Few immortal lines from Shakespeare’s plays

• To be or not to be that is the question – Hamlet 
• Nothing will come out of nothing – King Lear
• Fair is foul and foul is fair – Macbeth
• Brevity is the soul of nit – Hamlet
• Life is but a walking shadow – Macbeth
• Frailty thy name is woman – Hamlet
• There are more things in heaven and earth – Hamlet
• We are such stuff as dreams are made off – The Tempest
• The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance - The Tempest
• All the world is a stage and al the men and women merely players – As you like It.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE:

1. ‘E’ is the most commonly used letter in the English language. In fact, as many as one in eight of all the letters written in English is ‘e’.
2. More English words begin with the letter ‘S’ than any other letter of the alphabet.
3. ‘I am.’ is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
4. The longest English word that can be spelled without repeating any letters is ‘uncopyrightable’.
5. The following sentence contains seven different spellings of the sound “ee”: ‘He believed Caesar could see people seizing the seas’.
6. Do you know what is special about the following sentence? ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’. This type of sentence is called a ‘pangram’ as it uses every letter in the English language.
7. The longest word in English has 45 letters: ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’! It is a type of lung disease caused by inhaling ash and sand dust.
8. There is no word in the English language that rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
9. ‘Queueing’ is the only word with five consecutive vowels (five vowels in a row). This is a great word to use when you play hangman!
10. There are nine different ways to pronounce ‘ough’ in English. This sentence contains all of them: ‘A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.’
11. Due to a printing error, there was a word in the English dictionary from 1932 to 1940 which didn’t have a meaning. The word was ‘Dord’ and it became known as ‘ghost word’.
12. ‘Pronunciation’ is the word which is most mispronounced in the English language!
13. English is the official language of the sky! It doesn’t matter which country they are from, all pilots speak in English on international flights.
14.The most difficult tongue twister in the English language is “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick”.

English Notes for quick revision

1. Keats was a romantic poet who believed in the importance of sensation and its pleasures which included taste, touch and smell as well as hearing
and sight.
2. Shelley ’s weaknesses as a writer have always been evident; rhetorical abstraction; intellectual arrogance; and movements of intense self-pity. But in great poems like the "West Wind" or great prose works like "Defence", it is precisely these limitations that he transcends, and indeed
explodes.
3. Mathew Arnold describes Shelley “a beautiful and ineffectual angel beating in the void his luminous wings in vain”.
4. “In Hamlet we see a great, an almost enormous intellectual activity and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it.” Coleridge.
5. Hemingway’s ‘Old Man and the Sea’ is perhaps his most sustained attempt to unite the actual and symbolic under one continuous narrative roof. It is said of Jane Austen that she involves the
Critical Intelligence’ of her readers. The prevailing interest is not only in ‘aesthetic delight’ but also in a sense of moral conviction.
6. “ Jane Austen’s view of life is the view of the eighteenth century civilization of which she was the last exquisite blossom. One might call it the moral realistic view. Jane Austen was profoundly moral.” (David Cecil).

Important Full Forms of Computer Terminology

1.) GOOGLE : Global Organization Of Oriented Group Language Of Earth .
2.) YAHOO : Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle .
3.) WINDOW : Wide Interactive Network Development for Office work Solution
4.) COMPUTER : Common Oriented Machine Particularly United and used under Technical and Educational Research.
5.) VIRUS : Vital Information Resources Under Siege .
6.) UMTS : Universal Mobile Telecommunications System .
7.) AMOLED: Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode
8.) OLED : Organic light-emitting diode
9.) IMEI: International Mobile Equipment Identity .
10.) ESN: Electronic Serial Number .
11.) UPS: uninterrupted power supply .
12). HDMI: High-Definition Multimedia Interface
13.) VPN: virtual private network
14.) APN: Access Point Name
15.) SIM: Subscriber Identity Module
16.) LED: Light emitting diode.
17.) DLNA: Digital Living Network Alliance
18.) RAM: Random access memory.
19.) ROM: Read only memory.
20) VGA: Video Graphics Array
21) QVGA: Quarter Video Graphics Array
22) WVGA: Wide video graphics array.
23) WXGA: Wide screen Extended Graphics Array
24) USB: Universal serial Bus
25) WLAN: Wireless Local Area Network
26.) PPI: Pixels Per Inch
27.) LCD: Liquid Crystal Display.
28.) HSDPA: High speed down-link packet access.
29.) HSUPA: High-Speed Uplink Packet Access
30.) HSPA: High Speed Packet Access
31.) GPRS: General Packet Radio Service
32.) EDGE: Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution
33.)NFC: Near field communication
34.) OTG: on-the-go
35.) S-LCD: Super Liquid Crystal Display
36.) O.S: Operating system.
37.) SNS: Social network service
38.) H.S: HOTSPOT
39.) P.O.I: point of interest
40.)GPS: Global Positioning System
41.)DVD: Digital Video Disk / digital versatile disc
42.)DTP: Desk top publishing.
43.) DNSE: Digital natural sound engine .
44.) OVI: Ohio Video Intranet
45.)CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access
46.) WCDMA: Wide-band Code Divisio

POETRY TOOLS

These are the following tools of poetry.

