Essay on THE SHERIFF”S KITCHEN by RONALD GOW

THE SHERIFF”S KITCHEN

RONALD GOW

          Ronald Gow an English Dramatist was Born on November 1, 1897 in Heaton Moor, Stockport, Cheshire, the son of a bank manager, Gow attended Altrincham County High School. After training as a chemist, he returned to his old school as a teacher. In the late 1920s he made several educational silentfilms with his pupils: The People of the Axe (1926) and The People of the Lake (1928) recreated life in ancient Britain, the latter produced 'with the approval of' Sir William Boyd Dawkins; The Man Who Changed His Mind (1928). Writing occupied his spare time during his years as a schoolmaster, and he wrote several plays for the BBC. At the age of 35 he had his first professional production, in London, with Gallow's Glorious (1933), a play about the American slavery abolitionist John Brown. In 1934 he wrote” Love on the Dole”, based on Walter Greenwood's novel about unemployment in Salford during the Great Depression – the play was a huge success. Wendy Hiller played the lead in the play, and also made her first film appearance in the Gow-scripted” Lancashire Luck”. Later ,Hiller and Gow got married.

The  play starts  at Nottingham castle .The cook  prepares the food for sheriff and waits for him. He tastes all the  food prepared  by him  and feels proud about  his cooking, He then arranges all the dishes on the table. The steward enters to the hall and comes near the table  with a lantern. He feels so cold   he swings his arm  Smells the food on the table. Cook asks steward about masters arrival. Steward replies that sheriff   would be late for his dinner. Cook gets angry at sheriff and  he informs steward that he cannot wait for sheriff for long hours. Its past three hours the dinner time and all the pies are getting dried up. It is better  he appoints another cook. Steward says that it would be better when you say it to him. Steward asks cook for a pie as he was hungry. Cook does not give any food to steward being held irresponsible for  sheriffs punctuality. Steward says that he manages everything well in the castle and he is a responsible person in the castle. They   both keep arguing . Steward tells that his cooking is no better than pigswill.       A messanger enters the castle  and tells that sheriff  worships the guest of the prior of Emmet and he  is having his food and drinks with them tonight.Your master is eating for twelve months. He does not require your food.The cook was angry and worried. Steward comes to know that if sheriff will not turn to castle   he wont get his dinner .So he goes up to the cook and  says I spoke everything in jest and your dinner is the best. We need to have the dinner we cannot waste food.The cook in an angry tone replied don’t touch the pies you have insulted my cooking. Steward  held up a key on his side and tells that this is the of the cellar where there is plenty of ale. Bring two jugs we would share the ale and have our dinner. Cook half minded agreed to it .They went on to the cellar. Meanwhile  Little john and Friar Truck smells food and enters the castle they found delicious food spread on the table. When they began to eat they heard the cook entering. So,both  hid under the table.     Steward gives ale to the cook and he in return asked steward to taste the  roasted fowl,beef , eggs and pie.

A messenger comes in and informs that sheriff  has returned to the castle and a good news for everyone is that Robin hood is captured. The cook leaves to the kitchen .Sheriff calls steward and ask him to put robin hood  in the prisoner’s cell. He  would die at sunrise.Let the flag  fly from the castle top and  the trumpets blow and greet the  rising sun. The sentry guard was at the door step. Sheriff discuss the proud moment of his life with steward and goes away.

          Little john, goes near the door and comes back wearing sentry’s steel cap ,leather coat and carries the halberd. He calls steward for accompanying him for ale  and pies. They start enjoying their dinner and little john asks steward to lose his belts and have good amount of ale and pie. friar who was still under the table took the jug of ale from steward and drank. Steward shouted that there is devil it drank my ale. little john  tells him that he is tired for the day and need to take bed. The key wass dropped on the table. Little john opened up the cell and brings Robin Hood out. When steward comes out of his bed and starts shouting that he had seen a devil ,sheriff  enters .Sheriff  is taken  by little john he  puts sheriff in the cell and locks him. Sheriff knocks the room continuously. The cook comes near the table and shows steward that, there is no devil here and your key are also on the table. Steward and cook  could not find anybody in the castle other than them. They both went near the prison cell and started staggering over the door. Sheriff knocks the room continuously. Through the keyhole sheriff says robinhood has escaped! open the door  and “tis me Sheriff”!.The stewards jaw drops and his  eyes blink. 

