make a whole body with
many parts but inanimate things do not have this quality. Animate things have
their complete existence and they do activities during their entire life but
the inanimate things do not have these qualities. No doubt, inanimate things
like words, thoughts, signs and aspirations are helpful and supportive to our
life but they are not alive.
Q6. What is the simple truth that eludes the philosopher or the
scientist?
Ans-
According to the author, novels are the real thing in life. Neither a
philosopher nor a scientist sees life as a whole. The philosopher talks about
Paradise and his thoughts matter. He considers thought to be life. A scientist
takes each body part as a living being and considers the man as dead. He
considers each body part equally important, not the whole. In this way, both of
them fail to see the truth that life is a whole and no part of life can be able
to define life completely.
Q7. How does Lawrence reconcile inconsistency of behaviour with
integrity?
Ans-
According to the writer, nothing is absolute in this world. Change continuous
every time in everything. Lawrence is aware of the changes in human behaviour.
He says that love for change is a natural instinct. A thing that is important
today may not be so tomorrow. Even in a novel if the characters do not change,
the novel becomes a dead thing. But even in the change, one maintains a certain
integrity. The behaviour changes with the passage of time but that change
occurs with a certain design that depends on the will of the human being.
Q8. What is the perception of the author of 'Being Alive?
Ans-
The entire text is based on highlighting the perception of being alive'. The
author appreciates every part and parcel of a living person. He gives excessive
importance to ideas, philosophy, spirit and mind. The author strongly advocates
that a novelist is better than a man of science, religion or a philosopher. It
is so because a novelist can create characters and their lives and thus,
understand the true value of life and a living person. He believes that the
mind is more important than other body parts. He thinks the belief to be
ridiculous and irrational that the body is a mere vessel for the mind or soul.
He thinks that the freckles on the skin and the blood in the human body are
equally alive.
Q 9. How does the author compare the novelist and the
philosopher?
Ans-
Lawrence is an eminent novelist. He profoundly compares the novelist and the
philosopher. According to him, the philosopher talks about spirit and infinite
knowledge contained in it but for a novelist, it is the living that contains
all the understandable knowledge. Everything else is conjecture and
speculation.
For
a philosopher, thoughts and ideas are of paramount importance while for a
novelist, they are disturbances and 'tremulations on the ether'. The author
firmly declares that no idea is meaningful until or unless it is received and
understood by a live person because it does not have its own life. In this way
the author claims that the live man is much more important than ideas and
concepts which themselves seem to be lifeless.
Q 10. What is the importance of a novel according to the writer?
Ans-
According to the writer, a novel is a window of life but any novel or book is
important when it is read by human beings. He claims that novels are more
influential than any other book. He considers Ten Commandments less significant
than novels because they only attract one part of a living being. He even calls
the Bible to be a great novel.
Lawrence
opines that a novel is able to provide a stimulating story with different
characters that make at novel more dynamic. The author believes that a man
needs desire and purpose to be alive. If a man exists in the world without a
goal in life, he seems to be a dead man. To prove that a human being does not
exist in a dead life but a life alive, he needs love, companionship, wealth and
power.
Q 11. What does the writer say about the characters?
Ans-
According to the writer in the novel, the characters do nothing but live. They
have to live but not according to any pattern, good or bad or volatile. The
reason is that once they shape themselves into a pattern, they cease to live
and the novel falls dead. The exact meaning of living is like the meaning of
being.
People
seek God, or money, or wine, or woman, or song, or water or political reforms
or votes. There is none in life who can predict one's choices. The choice
changes with the passage of time. It is as sudden and swift changing as rain in
summer and nobody can predict when it will start raining. In this great
confusion, disorder and unpredictability we need a guide. Thus, the characters
play a vital role in the novel as living beings.
Q12 How is the novel the best guide for us?
Ans-
According to the writer, the novel is the best guide which helps us to live. It
does not let us indulge ourselves unnecessarily by the theory of right and
wrong, good or bad which are always there. It is also a true fact that right
and wrong are not constant but relative. It happens so because what is right in
one case becomes wrong in another.
A
novel presents a story in which a man dies because of his goodness while
another person dies because of his wickedness. The existence of anything
whether it is body or mind or spirit separately does not make life but the
wholeness of man and woman alive constitutes like. It is only novel which is
the one bright book of life and surpasses all other books such as poetry,
science and philosophy.
Q 13. How does the writer compare the novelist and the man of
religion?
Ans-
According to the writer, only a novelist is a man who understands the
importance of the man alive profoundly. A man of religion can never do so. The
man of theology or a man of religion depends on the theory of soul and life
after death. But the novelist is the person who thinks only about the present
moment and life at present. He seems to be more realistic than others.
Q 14. Why does the author refer to hair, skin, bottle and jug
etc.?
Ans-
The author argues that every bit of our body as the hand or the hair or the
skin is alive. He refers to 'whatever is me alive is me.' He says that
everything can't be compared. We are completely wrong in comparing any part of
our body with a bottle or a jug or a tin cane or a vessel of clay. Every a tiny
part of our body is full of life as the whole body but a bottle or a jug is
lifeless.
Q 15. How does the writer prove that life exists during our
lifetime?
Ans-
When one is a novelist, he knows that every bit of our body is alive. But this
idea is liable to become unknown to us if we are a philosopher or a scientist
or a stupid person. A person speaks about souls in Heaven, but a novelist talks
about paradise in the palm of our hand or at the end of our nose because he
feels the existence of life during his lifetime.
Q 16. What does the author say about his being a novelist?
