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Welcome to our blog, In this post, we’re sharing the IGNOU MEG 2 Solved Question Paper of December 2022 examination, focusing on British Drama.
This guide is here to help you prepare for your exams with clear answers and explanations. Whether you’re just starting or revising for your exams, this resource will make studying easier and more effective.
In this post, we’ll discuss all the answers including the short and long answer questions.
You can also download all previous year question papers of MEG 2 from our website.
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Question 1
1. Critically comment on any four of the following passages with reference to the context in about 150 words each :
(a) Homo Fuge! Whither should I fly ? If unto God, he’ll throw me down to hell.
Answer:
This passage reflects a dramatic moment of internal conflict in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Here, Faustus finds himself stranded between earthly temptation and eternal damnation. His soul wrestles with a powerful fear — he questions whether there is any refuge left for him in God’s mercy or if eternal punishment is all that awaits him. His expression “Homo Fuge”—“Man, flee!”— underscores a moment of dramatic crisis when Faustus realizes the gravity of his choices. His doubts reflect the human condition when faced with temptation, regret, and the fear that redemption may no longer be within reach.
(b) …… I’ll …….. be burning candles from this out of the miracle of God that have brought you from the south to-day.
Answer:
This extract highlights a moment of deep piety and thanksgiving. The speaker expresses a vow to light candles in a church to celebrate what is believed to be a “miracle of God”—the person’s delivery or return from danger. The literal act of burning a candle here is a symbol of hope, renewal, and a physical manifestation of the speaker’s faith. It shows a deep reverence for divine intervention and a communal understanding that human survival and happiness often lie in the hands of a higher power. The vow underscores the power of faith in transforming ordinary events into something extraordinary.
(c) O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven If had the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brother’s murder!
Answer:
This soliloquy from Hamlet highlights the moral agony of King Claudius after killing his own brother, King Hamlet. His confession underscores a deep awareness of his sin’s gravity — “the rank smell”— a vivid expression for a moral corruption that reaches upward toward Heaven itself.
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(d) It is not in time that my death shall be known. It is out of time that my decision is taken If you call that a decision ……….
Answer:
This extract underscores a dramatic moment of resignation and tragedy. The speaker expresses a view that their death and decisions are not bound by ordinary time — their fate lies “out of time”— reflecting a feeling of powerlessness against a larger, inexorable force.
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(e) With a bare fricassee of your medicine : still You increase your friends.
Answer:
This extract highlights a comic irony in the context of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist. The character is referring to quacks and charlatans who peddle worthless “medicine”— a “bare fricassee”—and yet become popular and well-liked.
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Question 2
2. Discuss the presentation of Jacobean society in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist.
Answer:
Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist offers a rich and vivid portrait of Jacobean society, reflecting its ambitions, vulnerabilities, and moral weaknesses. Set in Blackfriars, a bustling quarter of London, the play reveals a world obsessed with upward mobility, instant wealth, and social prestige — a society willing to pursue shortcuts and deception in order to achieve its desires.
Jacobean society was a time of dramatic change. Rising merchant classes challenged the rigid structures of the old order, and opportunities for social advancement seemed within reach for those ambitious enough. Jonson highlights this upheaval through the motives of his main characters — Subtle, Face, and Dol — who exploit the desires of their fellow Londoners. The trio transforms a simple town-house into a center of fraud, reflecting a society obsessed with material gain and eager to believe in promises of transformation and power.
Through a rich array of comic character types — Epicure Mammon, Ananias, Dapper, and Sir Epicure — Jonson underscores universal human weaknesses within this context. His society is filled with people blinded by their ambitions and susceptible to deception because of their own desires. Epicure Mammon, for example, is obsessed with the philosopher’s stone and the ability to produce gold at will; Ananias, a puritan, wants wealth under the guise of piety; and Dapper, a young lawyer, is obsessed with gambling luck and upward mobility. All these portray a society driven by self-interest and easily duped by promises of instant success.