Essay The Anniversary -Anton Chekhov

The Anniversary

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, southern Russia, born 29^th January 1904, the son of a grocer. Chekhov a Physician, dramaturge and author is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov's first novel, Nenunzhaya pobeda (1882), was a success, and gradually he became a full-time writer. ‘The Shooting Party’, ‘The seagull’, ‘The cherry orchard’ are some of his  works.

The Anniversary by Anton Chekov   is a hilarious play about a banker who is  preparing to meet some respected shareholders for the bank’s 15^th anniversary celebrations The play revolves around four principle character.

Mr Andrei Shipuchin – A diligent and hardworking banker who also has a soft corner for women.

Mr.Kirin –Book keeper-The brilliant but short tempered accountant on whom the banker totally depend for preparing an impressive report for the bank.

Ms Tatiana -The banker’s wife- A naive and rather innocent women who is also a chatterbox. She is very young and views life adventurously.

Mrs Merchutkina-The mad women- An old woman who is also a constant pest. She is neither susceptible to logic nor reasoning. Her persistent annoyance and outright lack of sympathy for the banker forms the central theme of the play.

The Act begins with the accountant busy preparing the financial report using the Abacus. He is already worn out  due to  days of continuous work. He tries to put long hours since the banker has promised him a golden watch if the meeting with the shareholders go well. While the accountant is busy with the  calculations the banker walks in along with his customers who wish him good luck for the meeting. The accountant who has been watching all these is not convinced at all. The fact that the banker will corner all the glory of his accounts hard work does not go down well with him. However he continues his work for the watch.

Mrs Tatiana comes to the bank as she has just arrived from her home town after meeting her sister and mother. Instead of going home she has arrived at her husband’s bank. Her husband is surprised   by her visit and spends time with her on a casual talk so as to make her feel good. But he is worried if he was preparing enough for the meeting later in the day. Tatiana continuously kept chattering about her train journey and her sister’s date .However at the end of the room the accountant was growing very impatient and Mrs Tatiana ‘s irrelevant narrations were getting on to his nerves preventing him from focusing on the abacus.

In the midst of all this, suddenly an old woman barged into the bank. She seemed highly agitated and rushed to Mr. Banker’s seat. The banker wondered if this was an aggrieved customer. Only to realise later that she was Mrs. Merchutkina who had come in to ruin his day. Merchutkina wanted the bank to pay her husband’s complete wage of twenty four roubles and thirty six kopecks which she claimed had been wrongly deducted. However Mrs Merchutkina husband never worked with the bank and the bank never had anything to do with the payment of his wages. The banker tried in vain to explain her, but she simply does not comprehend his logic. Instead she continues to demand her twenty four roubles and thirty six  kopecks and that she is a ‘weak and defenceless woman’.

The banker is also  helped by his wife who demands Mrs.Merchutkina to leave the bank immediately. But the woman refuses and is persistent on her demands.

Finally at the end of his wits the accountant who has been silent victim all this while threatens to get her thrown out of the bank if she did not leave by herself. Even this threat did not deter her from demanding her husband’s rightful share of wages.

Realising that there was no way out now, the banker finally hands over twenty four roubles and thirty six kopecks to her which she gleefully accepts and momentarily there is a pause in the commotion. Meanwhile Tataina continues her woeful story to the banker who by now is already drained of his energies. Just  when things were beginning to return to peace again, Mrs.Merchutkina reaches out to the banker and asks “Could my husband have his job back, your Excellency?”

