CONCURSUL PENTRU OCUPAREA POSTURILOR DIDACTICE/ CATEDRELOR

DECLARATE VACANTE/ REZERVATE ÎN ÎNVĂŢĂMÂNTUL PREUNIVERSITAR

15 Iulie 2015
Proba scrisă la LIMBA ŞI LITERATURA ENGLEZĂ

SUBIECTUL I (30 de puncte)

Mrs Dalloway (published on 14 May 1925) is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day in
the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a fictional high-society woman in post-First World War England.
It is one of Woolf's best-known novels.
Created from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The
Prime Minister," the novel addresses Clarissa's preparations for a party she will host that
evening. With an interior perspective, the story travels forwards and back in time and in and
out of the characters' minds to construct an image of Clarissa's life and of the inter-war social
structure. In October 2005,Mrs Dalloway was included on TIME magazine's list of the 100
best English-language novels written since 1923.
In 1878, Leslie Stephen and Julia Jackson Duckworth married, a second marriage for
both. They gave birth to Adeline Virginia Stephen four years later, on the 26th of March at 22
Hyde Park Gate, London. Virginia was the third of their four children. Leslie Stephen began
his career as a clergyman but soon became agnostic and took up journalism. He and Julia
provided their children with a home of wealth and comfort.
Though denied the formal education allowed to males, Virginia was able to take
advantage of her father’s abundant library and observe his writing talent, and she was
surrounded by intellectual conversation. The same year Virginia was born, for instance, her
father began editing the huge Dictionary of National Biography. Virginia’s mother, more
delicate than her husband, helped to bring out the more emotional sides of her children. Both
parents were very strong personalities; Virginia would feel overshadowed by them for years.
Virginia would suffer through three major mental breakdowns during her lifetime, and she
would die during a fourth. In all likelihood, the compulsive drive to work that she acquired
from her parents, combined with her naturally fragile state, primarily contributed to these
breakdowns. Yet other factors were important as well. Her first breakdown occurred shortly
following the death of her mother in 1895, which Virginia later described as “the greatest
disaster that could have happened”. Some have suggested that Virginia felt guilt over
choosing her father as her favorite parent. In any case, her father’s excessive mourning period
probably affected her adversely.
Two years later, Virginia’s stepsister Stella Duckworth died. Stella had assumed charge of the
household duties after their mother’s death, causing a rift between her and Virginia. Virginia
fell sick after Stella’s death. The same year, Virginia began her first diary.
Over the next seven years, Virginia’s decision to write took hold and her admiration for
women grew. She educated herself and greatly admired women such as Madge Vaughan,
daughter of John Addington Symonds, who wrote novels and would later be illustrated as
Sally Seton in Mrs. Dalloway.
Her admiration for strong women was coupled with a growing dislike for male domination in
society. Virginia’s feelings were likely affected by her relationship to her stepbrother, George
Duckworth, who was fourteen when Virginia was born. In the last year of her life, Virginia
wrote to a friend regarding the shame she felt when, at the age of six, she was fondled by
George. Similar incidents recurred throughout her childhood until Virginia was in her early
twenties. In 1904 her father died, shortly after finishing the Dictionary and receiving a
knighthood. Though freed from his shadow, Virginia was overcome by the event and suffered
her second mental breakdown, combined with scarlet fever and an attempted suicide.
 Over the course of her many illnesses, however, Woolf had remained productive. Her
intense power of concentration had allowed her to work ten to twelve hours writing. Her most
notable publications include Night and Day, The Mark on the Wall, Jacob’s Room, Monday or
Tuesday, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One’s Own, The Waves,
The Years, and Between the Acts. In total, her work comprises five volumes of collected
essays and reviews, two biographies (Flush and Roger Fry), two libertarian books, a volume
of selections from diary, nine novels, and a volume of short stories.
In Jacob’s Room, the novel preceding Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf works with many
of the same themes she later expand upon in Mrs. Dalloway. To Mrs. Dalloway, she added the
theme of insanity. As Woolf stated, “I adumbrate here a study of insanity and suicide; the
world seen by the sane and the insane side by side.” However, even the theme that would lead
Woolf to create a double for Clarissa Dalloway can be viewed as a progression of other
similar ideas cultivated in Jacob’s Room. Woolf’s next novel, then, was a natural
development from Jacob’s Room, as well as an expansion of the stories she wrote before
deciding to make Mrs. Dalloway into a full novel.
The Dalloways had been introduced in the novel, The Voyage Out, but Woolf presented the
couple in a harster light than she did in later years. Richard is domineering and pompous.
Clarissa is dependent and superficial. Some of these qualities remain in the characters of Mrs.
Dalloway but the two generally appear much more reasonable and likeable. Clarissa was
modeled after a friend of Woolf’s named Kitty Maxse, whom Woolf thought to be a
superficial socialite. Though she wanted to comment upon the displeasing social system,
Woolf found it difficult at times to respond to a character like Clarissa. She discovered a
greater amount of depth to the character of Clarissa Dalloway in a series of short stories, the
first of which was titled, “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street”, published in 1923. The story would
serve as an experimental first chapter to Mrs. Dalloway. A great number of similar short
stories followed and soon the novel became inevitable. As critic Hermione Lee details, “On
14 October 1922 [Woolf] recorded that Mrs. Dalloway has branched into a book’, but it was
sometime before [Woolf] could find the necessary balance between design and substance.”
Within the next couple years, Woolf became inspired by a ‘tunneling’ writing process,
allowing her to dig ‘caves’ behind her characters and explore their souls. As Woolf wrote to
painter Jacques Raverat, it is “precisely the task of the writer to go beyond the ‘formal railway
line of sentence’ and to show how people ‘feel or think or dream … all over the place’. “ In
order to give Clarissa more substance, Woolf created Clarissa’s memories. Woolf used
characters from her own past in addition to Kitty Maxse, such as Madge Symonds, on whom
she based Sally Seton. Woolf held a similar type of affectionate devotion for Madge at the age
of fifteen as a young Clarissa held for Sally.
The theme of insanity was close to Woolf’s past and present. She originally planned to have
Clarissa die or commit suicide at the end of the novel but finally decided that she did want
manner of closure for Clarissa. As critic Manly Johnson elaborates, “The original intention to
have Clarissa kill herself ‘in the pattern of Woolf’s own intermittent despair’ was rejected in
favor of a ‘dark double’ who would take that act upon himself. Creating Septimus led directly
to Clarissa’s mystical theory of vicarious death and shared existence, saving the novel from a
damaging balance on the side of darkness.” Still, the disassociation of crippling insanity from
the character of Clarissa Dalloway did not completely save Woolf from the pain of
recollection. Woolf’s husband and close friends compared her periods of insanity to a manic
depression quite similar to the episode experienced by Septimus. Woolf also included
frustratingly impersonal doctor types in Bradshaw and Holmes that reflected doctors she had
visited throughout the years.
As the novel focused mainly on the character of Clarissa Dalloway, Woolf changed the name
of the novel to Mrs. Dalloway from its more abstract working title, The Hours, before
publishing it. Woolf struggled to combine many elements that impinged on her sensibility as
she wrote the novel. The title, Mrs. Dalloway, best suited her attempts to join them together.
As Woolf commented, “In this book I have almost too many ideas. I want to give life and
death, sanity and insanity; I want to criticize the social system, and to show it at work, at its
most intense.” Furthermore, she hoped to respond to the stagnant state of the novel, with a
consciously ‘modern’ novel. Many critics believe she succeeded. The novel was published in
1925, and received much acclaim.
Woolf creates a new novelistic structure in Mrs. Dalloway wherein her prose has
blurred the distinction between dream and reality, between the past and present. An authentic
human being functions in this manner, simultaneously from the conscious to the unconscious,
from the fantastic to the real, and from memory to the moment.
Woolf also strived to illustrate the vain artificiality of Clarissa’s life and her
involvement in it. The detail given and thought provoked in one day of a woman’s preparation
for a party, a simple social event exposes the flimsy lifestyle of England’s upper classes at the
time of the novel. Even though Clarissa is affected by Septimus’ death and is bombarded by
profound thoughts throughout the novel, she is also a woman for whom a party is her greatest
offering to society. The thread of the Prime Minister throughout, the near fulfilling of Peter’s
prophecy concerning Clarissa’s role, and the characters of the doctors, Hugh Whitbread, and
Lady Bruton as compared to the tragically mishandled plight of Septimus, throw a critical
light upon the social circle examined by Woolf.
Woolf portrays the sane grasping for significant and substantial connections to life,
living among those who have been cut off from such connections and who suffer because of
the improper treatment they receive. The critic, Ruotolo, excellently develops the idea behind
the theme: “Estranged from the sanity of others, ‘rooted to the pavement’, the veteran
[Septimus] asks for what purpose’ he is present. Virginia Woolf’s novel honors and extends
his question. He perceives a beauty in existence that his age has almost totally disregarded;
his vision of new life … is a source of joy as well as madness. Unfortunately, the glimpse of
beauty that makes Septimus less forlorn is anathema to an age that worships like Septimus’
inhuman doctor, Sir William Bradshow, the twin goddesses Proportion’ and Conversion.”

