Waterloo - Summary | Major (Optional) English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "Waterloo"
Major (Optional) English
Grade: XII | Unit: Play in One Act

Arthur Conan Doyle

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s play “Waterloo” the main character is Corporal Gregory Brewster. He is 96 years old, looked after by a housekeeper. It was rumored that he was not being looked after properly. So his grand-niece Norah is sent by her parents from Essex to look after him. Even McDonald of Royal Artillery and Colonel Midwinter of Scots Guards come to see him.

On His Blindness - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "On His Blindness"
Major (Optional) English
Grade: XII | Unit: Generations

John Milton

John Milton’s sonnet ‘On His Blindness’ enlightens us about Milton's blindness, his mental anguish and his desire to serve God.He begins the poem by lamenting how he wasted his ability to see. In this poem he used word light for vision. He also used word light to represent the spirituality and he meant here that how he ignored his spiritual capacity. He further tells that he will spend his remaining half of the life in darkness.

Zeroing in on Science Friction - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "Zeroing in on Science Friction"
Major (Optional) English
Grade: XII | Unit: Encounters
Gray Goshgarian

In his essay "Zeroing in on Science Fiction" Gary Goshgarin defines science fiction as the branch of literature that imaginatively speculates the human life in scientific or technological world.

A Day In The Life of Salaryman - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "A Day In The Life of Salaryman"
Major (Optional) English
Grade: XII | Unit: Encounters
John Burgess

The 'Salaryman' described in "A Day in the Life of a Salaryman " is the representative of average male Japanese white-collar worker who devotes his soul and body to his company. He is a university graduate, lives in mortgaged house, always wears formal dress and is equipped with every essential items. He is the industrial warrior and a driving force behind Japan's economic success. He gives more preference to the office than his own family.

The Romancers - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "The Romancers"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Play in One Act

Edmond Rostand

In his play “The Romancers” Edmond Rostand satirizes the sentimentalism and escapism of Romantic literature of his times. Percinet is the only son of Bergamin and Sylvette is the only daughter of Pasquinot. Their fathers who are widowers and neighbours make a plan to marry their children with each other.

What Is Poverty ? - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "What Is Poverty ?"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Encounter

Jo Goodwin Parker

Jo Goodwin Parker in her realistic essay "What is Poverty" gives a real and graphic account of what being poor actually means on a daily basis. Parker stresses that poverty is more ugly, cruel and devastating than it is shown in newspapers.

The Time Factor - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "The Time Factor"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Encounter

Gloria Steinem

`The main thesis of Gloria Steinem's essay "The Time Factor" is that our sense of time is partly a function of power or lack of it. Time-sense is always governed by power- either monetary power or social power. Planning ahead depends on class, sex and caste.

The Happy Journey - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "The Happy Journey"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Plays in One Act

Thornton Wilder

"The Happy Journey" written by Thornton Wilder, describes a simple journey of the Kirby family from their home to Camden, to visit the family's married daughter Beulah. Beulah was sick while giving birth to a dead child and had to undergo operation.

Riders To The Sea - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "Riders To The Sea"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Plays in One Act

J.M Synge

"Riders to the Sea" written by J.M Synge portrays the hardships and sufferings of Maurya who lives in the Aryan Island. Often critics identify Maurya with mother Ireland who has been losing her sons due to war, famine, poverty and diseases.

Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day - Summary | Major (Optional) English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Generations

William Shakespear

The poem starts with a flattering question to the beloved—"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The beloved is both "more lovely and more temperate" than a summer's day. The speaker lists some negative things about summer: it is short, rough winds in summer disturb the buds, sometimes the sunshine makes the temperature too hot and other times sun often hides behind clouds.

The Tiger - Summary | Major (Optional) English Class 12

Major English | Notes
Summary of "The Tiger"
Major (Optional) English
Class: 12 | Unit: Generations

William Blake

The Tiger is the Masterpiece of God’s creation on earth. Through the thick cover of darkness of the unexplored forest, the Tiger, with his bright burning eyes, moves in majesty and his presence is felt by other animals of the woods. With a perfect eye and a mighty hand God-The Creator planned the perfect ‘Symmetry’ of this creature that is capable of striking fear in the hearts of every fauna on the face of this earth, including man.

Enemies - Summary | Major (Optional) English Class 12

Notes | English
Summary of "Enemies"
Unit: Encounters | Anton Checkov
Subject: Major (Optional) English Class 12

"Enemies" is a story written by Anton Checkov. The story suggests that grief and misery do not bring people together to share, but force them apart. Pain is egoistic.