This banker upon reaching the end of his patience orders the accountant to throw her out from the bank. But the accountant mistakes Tatiana to be the cause of the banker’s anger and orders her out instead. In the ensuing confusion, the accountant ends up chasing the mad woman and Tatiana around the bank when the group of Shareholders walk in.

Amidst all this commotion, the shareholders are unmoved and heap praise on Mr Banker on how he had raised the bank to higher reputation. However they stopped their praise midway and announce that they would come back some other day considering that there was hectic activity at the bank at present.

Kinds of Sentences - 1

Kinds of Sentences - 1

    There are 3 types of sentences they are 

1. Simple Sentences
2. Compound Sentences
3. Complex Sentences

What is a simple sentence? 
A sentence which has one subject and one verb.It  also expresses the complete meaning in a sentence.
It is an independent(main) clause.
Eg. Jim exercises daily in the morning.
      s              v
What  is a  Compound Sentence?
A sentence which has one or more subjects and  verb. It is a combination of two independent (main)clause  added by a coordinating conjunction.
Eg. Jim  was exercising so john went out.
      s                  v                  s       v

What  is a  Complex Sentence?
A sentence which has one independent (main) clause and one or more subordinate(dependent) clause. A Complex Sentence always has a subordinating conjunctions.
Eg. I did not see Jim today because  he has gone to exercise.

      s                 v     s               su co           s                       v

Coordinationg conjuctions  some eg are \and\ for\ but .

subordinatong conjuctions are because\since\after\although.

subject is a  name \noun

verb is an  action \ doing a activity.

IC INDEPENDENT CLAUSE

DC DEPENDENT CLAUSE

SC CUBORDINATE CONJUCTION

CC COORDINATING CONJUCTION

S SUBJECT

V VERB

IDIOMS - What Do They Mean?

IDIOMS

Definition of IDIOMS

A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g. over the moon, see the light). - Oxford Dictionary

An idiom (Latin: idioma, "special property", f. Greek: ἰδίωμα – idiōma, "special feature, special phrasing", f. Greek: ἴδιος – idios, "one’s own") is a combination of words that have a figurative meaning owing to its common usage. An idiom's figurative meaning is separate from the literal meaning. There are thousands of idioms and they occur frequently in all languages. There are estimated to be at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language. - Wikipedia

An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for ESL students and learners to understand. - Idiomsite.com

Examples

x

The following sentences contain idioms. The fixed words constituting the idiom in each case are bolded

a. She is pulling my leg. - to pull someone's leg means to trick them by telling them something untrue.

b. When will you drop them a line? - to drop someone a line means to send a note to or call someone.

c. You should keep an eye out for that. - to keep an eye out for something means to maintain awareness of it so that you notice it as it occurs.

d. I can't keep my head above water. - to keep one's head above water means to manage a situation.

e. It's raining cats and dogs. - to rain cats and dogs means to rain very heavily (a downpour).

f. Oh no! You spilled the beans! - to spill the beans means to let out a secret.

g. Why are you feeling blue? - to feel blue means to feel sad.

h. That jacket costs an arm and a leg. – an arm and a leg means something is very expensive.

i. It is not rocket science. – rocket science means something is difficult. Figuratively, not rocket science means not difficult.

j. Put a cork in it. - put a cork in it is an extremely impolite, informal way to say, shut up, be quiet, and stop talking.

SEMINAR-18 OCTOBER 2014

                                                                EVENTS

ONE DAY NATIONAL SEMINAR AT LEMENT COLLEGE KERALA.

Types of Sentences - II

Hi Students,

Let us learn today about the Types of Sentences.

There are  basically four Kinds of sentences in the English Language

• Declarative
• Interrogative 
• Imperative
• Exclamatory

Declarative sentences in the English language are the sentences that form a statement;

• Tomorrow I will go to the store.
• Yesterday I left school early.
• I told her to wear the blue skirt.
• She did not want to eat the pizza that I gave her. 