• Line Breaks
• Rhythm
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Imagery
• Alliteration
• Repetition

Line Breaks:-

                         Writing in shorter lines to slow the reader down.

Rhythm:-

                          Makes you tap your foot.

Metaphor:-

                          Saying that on thing is something else.

Personification:-

                           Giving human traits to something that is not human.

Imagery:-

                             Helping the reader form a picture in their mind.

Repetition:-

                            Repeating something

Alliteration:- 

                            Using the same sound at the beginning of neighboring words.

To The Lighthouse : Stream of Consciousness Novel

The phrase “Stream of Consciousness” was coined by William James to describe the flow of thoughts of the waking mind. It is a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow. In literature it is a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue. The related phrase “interior monologue” is used to describe the inner movement of consciousness in a character’s mind. The use of devices of the stream of consciousness and the interior monologue marks a revolution in the form of the novel because through these devices the author can represent the flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, and emotions and reminiscences (recollections), often without any logical sequence.

According to Virginia Woolf, the conventional novel did not express life adequately. She was of the opinion that life was a shower of ever-failing atoms of experience, and not a narrative line. Life, she said, was a luminous halo (radiance), a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to end. She tried to experiment with the same technique in her novel, ’To the Lighthouse’. In which the characters reveal themselves very much in the same way.

Although she depicts character through the inner consciousness of the person whom we meet in this novel but she herself remains the controlling intelligence, speaking in the third person. While she very seldom slips in comments of her own, she remains the narrator, telling us what is going on in the various minds.

Virginia Woolf shows us a particular person in this novel not only through the consciousness of that person himself or herself, but also through the consciousness of the other persons. We are given the interior monologues of the various characters in this novel, and it is largely through the twin devices of stream of consciousness and the interior monologue that we come to know the various characters. Thus we see Mrs. Ramsay not only through her own consciousness but through the consciousness of Mr. Ramsey, the child James, Lily Briscoe, Mr. Tansley and Mr. Bankes. Similarly we come to know Mr. Ramsay not only through his own consciousness but also through the consciousness of Mrs. Ramsay, the young James, Lily Briscoe, and Mr. Bankes. In fact, every character in the novel is presented to us through his own consciousness and also through the consciousness of the other characters. At the same time, the characters are occasionally presented to us directly by the all-knowing author of the novel, and also sometimes bits of conversation or dialogue between the characters.

Mrs. Woolf’s Concern in writing novels was not merely to narrate a story as the older novelists did, but to discover and record life as the people feel who live it. Hence it is she rejected the conventional technique of narration and adopted a new technique more suited to her purposes. It is for this reason that in ‘To The Lighthouse’ she did not tell a story, in the sense of a series of events, and has concentrated on a small number of characters, whose nature and feelings are represented to us largely through their interior monologues. In order to capture the inner reality, the truth about life, she has tried to represent the moving current of life and the individual’s consciousness of the fleeting movement, and secondly, also to select from this current and organize it so that the novel may penetrate beneath the surface reality and may give to the reader a sense of understanding and completeness.

The readers are not placed directly within the minds of characters, as in the modern psychological novel, but the central intelligence of the novelist is constantly at work as the narrator, controlling and organizing the material, and illuminating it with its comments, and order emerges out of chaos. The interior monologues of the different characters are, no doubt, given, but the novelist, the central intelligence, is also constantly busy, organizing the material and illuminating it by frequent comments. In this respect Mrs. Woolf’s technique of narration is quite different from that of the “Stream of Consciousness” novelists. Far from being a stream of Consciousness novel, ’To the Lighthouse’ is the objective account of a central intelligence that approaches and assumes the characters. Consciousness, but does not become completely identified with any one consciousness. This central intelligence is thus free to comment upon the whole in what seems a completely impersonal manner, as this short passage shows:

“It is a triumph’ said Mr. Bankes, laying his knife down for a moment. He had eaten attentively. It was rich; it was tender. It was perfectly cooked. How did she manage these things in the depths of the country? He asked her. She was a wonderful woman. All his love, all his reverence, had returned; and she knew it.”

