Thought Shots

I am so glad that my exams are over. The english lit exams, i have noticed, tend to test you on a number of different levels. You have to go through the views of about a thousand critics for a work about which you have formed your own strong opinions. And besides, there is the constantly nagging need to excel in the exams. And when i say 'excel', i mean that you need to put what the examiner might make of your answers above what you really think about the works that you have studied. Of course, I made some great discoveries regarding the masterpieces that were listed in my course. For example, I came to know that Sir Phillip Sidney's name might have been the inspiration for the character of Phillip Pirrip (nicknamed Pip) in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations . Also, that the name of the heroine in that novel, i.e., Estella might have been derived from the title of the sonnets by Sidney named Astrophel and Stella . I had the chance to acquaint myself with the pa