Interrogative sentences in the English language are the sentences that form a question;

• What do you think I should wear the pink shoes or the white sneakers?
• What did the teacher say to you yesterday?
• Did you go to the movies yesterday?

Imperative sentences in the English language are the sentences that make a command or request;

• Get me some water.
• Leave that cat alone.
• Go to the store for me.
• Bring me some ice.

Exclamatory sentences in the English language are the sentences that attempt to powerful feelings, or emotions;

• I'm leaving!
• I can not wait to graduate!
• I love you so much!
• We beat that other team good!

Quick Note: 

Declarative sentences are the statement sentences,

interrogative sentences are the question sentences, 

imperative sentences are the request and command sentences, or the giving order sentences,

and exclamatory sentences are the ones that show a strong feeling or emotion.

Wordsworth's preface to the lyrical ballads

Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads 

Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

An essay explaining Wordsworth's intentions in writing the Lyrical Ballads, and an analysis of whether or not Wordsworth achieves the intentions stated in the Preface.

After the Lyrical Ballads were published, Wordsworth later wrote a “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,” in order to inform readers of his purpose in writing poems such as “Lines Written in Early Spring,” “Mad Mother,” and “We are Seven.”

One main point of this preface is to relate Wordsworth’s intention to depict the common man, using the common language of man in his poetry.

Another goal outlined in the preface is to show how feeling “gives importance to the action and the situation.”

 A third goal of Wordsworth’s poetry is to illustrate the way in which poetry is a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” Wordsworth clearly achieves these goals for the most part, however seems to not fully display the way in which poetry is this “overflow of feelings.”

Wordsworth makes it very clear in his preface that he wants to depict the common man in a “selection of language really used by men.” He achieves his goal of using common language with lines such as “And I must think, do all I can / That there was pleasure there” from “Lines Written in Early Spring,” that use very simple language. His goals are also achieved as Wordsworth often chooses poor rustic settings to write his poetry about, rather than writing about the fancy courts in which Kings and Queens dwelt. For example, the main character in “Mad Mother” dwells “underneath the hay-stack warm.” Also, the characters of Wordsworth’s poetry, such as the “little cottage girl” in “We are Seven,” are very simple people

Wordsworth uses these simple people in their simple settings to illustrate how feeling “gives importance to the action and situation and not the action and situation to the feeling.” In “Mad Mother” Wordsworth writes “Sweet babe! They say that I am mad, / But nay, my heart is far too glad.” These lines convey the feeling and emotion that the mother feels. Her feelings give importance to the poem, because they illustrate the sadness she feels from having society looking down on her as mad. They also show how happy she is for finding one person, her baby, to love her. Without these strong emotions, the situation in the poem is nothing more than a mother holding her baby. But with the feelings expressed, the “Mad Mother” is able to give the situation feeling and meaning.

While through his poetry, Wordsworth achieves most of the goals outlined in the preface, he does not seem to be completely able to show how poetry is a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.” It is difficult for him to prove this, because the reader cannot see the state that Wordsworth was in when writing the poetry. Although a characters emotions might grow intense, such as when the man in “We are Seven” yells, “ But they are dead; those two are dead!” This does not indicate how intense the poets’ emotions are. Nothing from the poetry itself can clearly indicate the emotions felt by the poet. One can merely guess from their own experiences, that Wordsworth was driven by strong emotions, which helped to guide his poetry.

For the most part, Wordsworth’s collection of poems is a manifestation, illustration, and example of his ideas about poetry. He outlines the goals of his poetry in his preface, and these goals can be easily seen in his poetry. His poetry shows how important the use of common language and common situations are to him. His poetry also illustrates the way that importance comes from the feeling itself, and not the situation. While Wordsworth is unable to prove to his reader that his poetry is derived from his overflowing feelings, his poetry still serves as an excellent example about his beliefs of poetry.