৪৮তম বিশেষ BCS — Ages & Periods অংশের প্রশ্নসমাধান
এই পরীক্ষায় এই টপিক থেকে ৩টি প্রশ্ন — Doctor Faustus (Q26), Paradise Lost (Q35), Charles Dickens (Q36)। তিনটিই বিভিন্ন যুগের landmark works/authors।
Question 26: Doctor Faustus is ________
Options: (ক) a comedy • (খ) a tragedy ✓ • (গ) a historical novel • (ঘ) an absurd play
Doctor Faustus — Quick Profile
- Author: Christopher Marlowe
- Full title: The Tragical History of D. Faustus
- Published: 1604
- Genre: Elizabethan tragedy in 5 acts
- Period: Elizabethan / English Renaissance
Story সারাংশ
Doctor Faustus, an ambitious scholar, sells his soul to Lucifer through the devil Mephistopheles in exchange for 24 years of unlimited knowledge and supernatural power. Despite warnings, he refuses to repent, and at the end is dragged to hell.
Important Characters
- Doctor Faustus — protagonist (ambitious scholar)
- Mephistopheles — devil-agent
- Lucifer — Satan
- The Good Angel & The Evil Angel — Faustus's conscience
- Wagner — Faustus's servant
Christopher Marlowe — about
- Elizabethan poet & playwright
- One of the 'University Wits'
- Called the 'Father of English Tragedy'
- Other major plays: The Jew of Malta, Tamburlaine the Great, Edward II, Dido Queen of Carthage
- Killed in a tavern brawl at age 29 (1593) — left Doctor Faustus published posthumously
সাধারণ ফাঁদ
- 'Absurd play' হিসেবে বাছেন কেউ কেউ — কিন্তু absurdist theatre 20th-century movement (Beckett, Ionesco); Marlowe 16th-century
- Historical novel — Marlowe-র এটি drama, novel নয়; novel গদ্য-ফর্ম
মনে রাখার কৌশল
'Faustus + soul-selling + 24 years + Hell = Marlowe's Tragedy।' চারটি keyword মনে থাকলে যেকোনো ফর্ম্যাটে প্রশ্ন এলেই উত্তর।
Question 35: Who composed 'Paradise Lost'?
Options: (ক) John Donne • (খ) John Keats • (গ) John Dryden • (ঘ) John Milton ✓
Paradise Lost — Quick Profile
- Author: John Milton
- Published: 1667 (revised 1674)
- Form: Epic poem in blank verse
- Books: Originally 10, revised to 12 books
- Period: Neo-classical / Restoration era
Story সারাংশ
An epic depicting the Fall of Man — Satan's rebellion against God, his expulsion from Heaven, and the subsequent temptation of Adam and Eve, leading to humanity's exile from Eden.
Why so important?
- Considered 'the great Epic in English' (alongside Shakespeare for drama)
- Milton called 'the Epic Poet' এবং 'great master of Blank Verse'
John Milton — about
- Born 1608, London
- English poet, pamphleteer, historian
- Second-most-important English author after Shakespeare (অনেক critic-এর মতে)
- Notable works:
- Paradise Lost (1667, epic)
- Paradise Regained (1671, epic)
- Of Education (prose)
- Lycidas (elegy)
- Samson Agonistes (closet drama)
Four 'John'-Trap (Important!)
বাংলা গ্রন্থে ইংরেজি সাহিত্যে চার 'John' এসেছে — প্রায়শই গুলিয়ে যায়:
| Name |
Era |
Famous Work |
| John Milton |
17th c., Neo-classical |
Paradise Lost |
| John Donne |
17th c., Metaphysical |
The Sun Rising, The Flea |
| John Dryden |
17th c., Restoration |
All for Love, Mac Flecknoe |
| John Keats |
19th c., Romantic |
Ode on a Grecian Urn, Endymion |
মনে রাখার কৌশল
'Paradise (heaven) + Lost (fall) = Milton।' Milton-এর Paradise Lost এবং Paradise Regained — একই author-এর জোড়া epic।
Question 36: Charles Dickens was an English ________
Options: (ক) poet • (খ) playwright • (গ) politician • (ঘ) novelist ✓
Charles Dickens — Quick Profile
- Full name: Charles John Huffam Dickens
- Lifespan: 1812 – 1870
- Era: Victorian period
- Identity: novelist (also journalist, editor, illustrator, social commentator)
Famous Novels (অবশ্য-মুখস্থ)
| Novel |
Year |
Theme |
| A Christmas Carol |
1843 |
Spirit of Christmas, Scrooge-redemption |
| David Copperfield |
1850 |
Bildungsroman, semi-autobiographical |
| Bleak House |
1853 |
Legal system critique |
| A Tale of Two Cities |
1859 |
French Revolution |
| Great Expectations |
1861 |
Pip, Estella, social mobility |
| Our Mutual Friend |
1864 |
Inheritance & class |
| Oliver Twist |
1838 |
Poverty, child labour |
| Hard Times |
1854 |
Industrialisation critique |
Why famously NOT poet/playwright
- Dickens wrote some occasional verse and a few plays, but his literary fame is entirely from prose novels
- Victorian era = 'Age of the Novel'; Dickens was its biggest figure
Victorian period (1837-1901) — major figures
| Author |
Genre |
| Charles Dickens |
Novelist |
| Alfred Lord Tennyson |
Poet (Poet Laureate) |
| Robert Browning |
Poet |
| Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
Poet |
| Thomas Hardy |
Novelist & poet |
| Brontë sisters |
Novelists |
| George Eliot |
Novelist |
| Matthew Arnold |
Poet & critic |
মনে রাখার কৌশল
'Dickens = Victorian Novelist = A Christmas Carol + Oliver Twist + Great Expectations।' তিনটি title মনে থাকলেই Dickens-এর identity পাকা।
পরীক্ষার শর্টকাট
- Marlowe + Faustus = Elizabethan Tragedy
- Milton + Paradise Lost = Neo-classical Epic
- Dickens + (any famous novel title) = Victorian Novelist
টপিকটি গভীরে শিখুন
English Literature — Ages & Periods — মূল লেকচার শিট — Old English → Middle English → Renaissance → Restoration → Augustan → Romantic → Victorian → Modern → Post-Modern periods, key authors per age, defining works, period-author quick-reference, BCS-frequent Ages & Periods questions.