The dramatic action underscores a key observation about Jacobean society: that people’s morals were increasingly flexible, and their judgment was easily influenced by promises of power and prestige. Jonson uses comic irony to expose these weaknesses, suggesting that the true danger lies not in the tricksters’ schemes, but in the desires and credulities of the people who pursue them.
Furthermore, Jonson highlights a moral view that in a society obsessed with appearance and wealth, deception and fraud become a way of life. The ability to manipulate and disguise oneself, as Face and Subtle do, reflects a social climate where roles are fluid and permanent distinctions — between rich and poor, merchant and gentry — are increasingly blurred.
Ultimately, The Alchemist is a dramatic mirror reflecting the ambitions, weaknesses, and moral confusion of Jacobean society. Jonson underscores the human tendency to pursue shortcuts to success and happiness, ignoring ethics and virtue in the process, offering a comic but powerful critique of his own time.
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Question 3
3. What is the significance of the fourth temptation in Murder in the Cathedral?
Answer:
The fourth temptation in T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral plays a very profoundly significant role in Thomas Becket’s spiritual journey and the dramatic structure of the play. The first three temptations are — physical safety, power, and prestige — these are earthly and somewhat expected; Thomas easily rejects them because the yielding would undermine his conscience and the responsibilities as Archbishop of Canterbury. However, the fourth temptation is more sophisticated and more subtle. It tempts Thomas with a form of temptation that plays upon his greatest vulnerability — his soul and his legacy — and it highlights the complex conflict between the earthly motives and eternal conscience.
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Question 4
4. Discuss the revenge motif in Hamlet. Give examples to support your answer.
Answer :
The revenge motif lies at the very center of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. It drives the action forward and profoundly influences the behavior, decisions, and ultimate fates of the main character and many other key figures in the play. Hamlet’s quest for revenge against his uncle, King Claudius — who has treacherously killed Hamlet’s father — underscores the human struggles with justice, conscience, and revenge in a corrupt world.
The ghost of Hamlet’s father first introduces this motif when it appears to Hamlet and reveals the true nature of his death. The ghost tells Hamlet, “I am thy father’s spirit, / Doomed for a certain term to walk the night … / Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” This revelation ignites Hamlet’s mission to seek revenge against Claudius. His quest is not simply a matter of killing a king; it is about honoring his father’s memory, restoring moral order, and delivering justice in a world that has gone awry.
The revenge motif resonates through the play in numerous subplots. Laertes, for example, seeks revenge against Hamlet after Hamlet unintentionally kills Polonius, Laertes’ father. His motives reflect a more impulsive and less reflective form of revenge — in contrast to Hamlet’s careful and sometimes over-cerebral consideration of the ethics of revenge. Furthermore, Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, is also driven by revenge — not against a person, but against Denmark — for the land his father lost in a battle. His decisive action highlights Hamlet’s own delay and inaction.
The play underscores how revenge can become a destructive force when it disregards justice, compassion, and conscience. Hamlet wrestles with this moral conflict — wondering whether killing in revenge makes him a tool of fate or a criminal — and this internal battle contributes to his tragedy. His famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy reflects his doubts about the moral implications of revenge and the human suffering it brings.
Ultimately, the revenge motif shows us how the need to retaliate for a past injustice can consume an individual and destroy not only their peace of mind but also the lives of those around them. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all become entangled in a web of revenge — each trying to resolve their grievances in a world that has become fundamentally unfair. The play reveals the human cost of revenge and underscores the necessity of justice and conscience in addressing the wrongs we suffer.
Question 5
5. Can digging effect bring about a transformation in Dootille similar to the one he has brought about in Eliza ?
Answer:
In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins performs a remarkable transformation on Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl from the lower classes of London. His “digging”— his ability to uncover a person’s true potential through education, discipline, and change of the environment — he converts Eliza into a woman who speaks, behaves, and carries herself in a such a way that lets her pass for a duchess in the high society. Naturally, this dramatic change underscores Higgins’s view that the distinctions we draw between classes are largely arbitrary and can be erased with proper training.
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