“It is a French recipe of my grandmother’s said Mrs. Ramsay, Speaking with a ring of great pleasure in her voice. Of course it was French. What passes for cookery in England is an abominations; it is pulling cabbages in water. It is roasting meat until it is like leather. It is cutting off the delicious skins of vegetables. ’In which’, said Mr. Bankes,

“All the virtue of vegetables is contained” Here the central intelligence is reporting a part of the dinner Conversation.
Suspense and Curiosity are another aspect of Mrs. Woolf’s technique of narration. She taking us into the middle of scene; Mrs. Ramsay’s opening remark is the answer to unstated question, which we have to supply by picking up clues from what follows. The reader’s natural curiosity thus becomes involved. We wonder who these people are, what they are talking about and so on. As we read on, prompted by this desire to know, we begin to recognize a pattern in the narrative at same time as we assimilate names, facts, ideas. Then, too, the pattern begins to establish itself; the pattern that is, of Conversation and reaction, of the actual words in the first person and the present tense, and the reflections of the characters in the third person and the past tense. This violence of feeling is seen first in the child, James and seems natural to the exaggeration of childhood; we are thus prepared in an acceptable way for the emotions of the adult character, Tempe real by age and experience, but made more complex too.

The third person narration is a very Common novel device used by Virginia Woolf. She is very careful to mock her direction of the narrative as little noticed as possible. Her use of direct speech for the interior monologues of her characters makes it easy for her to work into these mental soliloquies a number of statements and ideas which are outside the range of knowledge of character she is dealing with.

When, for example, at the beginning, she describes the feelings of James about his father, she moves from what the child is thinking to what Mrs. Ramsay habitually did and said, through impersonal sentences:

“Had there been an ate handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father’s breast and killed him, there and then James would have seized it. Such were the extremes of emotion that Mr. Ramsay excited in his children’s breasts by his mere presence : Standing: disillusioning his son and casting ridicule upon his wife, who was ten thousand times better in every way than he was (James thought), but also with some secret conceit at his own accuracy of judgment. What he said was true. It was always true. He Was incapable of untruth; never tampered with a fact; never altered a disagreeable word to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortal being, least of all of his own children, who sprung from his loins, should be aware from childhood that life is difficult…….”

We can see the two currents of thoughts flowing together. Just as this third person narration makes it possible for Virginia Woolf to move smoothly from one character to another, so in the novel as a whole it is a unifying Principle.

The completion of the circle is another quality of Virginia Woolf. If the arrival at the lighthouse and the completion of Lily Briscoe’s picture complete the circle of the book, and if Time Passes forms a sort of landing between the upward movements of The Window and the downward, resolving movements of The Lighthouse, we find here the same structural design. The Part I conforms to this design. Section II, when the fairy tale is finished and James has gone, a perfect moment, rich with solitude and revelation, certainly forms a peak that communicates its exaltation to the second half of the chapter, which however, never reaches the same intensity at this may moment.

To sum up, Virginia Woolf has employed the lighthouse as a symbol and it has a number of undertones of meaning, and serves the purpose of a unifying factor in the novel. The action moves on normal constructional lines from scene to scene and from the mind of one person to that of another. These shifts from one consciousness to another and these movements are made further easy by allowing every incident to take place in a close knit homogenous world. ’To The Lighthouse’ is a masterpiece of Construction. It is an organic whole. It is a great work of art which fully deserves the praises that have been lavished on it.

To the Lighthouse” : A Portrait of a Real Woman

To the Lighthouse” : A Portrait of a Real Woman

Virginia Woolf was an important precursor in Feminism. She comes after a long line of eminent Victorians of her own sex, who have joined the immortals of English literature- George Eliot, Jane Austen and the two Bronte’s. She was not of their stature but only against their background can her peculiar feminine contribution to English novel be fully assessed or appreciated.

‘To the Lighthouse’ projects challenges or realization of productive and creative possibilities of female characters like Mrs. Ramsay, Lily Briscoe, Nancy Ramsay, and other characters who move around these central characters. These characters are to be studied with the feministic point of view and built as a portrait of real woman in the Victorian England as well as its relevance in the present scenario.

Generally speaking, the word ‘sex’ plays an essential role in defining the gender of a woman when she is put in the flow of Society’s stream of socialization. The existence of a woman is not supposed to identify by the physical appearance, but by the actions and thoughts also. There is no any suspicion in telling truth that ‘Sex’ is born identity whereas ‘Gender’ is coined identity by society in which a woman lives. It is imposed upon her to behave, to think and to play a female role in specific way.
To commence with the idea of writing a novel by lady novelist (not female novelist) itself is a strong element in discussing these female characters. Virginia portraits female characters as a typical female, doing her household work, beguiling other family members what they would prefer to have and docile as a passive character, actively participating in what she is supposed to do. Character like Mrs. Ramsay is depicted as a working woman in the house, as not responsibility but as a duty. Because the atmosphere is created in such a way that they should not create any problem or complain, found by the boss (husband) Mr. Ramsay.

