U NET : NET SET PHD EXAM

 A complete student guide to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1599) with summary, characters, themes, quotes, MCQs, and exam-oriented notes 📘 Julius Caesar (1599) – William Shakespeare A Complete Study Guide for Students 🖋️ Introduction Julius Caesar is a historical tragedy written by William Shakespeare in 1599 . The play is based on real Roman history and mainly focuses on politics, power, betrayal, friendship, and ambition . Rather than glorifying Julius Caesar, the play highlights the moral conflict of Brutus and the consequences of political conspiracy. 📚 Source of the Play Primary Source: Plutarch’s Lives (translated by Sir Thomas North, 1579) Shakespeare adapted the lives of: Julius Caesar Marcus Brutus Mark Antony 👉 Many speeches and incidents closely follow Plutarch. 🏛️ Genre & Type Genre: Tragedy / Historical Tragedy Setting: Ancient Rome (44 BCE) Form: Blank Verse (iambic pentameter) + prose 📖 Detailed Story / Summa...

  📚 Literary Periods (Chronological Order) 🏛️ 1. Old English / Anglo-Saxon Period (450–1066) Beowulf , epic poetry, riddles 🏰 2. Middle English Period (1066–1500) Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales Religious and courtly literature 👑 3. The Renaissance (1500–1660) a. Elizabethan Era (1558–1603) Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sidney b. Jacobean Era (1603–1625) John Donne, Ben Jonson c. Caroline & Commonwealth Era (1625–1660) Cavalier poets , Metaphysical Poetry – Literary Movement , Milton 🎭 4. The Neoclassical Period (1660–1798) a. Restoration Age (1660–1700) Dryden, satire, comedy of manners b. Augustan Age (1700–1745) Pope, Swift, prose and poetry c. Age of Sensibility / Pre-Romantic (1745–1798) Johnson, Gray, Burns 🌿 5. The Romantic Period (1798–1837) Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats, Shelley 🎩 6. The Victorian Period (1837–1901) Dickens, Tennyson, Browning, Brontë sisters 🧠 7. The Edwardian Period (19...

a clean, age-wise, exam-oriented document with major critics + their exact views on poetry , perfectly structured for UGC NET / SET / university answers . Age-wise Critics And Views On Poetry (exam-oriented) poetry: critics and their vies on poetry Classical Age (Greek & Roman) Plato (427–347 BCE) Poetry is imitative (mimesis) and thrice removed from truth. Poets appeal to emotions, not reason → dangerous for the ideal state . Proposed banishment of poets from the Republic. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) Poetry is imitation of action , but more philosophical than history . Introduced Tragedy , Plot (mythos) as the soul of tragedy. Concept of Catharsis (purgation of pity and fear). Defended poetry against Plato. Horace (65–8 BCE) Poetry should teach and delight ( dulce et utile ). Emphasized decorum , unity, and craftsmanship. Medieval Age St. Augustine Poetry must serve Christian morality . Suspicious of pagan poetic pleasure. Dante (1265–1321) Poetry as allegory with moral and ...

 🌿 The Romantic Period (1798–1837) The Romantic Period (1798–1837) marks one of the most significant and revolutionary phases in the history of English literature . It officially begins with the publication of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads (1798) and ends with the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 . Romanticism arose as a reaction against Neo-Classicism , opposing its emphasis on reason, order, rules, and imitation , and replacing them with emotion, imagination, individualism, and love for nature . 📜 Historical and Intellectual Background The Romantic Period was deeply shaped by powerful historical and social changes. The French Revolution (1789) played a crucial role in inspiring Romantic writers with its ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, and human rights . Initially welcomed with enthusiasm, the Revolution symbolized freedom from tyranny and rigid authority. However, the later violence and chaos also introduced themes of disi...

  🌿 Age of Sensibility / Pre-Romantic Age (1745–1798) The Age of Sensibility , also called the Pre-Romantic Age , acts as a bridge between Neo-Classicism and Romanticism . This period marks a shift from reason to emotion , rules to imagination , and urban life to nature . 🔹 Historical Background Time Period: 1745–1798 Transitional phase between: Age of Pope (Neo-Classical) Age of Romanticism Rise of individual feeling, emotion, sympathy, and nature The Age of Sensibility (1745–1798) , also known as the Pre-Romantic Age , developed as a reaction against the excessive emphasis on reason, order, and classical rules of the Neo-Classical Age. By the mid-eighteenth century, writers began to feel that strict rationalism suppressed human emotions, imagination, and individual experience . This period largely unfolded during the reigns of King George II (1727–1760) and King George III (1760–1820) , a time marked by political unrest such as the Jacobite Rebellion (1...