b) In Mrs Dalloway, all of the action, aside from the flashbacks, takes place on a day in June.
It is an example of stream of consciousness storytelling: every scene closely tracks the
momentary thoughts of a particular character. Woolf blurs the distinction
between direct and indirect speech throughout the novel, freely alternating her mode of
narration between omniscient description, indirect interior monologue, and soliloquy The
narration follows at least twenty characters in this way, but the bulk of the novel is spent with
Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Smith.
Because of structural and stylistic similarities, Mrs Dalloway is commonly thought to be a
response to James Joyce's Ulysses, a text that is often considered one of the greatest novels of
the twentieth century (though Woolf herself, writing in 1928, apparently denied this). In her
essay "Modern Fiction," Woolf praised Ulysses, saying of the scene in the cemetery, "on a
first reading at any rate, it is difficult not to acclaim a masterpiece."]) The Hogarth Press, run
by her and her husband Leonard, had to turn down the chance to publish the novel in 1919,
because of the obscenity law in England, as well as the practical issues regarding publishing
such a substantial text.
Woolf laid out some of her literary goals with the characters of Mrs Dalloway while still
working on the novel. A year before its publication, she gave a talk at Cambridge University
called "Character in Fiction," revised and retitled later that year as "Mr. Bennett and Mrs.
Brown."
 The novel has two main narrative lines involving two separate characters (Clarissa
Dalloway and Septimus Smith); within each narrative there is a particular time and place in
the past that the main characters keep returning to in their minds. For Clarissa, the
"continuous present" (Gertrude Stein's phrase) of her charmed youth at Bourton keeps
intruding into her thoughts on this day in London. For Septimus, the "continuous present" of
his time as a soldier during the "Great War" keeps intruding, especially in the form of Evans,
his fallen comrade.

