Important Questions | Galileo Galilei By Brecht | Eureka Study Aids

1. Explain the following extracts with reference to the context.

(i) I like to think it all started with ships. From times immemorial ships had hugged the shores, but suddenly they abandoned the shores and sailed out the oceans. 

(ii) Why does he make the earth the centre of the universe? So that the See of St. Peter can be the centre of the earth! That's it what it is all about. 

(iii) An apple from the tree of knowledge! He's wolfing it down. His is damned for ever, but he has got to wolf it down, the poor glutton. 

2. Explain the following extracts with reference to the context. 

(i) What do you want to explain? You are fully in line with the Holy Congregation's decree of 1616. You cannot be faulted. 

(ii) They are making you plough water. They allow you pens and paper to keep you quiet. How can you possibly write when you know what's the purpose. 

(iii) The transcript is inside that globe. Should you think of taking it to Holland, you would of course have to bear the entire responsibility. In that case you would have bought it from someone who had access to the original in the Holy Office. 

3. Explain the following extracts with reference to the context.

(i) In my spare time, of which I have plenty, I have gone over my case and considered how it is going to be judged by that world of science of which I no longer count myself a member. 

(ii) These selfish and domineering men, having greedily exploited the fruit of science, found that the cold eye of science had been turned on a primeval but contrived poverty that could clearly be swept away if they were swept away themselves. 

(iii) A human race with shambles around in a pearly haze of superstition and old saws, too ignorant to develop its own powers, will never be able to develop those powers of nature which you people are revealing to it.

4. Brecht As a Dramatist
5. Major Themes in 'Galileo Galili' 
6. 'Galileo Galili' As an Anti-Religious Play
7. Character Sketch of Galileo
8. Galileo's Dilemma 

Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asghar