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This section provides NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Woven Words Essay 2: My Three Passions, designed to deepen students’ understanding of the essay’s themes of love, knowledge, and compassion for human suffering. The solutions analyse the essay’s tone, themes, and literary devices, helping students in effective exam preparation. You can also download the free PDF for quick revision.
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NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Woven Words Essay 2: My Three Passions
Here are the NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Woven Words Essay 2: My Three Passions, crafted to enhance comprehension of the essay’s themes, reflective style, and philosophical insights for effective revision.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
- Why does Russell call the three passions ‘simple’?
Russell calls the three passions, longing for love, search for knowledge, and pity for the suffering of mankind, “simple” because they are fundamental, instinctive drives that are straightforward in their essence, despite their profound impact. In the essay, he introduces them as “simple but overwhelmingly strong,” suggesting that their simplicity lies in their universal and innate nature, common to human experience. Unlike complex or abstract desires, these passions are direct: love seeks connection, knowledge seeks understanding, and pity responds to suffering. Their simplicity makes them relatable, yet their strength shapes his life’s course, as they “have governed my life” with an elemental force.
- Why has he compared the three passions to great winds?
Russell compares the three passions to “great winds” to convey their powerful, uncontrollable influence on his life. In the essay, he writes that these passions “like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish.” This metaphor illustrates how the passions drive him unpredictably, like winds pushing a ship across a turbulent sea. Their force is both dynamic and overwhelming, leading him through moments of ecstasy and despair, beyond his control, shaping his life’s direction with their relentless energy.
- What, according to Russell, is the importance of love in life?
According to Russell, love is crucial in life for three reasons. First, it brings “ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy,” highlighting its capacity to provide profound happiness. Second, it relieves “that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable, lifeless abyss,” offering connection and solace against existential isolation. Third, in the “union of love,” Russell sees “in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined,” suggesting love provides a glimpse of an ideal, almost divine state. He concludes that, despite seeming “too good for human life,” he has found this love, underscoring its transformative and essential role.
- How does Russell’s definition of knowledge differ from what is commonly understood by the term?
Russell’s definition of knowledge is broader and more philosophical than the common understanding of knowledge as factual or practical information. He describes his search for knowledge as a desire to “understand the hearts of men,” “know why the stars shine,” and “apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway over the flux.” This encompasses emotional understanding (human hearts), scientific curiosity (stars), and abstract mathematical principles (Pythagorean power), reflecting a holistic quest for wisdom across human, natural, and philosophical realms. Unlike the common view of knowledge as accumulated data or skills, Russell’s pursuit is driven by a deep curiosity about existence itself, though he admits achieving only “a little of this, but not much,” indicating its vast, aspirational nature.
- Why is the quality of pity earth-bound while the other two passions are elevating?
Pity is described as “earth-bound” because it anchors Russell in the harsh realities of human suffering, such as “children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons,” which “reverberate in my heart” and “make a mockery of what human life should be.” This passion ties him to earthly pain and injustice, causing personal suffering as he longs but fails to alleviate it. In contrast, love and knowledge are elevating because they “led upward toward the heavens.” Love offers ecstasy and a vision of an ideal “heaven” imagined by saints and poets, while knowledge seeks universal truths about human hearts, stars, and numbers, aspiring toward intellectual and spiritual heights. Pity, however, grounds him in the tangible, inescapable sorrows of the world.
- How have the three passions contributed to the quality of Russell’s life?
The three passions, love, knowledge, and pity, have profoundly shaped the quality of Russell’s life by giving it depth, purpose, and fulfilment despite anguish. Love provided moments of ecstasy, relief from loneliness, and a vision of an ideal state, making life joyful and meaningful, as he notes, “this is what at least I have found.” The search for knowledge, though only partially achieved, enriched his intellectual life, fueling curiosity about human hearts, stars, and mathematical truths. Pity, while causing pain due to his inability to alleviate suffering, deepened his empathy and connection to humanity, grounding his aspirations in compassion. Together, these passions drove him through a “wayward course” of highs and lows, yet he concludes, “I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again,” affirming that they made his life profoundly rewarding.
Also Read: NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 1 A Photograph (Free PDF)
Download NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Woven Words Essay 2: My Three Passions
You can download the free PDF of NCERT Solutions Class 11 English Woven Words Essay 2: My Three Passions for effective revision.
Download more NCERT Solutions of Class 11 English ‘Woven Words’ here!
| Essay 1: My Watch |
| Essay 3: Patterns of Creativity |
| Essay 4: Tribal Verse |
| Essay 5: What is a Good Book? |
| Essay 6: The Story |
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