Subodh Bhattarai (English & Communication Notes - BBA/BBS/BBBS/BHM/BIM/BMS/MBA/MBS & +2)

  CHARACTERS : Wasserkopf The Principal The Mathematics Master The Physics Master The History Master The Geography Master  The Servant The Staff Leaderer SUMMARY :  The play Refund is written by Fritz Karinthy , a famous Hungarian playwright in 1938. He is known for his works You Write Like This , A Trip Around My Skull and Professor . The one-act play Refund was adopted and translated by the American playwright Percival Wilde .  The Refund is an absurd and satirical play. It satirises the present-day education system, which doesn’t prepare students for their career. It is full of humour which deals with an unusual situation. The play is about a former student of a school in Hungary named Wasserkopf . In German Wasserkopf means a “Waterhead”, an eccentric/abnormal person. He is a good- for- nothing fellow who goes back to the school in which he had studied and demands a refund of the fees he had paid. He claims that he had learnt nothing at ...

Characters : Don Gonzalo (The Gallant Lover) Dona Laura (The Silver Maiden) Petra (Laura’s maid) Juanito (Don’s Servant) Summary : ‘ A Sunny Morning ’ is a short, one-act play by Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero , two renowned Spanish dramatists and brothers. It is a romantic comedy which presents the story of Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura who, loved each other in their youth but were forced to separate in life. In the play on a sunny autumn morning in a quiet corner of a park in Madrid, Dona Laura, a beautiful, white-haired lady of about seventy, refined in appearance, is feeding cereals to pigeons in the park. Don Gonzalo, a gentleman of seventy, gouty and impatient, enters. Their servants Petra , Dona Laura’s maid, and Juanito , Don Gonzalo's servant who have been escorting them, go nearby. The conversation between the two seventy-year-olds begins sarcastically, with each accusing the other of intruding on their private space. Don Gonzalo complains the priests have taken hi...

Susan Glaspell was born in 1876 and raised in rural Iowa. Despite the prevailing opinions of her community, she believed in a woman’s right to education and pursued her studies, enrolling at Drake University where she excelled in the male-dominated debate competitions. After college, Glaspell worked as a journalist covering murder cases. Trifles is based on one case she covered; Glaspell resigned her post after seeing the woman in the case convicted of murdering her abusive husband. She wrote Trifles in 1916. Her play Alison's House (1930) earned the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1931. Glaspell is today recognised as a pioneering feminist writer and America's first important modern female playwright. She died of pneumonia on July 27, 1948. Historical Context of Trifles Feminism in the early 20th century focused primarily on practical achievements toward the attainment of legal equality, particularly the fight for women’s suffrage (right to vote) and equal employment. This ...

In the essay ' Scientific Research is a Token of Humankind’s Survival ',  Keilis-Borok writes about his profession as a scientist, and views that science is the humankind’s essential guardian and caretaker. According to the writer, being a scientist is more exciting than being a doctor or an engineer because a scientist gets freedom, camaraderie/friendship and independence in doing work. Then honours and promotions depends on hard work. The discovery is a reward in itself. “ Why is it that some of us still decide to become scientists, despite the fact that businessmen, lawyers, and doctors enjoy a much higher income ?” Vladimir asked and answered. “ A famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy once wrote that a writer is not merely a person who writes; a writer is a person who cannot live without writing. The same, I believe, is true for a scientist. Science is an exciting adventure where major rewards come from the discovery itself. What you get instead of big money is freedom, camar...

Jo Goodwin Parker was an anonymous person from West Virginia, the Southern United States. Parker mailed her essay to George Henderson, preferring that the editor present no byline. George Henderson, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, received it while he was writing his 1971 book, America’s Other Children: Public Schools Outside Suburbia.  It was signed “Jo Goodwin Parker” . No further information was ever discovered about the essay or its source. Whether the author of this essay was in reality a woman describing her own painful experiences or a sympathetic writer who had adopted her persona, Jo Goodwin Parker remains a mystery. So in keeping with the spirit of its initial publication, Parker’s essay is kept here without any biographical data about its author.  Jo Goodwin Parker’s essay, “ What is Poverty? ” is about Parker who has personally experienced rural poverty. She explains her story from childhood to adulthood.  Her struggles are overwhelming. Using examp...

J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) was a British-Indian scientist known for his work in the study of physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics who enjoyed participating in war, experimenting on himself, and declaring himself a Communist. His formal schooling was done at Eton College and New College at Oxford. He obtained his M.A. in 1914. Soon after, Haldane enlisted in the British Army and served during World War I . After returning from the war, Haldane began his teaching career at University.   From 1937 to 1950, he wrote a column on science for the London Daily Worker . After he and his wife moved to India, Haldane wrote similar articles from 1957 to 1964 for The Hindu in Chennai (Madras). Haldane's first paper in 1915 demonstrated genetic linkage in mammals. Haldane was a professed socialist, Marxist, atheist and humanist. His political dissent led him to renounce (waive) his British citizenship in 1956 and live in India, becoming a naturalised Indian citizen....