SUBIECTUL al II-lea

a) Non-continuous verbs are verbs that we do not normally use with continuous tenses. These
"stative" verbs are about state, not action, and they cannot express the continuous or
progressive aspect. Here are some of the most common non-continuous verbs:
feeling: hate, like, love, prefer, want, wish
senses: appear, feel, hear, see, seem, smell, sound, taste
communication: agree, deny, disagree, mean, promise, satisfy, surprise
thinking: believe, imagine, know, mean, realize, recognize, remember, understand
other states: be, belong, concern, depend, involve, matter, need, owe, own, possess

b)
1. Only after a workable solution had been found would the news be released.
2. The lack of hard evidence prevented the jury from reaching a decision.
3. She has gone off the idea.
4. We needn’t have fought over such a trifle.
5. I’m afraid Ann will have to be taken to hospital.

c. Write one word in each gap. 10 points

Rarely_____1) one find as clear an account of social change as Olivia Harris’s Changing
Britain.
Those who prefer to bury their heads in the _____2) and imagine that Britain is the same as
it was
even 20 years ago are in _____3) a shock. Harris convincingly argues that not only have
those
_____4) authority increased their power, _____5) ordinary people are also less likely to
stand up to
those in office. At _____6) point in the book _____7) any of Harris’s claims presented without
evidence, and _____8) does she talk down to the non-expert. Her main conclusion, that
_____9)
until we all realize that _____10) is a problem and decide to confront the authorities will the
situation improve, is powerful and irresistible.

1. does/can/will, 2. sand, 3. for, 4.in, 5.but, 6. no, 7. are, 8. neither, 9. not, 10. there.

SUBIECTUL al III-lea (30 de puncte)

a. 12 points
Based on the text from SUBJECT 1, devise a pre-reading activity:
specify the objectives 2 points
specify the estimated time 1 point
indicate the level of your students 1 point
describe the stages of the activity
Form: 11 th grade
Lesson: V. Woolf, Mrs Dalloway- a short passage
Aims: - to prepare the reading
- to introduce the novel to students
Objectives: -SWBAT use their knowledge of the English language to read a literary text
- SWBAT use the English language to express their thoughts and feelings
- SWBAT use the new vocabulary in new contexts
Lesson type: reading lesson
Skills: reading, listening, speaking, writing
Stage: pre- reading
Activity: The teacher tells students that they are going to read an excerpt from an American
novel. The teacher reads some passages from the beginning of the novel,to introduce it to
students and asks students to take turns and read the passage. Teacher asks tehm to
imagine what kind of situation it is and how they feel about it. The students work in pairs and
write four sentences containing suppositions.
Techniques: Brainstorming
Listening
Discussion
Prediction
Writing
Interractions: IW,PW

b. 18 points
Devise three exercises based on three types of ‘indirect’ items to measure students’ ability to
express condition (five items per each exercise). 3 exercises x 6 points
Content 3 points
Specify the time limit and the students’ level 1 point
Mention the learning objectives 1 point
Provide the answer key

1. Recent work: if clause

Aim: feedback for the acquisition of the item
Fill in the blanks- 3 minutes
Instruction: Fill in the correct form of the verb in brackets:
1. She.......(cook) a better meal if she had had her mother’s receipe
2. She will only come with us if John ........( come), too

Answer key: 1. would have cooked

2.comes
2. Transformation- 3 minutes
Instruction: Rewrite the following sentences:
a) I didn’t finish my work because nobody helped me. I would.....
b) I don’t have enough money so I won’t go on a trip. If I had.....

Answer key: a) would have finished my work if somebody had helped me.
b)had had enough money I woul hve gone on the trip.

3.Translation – 4 minutes
Introduction: Translate into English:
1. Daca ai fi venit cu noi, l-ai fi intalnit pe Nicu.
2. Nu va putea cumpara bicicleta decat daca va primi bani de ziua lui.

Answer key:
1. If you had come with us, you would have met Nicu.
2. He can’t buy the bike unless he gets money for his bitrhday.