ISL: Grade 11.

December Exam / 2010 English Literature

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 2010/22

GRADE 11

Paper 2. Drama

1 hour 30 Minutes

You must answer on the enclosed answer booklet.

You will need: Answer booklet (enclosed)

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INSTRUCTIONS

INSTRUCTIONS
• Answer two questions.
• Your answers must be on two different set texts.
• You must answer one (a) passage-based question and one (b) essay question.
• Follow the instructions on the front cover of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper,
ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.
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INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 25.
● All questions are worth equal marks.

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#Rana R. Sherwani
 ISL: Grade 11. December Exam / 2010 English Literature

SECTION A: Drama

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: A Streetcar Named Desire

Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing.

Either 1 (a)Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it:

BLANCHE: Yes, swine! Swine! And I'm thinking not only of you but of your friend, Mr. Mitchell. He
came to see me tonight. He dared to come here in his work-clothes! And to repeat slander to me,
vicious stories that he had gotten from you! I gave him his walking papers....
STANLEY: You did, huh?
BLANCHE: But then he came back. He returned with a box of roses to beg my forgiveness! He
implored my forgiveness. But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is
the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been
guilty. And so I told him, I said to him, "Thank you," but it was foolish of me to think that we could ever
adapt ourselves to each other. Our ways of life are too different. Our attitudes and our backgrounds
are incompatible. We have to be realistic about such things. So farewell, my friend! And let there be
no hard feelings....
STANLEY: Was this before or after the telegram came from the Texas oil millionaire?
BLANCHE: What telegram! No! No, after! As a matter of fact, the wire came just as--
STANLEY: As a matter of fact there wasn't no wire at all!
BLANCHE: Oh, oh!
STANLEY: There isn't no millionaire! And Mitch didn't come back; with roses 'cause I know where he
is--
BLANCHE: Oh!
STANLEY: There isn't a goddam thing but imagination!
BLANCHE: Oh!
STANLEY: And lies and conceit and tricks!
BLANCHE: Oh!
STANLEY: And look at yourself! Take a look at yourself in that wornout Mardi Gras outfit, rented for
fifty cents from some ragpicker! And with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?
BLANCHE: Oh--God...
STANLEY: I've been on to you from the start! Not once did you pull any wool over this boy's eyes!
You come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with
a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile!
Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor! I say--Ha!--Ha! Do you hear me? Ha--ha--ha!
[He walks into the bedroom.]
BLANCHE: Don't come in here!
[Lurid reflections appear on the wall around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque and menacing
form. She catches her breath, crosses to the phone and jiggles the hook. Stanley goes into the
bathroom and closes the door.]
Operator, operator! Give me long-distance, please.... I want to get in touch with Mr. Shep Huntleigh of
Dallas. He's so well-known he doesn't require any address. Just ask anybody who--Wait! I--No, I
couldn't find it right now.... Please understand, I--No! No, wait! ... One moment! Someone is--Nothing!
Hold on, please! [She sets the phone down and crosses warily into the kitchen. The night is filled with
inhuman voices like cries in a jungle.
[The shadows and lurid reflections move sinuously as flames along the wall spaces.
[Through the back wall of the rooms, which have become transparent, can be seen the sidewalk. A
prostitute has rolled a drunkard. He pursues her along the walk, overtakes her and there is a struggle.
A policeman's whistle breaks it up. The figures disappear.
[Some moments later the Negro Woman appears around the corner with a sequined bag which the
prostitute had dropped on the walk. She is rooting excitedly through it.]

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#Rana R. Sherwani
 ISL: Grade 11. December Exam / 2010 English Literature

[Blanche presses her knuckles to her lips and returns slowly to the phone. She speaks in a hoarse
whisper.]
BLANCHE: Operator! Operator! Never mind long-distance. Get Western Union. There isn't time to
be--Western--Western Union! [She waits anxiously.]
Western Union? Yes! I--want to--Take down this message! "In desperate, desperate circumstances!
Help me! Caught in a trap. Caught in--" Oh!
[The bathroom door is thrown open and Stanley comes out in the brilliant silk pyjamas. He grins at her
as he knots the tasselled sash about his waist. She gasps and backs away from the phone. He stares
at her for a count of ten. Then a clicking becomes audible from the telephone, steady and rasping.]
STANLEY: You left th' phone off th' hook.
[He crosses to it deliberately and sets it back on the hook. After he has replaced it, he stares at her
again, his mouth slowly curving into a grin, as he weaves between Blanche and the outer door.
[The barely audible "blue piano" begins to drum up louder. The sound of it turns into the roar of an
approaching locomotive. Blanche crouches, pressing her fists to her ears until it has gone by.]
BLANCHE [finally straightening]: Let me--let me get by you!
STANLEY: Get by me! Sure. Go ahead.
[He moves back a pace in the doorway.]
BLANCHE: You--you stand over there!
[She indicates a further position.]
STANLEY [grinning]: You got plenty of room to walk by me now.
BLANCHE: Not with you there! But I've got to get out somehow!
STANLEY: You think I'll interfere with you? Ha-ha!
[The "blue piano" goes softly. She turns confusedly and makes a faint gesture. The inhuman jungle
voices rise up. He takes a step toward her, biting his tongue which protrudes between his lips.]
STANLEY [softly]: Come to think of it--maybe you wouldn't be bad to--interfere with....
[Blanche moves backward through the door into the bedroom.]
BLANCHE: Stay back! Don't you come toward me another step or I'll--
STANLEY: What?
BLANCHE: Some awful thing will happen! It will!
STANLEY: What are you putting on now?
[They are now both inside the bedroom.]
BLANCHE:
I warn you, don't, I'm in danger!
[He takes another step. She smashes a bottle on the table and faces him, clutching the broken top.]
STANLEY: What did you do that for?
BLANCHE: So I could twist the broken end in your face!
STANLEY: I bet you would do that!
BLANCHE: I would! I will if you--
STANLEY: Oh! So you want some rough-house! All right, let's have some rough-house!
[He springs toward her, overturning the table. She cries out and strikes at him with the bottle top but
he catches her wrist.]
Tiger--tiger! Drop the bottle top! Drop it! We've had this date with each other from the beginning!
[She moans. The bottle top falls. She sinks to her knees. He picks up her inert figure and carries her
to the bed. The hot trumpet and drums from the Four Deuces sound loudly.]