From start of the novel to its end, it names her as Mrs. Ramsay, not her actual name. She directly seems to be a subjugated woman with the name of superiority’s surname. The very logic lies in this context is that Mrs. Ramsay plays her duty what her imposed name will urge her to do.

Apart from naming the characters, female character Mrs. Ramsay plays plenty of roles like a wife, a mother, a care-taker, organizer of the household work, protector of her family’s reputation and social credit, friend, as a relative matchmaker for Lily and Tansley and so on and so forth. It is incredible to assume that such a multi-dimensional responsibility performing her duties simultaneously, defines the role of woman in the society. Such a female character, having eight children to bring up, taking much care of them not being distracted toward evil path and being practical in the flow of the time, seems impossible for a moment but Woolf has portrayed such motherly figure in her novel. But the sudden sharp turn in the novel, revealing Mrs. Ramsay’s unexpected death. It challenges the modern codes and conducts of Post-Modern time in which the people fail to recognize the need and necessity of the women.

People do not value of what they keep or what they have. Mrs. Ramsay might have been respected by family members and guests but being not there, may not make Mr. Ramsay need of her but changing time changes the minds of the people, too. Death of Mrs. Ramsay does matter, because there is a crucial association between her and the lighthouse. To adjust people and other things and to reach people to the lighthouse, Mrs. Ramsay seemed much active as far as male’s contribution to organize life and sustenance is concerned.

The novelist selects the female characters to arrange a day for the lighthouse, to keep balance in social relationships, and what is more important is to satisfy male-ego. She makes her husband uncomfortable because of her being died. She makes other characters to talk about the person who is died now. Why the novelist plays with the female characters is still in vagueness. Life before her death was like; she was lonely but never alone. It means, albeit, she was never surrounded by the people, felt lonely and never satisfied by the intimate relatives being with her.
Mrs. Ramsay thinks that with whom she was living, are ‘sterile’ and incapable, and that “if she did not do it, nobody would do it.” So taking care of children and guests, Mrs. Ramsay ponders that the way she was playing a role of giver and arranger, will not be maintained by others. She sees life not as it should be but as it may be. Deferring from her husband, she finds her children’s happiness in telling what they want to deserve. The happiness of the children like James and others, is not supposed to mar, rather it is to be maintained, and increased.

Mrs. Ramsay’s attitude toward children and relatives, somehow, keeps Mr. Ramsay separated, because what is real and the fact is to be taught to the children. But somewhere, Ramsay fails to realize that such a delicate and fragile period of kids should be kept joyful and society known enough. To help children to see world beautifully, goes to the side of Mrs. Ramsay and it is followed. But ramset interrupts this cycle of learning. James asks for visiting the lighthouse and his urge causes invisible controversies among the husband and wife.

Woolf challenges the wrong perception about the male’s mind-set. The children become happier when a mother interacts with them yet she speaks a lie but it is a white lie that makes children very happy. Generally, progenies are more inclined to mother’s way of nurturing. So Mr. Ramsay feels jealousy and tells that that day’s weather would be drowsier and cloudy, not good for him. This can be called a creative faculty of female to bring up offspring. She is an artist, the house, husband, children and relatives are her medium; if indeed if the purpose of the art for her, as it is for Lily, is to unite and allow them to experience the life together in brief, prefect understanding, then the party is nothing less than her masterpiece, impeccably perfect one.

When the matter of creation comes forward, Lily Briscoe’s interest in painting comes as a part of studding her role in the society and place of creative and flowered faculty of mind. Tansley always debases her paintings and gives several examples of famous paintings of the other countries. Hence creative ability of the women is suppressed in terms of demotivating them. Just the critical words of the male characters make whole novel as a feministic text taking Post-Modern generation into consideration. Lily is an independent, educated little creature, not confined to the home domestically. Women want to be free in their thinking. Their thoughts are bound by the invisible shackles of male’s criticism.

Even other female characters, moving around these two, play a vital role that is mentioned in the starting of the essay. They are not much mentioned itself suggests that existence of women in the society is mandatory but if the crisis occurs becomes compulsory. The concept of morality in depicting Mrs. Ramsay defers from page to page of the novel and incidents to incidents. To endure, to suffer, to be subdued and docile, and not to remain talkative but it engenders the readers to think that male-dominated society should claim women’s place in it.

In a nutshell, the depiction of a woman in the novel is subjugated by the educated husband who is a philosopher and intellectual. Various readings of the novel bring the point of stream of consciousness that it also affected by feministic reading. One character thinking about what he [or she] thinks about what, is the continuous process in the novel. Thinking process is lacking the need of Mrs. Ramsay who is not supposed to die but to remain alive until the last page of the novel to come.