Ans-
The author says that he is not simply a soul or a body or a mind, or
intelligence, or glands. He is the sum total of all these and greater than all
these. He, as a man alive, is a novelist. So as a novelist, he is greater than
and superior to the scientist, the philosopher and the poet. Since they deal
with only a part of man's body whereas as the novelist he deals with the whole
body.
Q 17. How does a man change, according to the writer?
Ans-
According to the author, man constantly undergoes changes and a man today is
not exactly what he was yesterday and he will also be entirely different
tomorrow. Even the woman loved by a man constantly undergoes changes and he
continues to love her because of the change. He says that all things change but
even change is not absolute. Change also changes according to the time.
Q 18. How does the author differentiate between alive and dead
man?
Ans-
The author tells us that in a novel what a man alive does and when a man
becomes a dead man in life. For instance, it tells us how an alive man loves a
woman and how a dead man in life courts her; how an alive man eats his dinner
and how a dead man in life munches it and how an alive man shoots his enemy, my
and how a dead man in life throws bombs mercilessly at men.
Q 19 What do you think of "tremulations on the ether"?
Ans-
Lawrence says that for the philosophers, nothing but thoughts are important.
Lawrence calls these thoughts to be “tremulations on the ether.” Because the
author thinks that these tremulations are not alive. They are like radio
signals which float in the air. But these signals are useless until they reach
the receiver. Similarly when thoughts are received by a man alive they become
meaningful.
Q 20. How is novel more effective than other genres of
literature?
Ans-
According to the writer, the novel has the capacity to influence a man more
effectively than other genres of literature. He gives an example of Plato who
makes the ideal being in a man tremble in him. ‘Ten Commandments’ affect only a
part of a man alive but a novel is capable of shaking the whole man alive. He
considers the Bible, Shakespeare and Homer to be great novels.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Who has written the essay 'Why The Novel Matters?
a.
Viginia Woolf
b. D. H. Lawrence
c.
Umberto Eco
d.
Amartya Sen
2. In the Essay 'D. H. Lawrence talks of the significance of the
………. as a literary form.
a. Novel
b.
Poem
c.
Sonnet
d.
Drama
3. What funny sort of superstition do we have of ourselves?
a.
A body with a brain
b.
A body with limbs
c. A body with a soul in it
d.
A body with beauty
4. What does the wine bottle denote ?
a. Body
b.
Eyes
c.
Brain
d.
Soul
5. According to Lawrence, ……… is better than the parson,
scientist, philosopher etc.
a.
Doctor
b.
Teacher
c.
Poet
d. Novelist
6. A parson talks about …….. in heaven and afterlife.
a. Souls
b.
Gods
c.
Angels
d.
Demons
7. What does a philosopher talk about?
a. Infinity
b.
Souls
c.
Heaven
d.
Life after death
8. A novelist knows that paradise is in the palm of his hand and
on the end of his ……..
a.
Eyes
b.
Ears
c.
Toes
d. Nose
9. What are 'tremulations in ether'?
a.
Words and thoughts
b.
Signs and aspirations
c.
Messages and teachings
d. All of these
10. According to the author, a 'tremulation upon the ether' is
like a …….
a.
Letter
b. Radio message
c.
Green leaf
d.
Angel-cake
11. Lawrence says that it is nonsense to say that …….. is more
important than the living body.
a.
Book
b.
Thought
c. Spirit
d.
All of these
12. What are amazing according to the author?
a.
All things that are dead
b. All things that are alive
c.
Life after death
d.
Souls
13. What are subsidiary to the living?
a. All things that are dead
b.
All things that are alive
c.
Paradise
d.
Thoughts
14. To whom 'man alive' is of no use?
a.
Teacher
b.
Philosopher
c.
Parson
d. Scientist
15. A scientist gives importance to ……..
a.
Thoughts
b. Objects
c.
Aspirations
d.
None of these
16. Who sees life as the wholeness of a human being?
a.
Poet
b.
Philosopher
c.
Scientist
d. Novelist
17. What is superior to science, philosophy or poetry?
a.
Character
b.
Film
c. Novel
d.
Thought
18. What teaches us what is right or what is wrong?
a.
Book
b. Novel
c.
Drama
d.
Poem
19. The ….. is the one bright book of life.
a.
Poem
b.
Book
c. Novel
d.
None of these
20. The ……… too is a novel but a great confused novel.
a.
Ballad
b. Bible
c.
Science
d.
Poem
21. What is the best guide to man and woman which helps us to
live without getting disturbed?
a.
Philosophy
b.
Poetry
c.
Film
d. Novel
22. Lawrence considers that …….. is the true nature of life and
is necessary for life to go on.
a. Change
b.
Constant
c.
Absolute
d.
All of these
23. A ……. deals with characters alive or life-like, they are
always changing to sustain the interest of readers.
a.
Philosophy
b. Novel
c.
Poem
d.
Science
24. What stimulates the readers while reading a novel?
a.
Story
b.
Plot
c.
Language
d. Characters
25. Which of the following is written by D. H. Lawrence?
a.
Freedom
b.
The Mark on The Wall
c. Why The Novel Matters
d. On Science Fiction
JCERT/JAC English Elective प्रश्न बैंक - सह - उत्तर पुस्तक (Question Bank-Cum-Answer Book)
English Elective Contents
Short Stories | |
1. | |
2. | |
3. | |
4. | |
5. | |
Poetry | |
1. | |
2. | |
3. | |
4. | |
5. | |
6. | |
7. | |
8. | |
Non-Fiction | |
1. | |
2. | |
3. | |
4. | |
5. | |
6. | |
Drama | |
1. | |
2. | |
Novel | |
1. | |
2. | |