[from Scene 10]

Q. In what ways does Williams build tension at this moment in the play?

Or 1 (b) Explore two moments in the Street Car Named Desire which Tennessee Williams makes
particularly dramatic for you?
SECTION B

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#Rana R. Sherwani
 ISL: Grade 11. December Exam / 2010 English Literature

WOLE SOYINKA: Death and the King’s Horseman

Remember to support your ideas with details from the text.

Either 2(a)

Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it:

Iyaloja. How boldly the lizard struts before the pigeon when it was the eagle itself he promised us
before he would confront.
Elesin. I don't ask you to take pity on me Iyaloja. You have a message for me or you would not have
come. Even if it is a message for me or you would not have come. Even if it is the curses of the world,
I shall listen.
Iyaloja. You made so bold with the servant of the white kingwho took your side against death. I must
tell your brother chiefs when I return how bravely you waged war against him. Especially with words.
Elesin. I more than deserve your scorn.
Iyaloja. (with sudden anger) I warned you, if you must leave a seed behind, be sure it is not tainted
with the curses of the world. Who are you to open a new life when you dared not open the door to a
new existence? I say who are you to make so bold? ( The Bride sobs and Iyaloja notices her. Her
contempt noticably increases as she turns back to Elesin.) Oh you self vaunted stem of the plantain,
how hollow it all proves. The pith is gone in the parent stem, so how will it prove with the new shoot?
How will it go with that earth that bears it? Who are you to bring this abomination on us!
Elesin. My powers deserted me. My charms, my spells, even my voice lacked strength when I made
to summon the powers that would lead me over the last measure of earth into the land of the
fleshless. You saw it Iyaloja. You saw me struggle to retrieve my will from the power of the stranger
whose shadow fell across the doorway and left me floundering and blundering in a maze I had never
before encountered. My senses were numbed when the touch of cold iron came upon my wrists. I
could do nothing to save myself.
Iyaloja. You have betrayed us. We fed you sweetmeats such as we hoped awaited you on the other
side. But you said No, I must eat the world's left overs. We said you were the hunter who brought the
quarry down; to you belonged the vital portions of the game. No you said I am the hunter's dog and I
shall entrails of the game and the faeces of the hunter. We said you were the hunter returning home
in triumph, a slain buffalo pressing down on his neck; you said Wait, I must turn up this cricket hole
with my toes. We said yours was the door way at which we must spy the tapper when he comes down
from the tree, yours was the blessing of the twilight wine, the purl that brings the night spirits out of
doors to steal the portion before the light of the day. We said yours was the body of wine whose
burden shakes the tapper like a sudden gust on his perch. You said, No, I am content to lick the dregs
from each calabash when the drinkers are done. We said, the dew on earth's surface was for you to
wash your feet along the slopes of honour. You said No, I shall step in the vomit of cats and the
droppings of mice; I shall fight them for the left overs of the world.
Elesin. Enough Iyaloja, enough.
Iyaloja. We called you leader and oh, how you led us on. What we have no intentions of eating should
not be held to the nose.
Elesin: Enough, enough. My shame is heavy enough.
Iyaloja: Wait I came with a burden.
Elesin: You have more than discharged it.
Iyaloja: I wish I could pity you.
Elesin: I need neither pity not the pity of the world. I need understanding. Even I need to understand.
You were present at my defeat. You were part of the beginnings. You brought about the renewal of
my tie to earth, you helped in the binding of the cord.
Iyaloja: I gave you warning. The river which fills up before our eyes does not sweep us away in its
flood.
[Scene 5]

Q. How far Woyinka make you feel sorry for Elesin at this moment in the play?

Or 2 (b) How does Soyinka powerfully convey Pilkings thoughts and feelings about the Yoruba
tradition?

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#Rana R. Sherwani