UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2026 — English Literature Paper I: Question Paper | Plutus IAS

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10 Sep UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2026 — English Literature Paper I: Question Paper | Plutus IAS

Posted at 10 Sep 2026 in UPSC by
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The questions below are from English Literature Paper I of UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2026 (held 2026-08-30) — the actual paper, which is public government content. This page carries the questions for reference and revision; model answers for this paper are not published here.

Official paper (PDF): upsc.gov.in.

  1. Write short notes on the following in about 200 words each : 10×5=50 – (a) Conventions of epic poetry – (b) King Lear as a Shakespearean tragic hero – (c) Wordsworth's philosophy of nature – (d) Use of satire in a mock-epic – (e) Emergence of realism in the Victorian novel
  2. Answer all of the following : – (a) Discuss the title of *The Tempest*. How are the plot and the relationships in the play tempestuous? 20 – (b) John Donne “displays an astonishing variety of attitudes, viewpoints and feelings on the subject of love and religion”. Discuss. 15 – (c) Examine the idea of self-deception in *A Doll's House*. 15
  3. Answer all of the following : – (a) John Milton recasts the epic genre as well as epic heroism in *Paradise Lost*. Discuss with reference to the books prescribed for your study. 20 – (b) *In Memoriam* is intensely personal yet expresses the doubts of Tennyson's age. Explain. 15 – (c) How does Romantic poetry rebel against the norms of neo-classical writing? 15
  4. Answer all of the following : – (a) What is meant by the 'flowering' of the Renaissance in literary terms? Discuss with respect to Renaissance drama. 20 – (b) The critical impulse in Restoration satires was reformatory rather than revolutionary. Discuss with reference to *The Rape of the Lock*. 15 – (c) How does Wordsworth deploy “the language really used by men” in his poetry? Explain with examples from his poems. 15 KVMS-U-ENG/27 2 # **SECTION—B**
  5. Analyse the following poem critically and answer *all* the questions that follow : 10×5=50 The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits—on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night air ! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen ! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another ! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. (a) Explain the symbolism of the sea. KVMS-U-ENG/27 3 [ P.T.O. (c) What does the poet invest his hopes in? (d) Explain the phrase “ignorant armies clash by night”. (e) How does the poet build the mood of the poem? Comment on the imagery of the poem.
  6. Answer all of the following : (a) Jonathan Swift transports the reader to strange imaginary lands to vex and unsettle assumptions about the human world. Discuss. 20 (b) Analyse how Dickens offers a critique of capitalism in Hard Times. 15 (c) Explore Tess of the d’Urbervilles as a critique of sexual violence, misogyny and victim-blaming. 15
  7. Answer all of the following : (a) How do Maggie Tulliver and Elizabeth Bennet represent contrasting models of female selfhood in the nineteenth century novel? 20 (b) Is Huckleberry Finn a realist novel or does it move beyond realism into satire and moral allegory? 15 (c) The growth of the print industry, and of the literate population contributed to the rise of the English novel. Elucidate. 15
  8. Answer all of the following : (a) How is Fielding’s Tom Jones “a comic epic poem in prose”? 20 (b) Critically analyse Pride and Prejudice as a timeless critique of social pressures and as a search for the self within a mundane life. 15 (c) Explore how The Mill on the Floss depicts the complexities of familial relationships through the characters of Maggie and Tom Tulliver. 15 ★★★ KVMS-U-ENG/27 4 SB27—264

Questions reproduced from the official paper for study purposes; verify on the exam-conducting body’s official website.

Related — other papers of this exam

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