An Episode of War - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English | Short Stories
Summary of "An Episode of War"
By: Stephen Crane
Class : 12 | For: Humanities and Education

'An Episode of War' written by Stephen Crane presents the bitter experience of a wounded lieutenant at the war front, barracks and hospital. Crane hasn't given name to the lieutenant but used generic name in order to show that war is bitter experience not for an individual only but for all soldiers of any nationality, place and time.

The Use of Force - Summary | Major English Class 12

Major English
Summary of "The Use of Force"
Willams Carlos Williams

Class: 12 | For: Humanities and Education

"The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams shows the conflict between a doctor and his patient at one level and doctor and the parents at another level. The conflict between doctor and the patient is physical. But the conflict between doctor and parents is psychological. This story tells that use of force for benevolent purpose is ethical and justifiable.

Grandmother - Ray Young Bear | Critical Summary - The Heritage of Words

Unit: Love and Reminiscence
Critical Summary of Grand Mother - The Heritage of Words
Class: 12

In this poem, the poet draws the picture of his grand mother, all loving, inspiring. The poet figure out cultural identity of American Indian or Misquaki people. In their culture, they provide high owner to their grandmother. The women work in the field. They were typical close; however their culture is nowadays not pure. The purple scarf and the plastic shopping bag is not their cultural apparition even after grandmother death, the poet remembers her.

The Heritage of Words - Complete Summary | Compulsory English Class 12

English | Unit-Wise Summary
The Heritage of Words - Complete Summary
Class: 12

The objectives of this selection, The Heritage of Words, is to help readers acquire sensitivity and involvement in the act of reading, and look at both the abstract and tangible of aspect life with insight and understanding. 

The tests have been grouped under eight headings. This grouping is a heuristically productive device. It also helps readers work out a system of reference to knowledge that the texts represents. The texts cover a wide range of themes, but they introduced the themes not only as a matter of encyclopedic significance but also as a way of developing reader's sensitivity to look at various aspects of reality, art and letters.

The Boarding House - Summary | The Heritage of Words

English | Summary
Unit Eight : Playing with Text
The Boarding House
Wilhelm Grimn
The Heritage of Words

After a difficult marriage with a drunken husband that ends in separation, Mrs. Mooney opens a boarding house to make a living. Jack, her son and Polly, her daughter live with her in the house, which is occupied by clerks from the city, as well as occasional tourists and musicians. Mrs. Mooney runs a strict and tight business and is known by the lodgers as “The Madam.” Polly, who used to work in an office, now stays at home at her mother’s request, to amuse the lodgers and help with the cleaning. Surrounded by so many young men, Polly ultimately develops a relationship with a rich thirty five years old Mr. Doran.

Gretel - Summary | The Heritage of Words

English | Summary
Unit Eight : Playing With Text
Gretel
Garrison Keillor
The Heritage of Words

‘Gretel’ by Garrison Keillor is an interpretation of the story "Hansel and Gretel" from the perspective of a female. The interpreter is Gretel who denies her cowardice in the original story. She claims that the depiction is distorted one. Gretel says that there was an understanding between her and her brother to sell their story to Grimm brothers. They had signed in a contract paper with an agreement to share fifty-fifty of the profit. But unexpectedly, Gretel found the story published the other day totally different order.

Hansel and Gretel - Summary | The Heritage of Words

English | Summary
Unit Eight : Playing With Text
Hansel and Gretel
Jacob and Wilhelm
The Heritage of Words

Once there was a famine in a country, which compelled the step mother to think of leaving the children to the forest. The father yielded to the wish of wife, as she was pigheaded. In the morning, the step mother asked them to get ready to go to the forest. Hansel had collected pebbles as he had heard the conversation of parents the earlier night. As they left their home, the boy dropped pebbles on the way. After walking for some duration, they reached to a spot where the step mother asked the children to wait till they return back. But it was only a trick to leave the children in the forest.

Purgatory - Summary | The Heritage of Words

English | Summary
Unit Seven : Crime and Confession
Purgatory
William Butler Yeats
The Heritage of Words

The boy and his father walk on the moonlight night; they are near a ruined house. Pointing towards the house, the old man describes the past of it. The house used to be occupied by his mother and her husband. The mother of the old man had married with the groom of the stable as soon as she met him. The man later turned out to be a drunkard and gambler. Due to drinking and gambling, he emptied everything he had. The mother died while giving birth to him.