英国文学选读 课后习题

Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
1.How does Tess react to Clare’s suggestion that they should leave their
shelter?Why?
She showed a strange unwillingness to move. Because she doesn’t want to put an end to all that’s sweet and lovely peacefulness and affection.
2.What is the significance of Tess resting on an altar in the heathen temple?
1）She is the sacrifice of the social conventions and prejudice which society has placed upon her
2）In Hardy's eyes, she is the epitome of the purity of women, as pure as the sacrifices which are placed upon the altar.
3）She knows the fate which is about to befall upon her, just as the sacrifices on the altar, inescapable death.
4）Her death is caused by human hypocrisy and foolishness, similar to that of a sacrifice.
5）At the end, the only place which can accept her for who she is is death and sacrifice.
6）Biblical allusion. Parallel to phrase the first, when Abraham and her where on the carriage. Similar to the biblical story where Abraham was to sacrifice his son, the family sacrificed Tess.
3. Comment on this sentence:“Justice’ was done,and the President of the
lmmortals(in Aeschyleanphrase )had ended his sport with Tess”.In what sense is Tess’ s tory tragic?
(1)Tess is a typical victim of the society. Poverty of the family, inhumanity, injustice and
hypocrisy of the society decide her tragedy. The two men—the one who takes away her virginity and purity, the other who takes away her love but deserts her on the very weding night—though apparent rivals, join their forces in bringing about her final destruction.
Hers is a personal tragedy; it can also be a social one.(2)The tragic fate of Tess and her family was not that of an individual family, but it was symbolic of the disintegration of the English peasantry--- a process which had reached its final and tragic stage at the end of 19th century
James Joyce Araby P171
1.What is the significance of the title of the story?
1. Araby is “a splendid bazaar” where Mangan’s sister recommends the boy to go. Thereafter the boy’s imagination seizes upon the name Araby and invests its syllables with “an Eastern enchantment” in which his “soul luxuriates”
2. Araby becomes a place where his soul can find the mystical beauty lacking in his own mundane Church.
3. The boy feels a summons that has symbolic over-tones of a holy crusade.But when he arrives, Araby , the dream new world for the boy ,turned out to be “darkness” and “silence”. His idealized vision of Araby is destroyed, along with his idealized vision of Mangan’s sister, and of love.
2.Chief qualities of the boy’s character?
The boy is a natural character with which to begin a book because he possesses so many qualities attractive to readers. First, he is sensitive — sensitive enough to experience a wide range of feelings in spite of his tender age, including apparently contradictory combinations like fear and longing (at the end of the story's first paragraph), anger and puzzlement (while falling asleep), and, especially, "a sensation of freedom" in response to his mentor's passing that surprises him and us. "I found it strange," the narrator says, "that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood."
Second, he is intelligent — and not merely in the conventional sense of the word. Sure, he is brainy enough to absorb much of the arcane information shared with him by the priest. (It makes sense that he has grown into the articulate storyteller who shares the tale of Father Flynn's influence upon him.) But the protagonist of "The Sisters" also possesses an intuitive understanding of how other human beings feel, think, and act —emotional intelligence, you might call it.
It is no surprise that a boy so sensitive, so intelligent, would find himself somewhat alienated from others — cut off, fundamentally, from his family and peers. He appears to lack altogether a connection with his uncle, much less Old Cotter, and it is said that he rarely plays "with young lads of his own age." Even when he is in the company of his aunt and the priest's sisters near story's end, the reader's main sense of the boy is that he is alone.
The school boy, in the story 'Araby", is the narrator of the story. He has not yet attained majority and is by nature bashful. He lived alone with his auntie and uncle and knew a few play-mates with whom he played in the street. Mangan's sister was perhaps only girl who lived in his neighborhood. He started appreciating her figure and dress without actually realizing that he had grown to like her. Being preadolescent person he had not become conscious that such a passion is just natural and it does not call for apology or regrets.If he had expressed his noble feeling of love for the girl he might have been able to overcome his bashfulness. Once he hesitated in expressing his sentiments, he developed an inhibition with the result that he was never able to make his feelings known to her. He went worshipping her silently. By chance, she happened to talk to him, he felt confused and did not know how to express himself. His desire to visit Araby became an obsession for him and he made up his mind to go to the market at the earliest and bring a gift for her. The hour that he reached Araby, was not at all fit for purchasing something really worthwhile. He experienced a sort of bitterness even worse than defeat. Being a lonely person, he is in search of a kindred soul. But lacking self-confidence he is not able to win her, as any other person without inhibition could have done so easily.The boy in the story is so bashful and inept in his relation with Mangan's sister only. He was quite a sociable boy in his own way and was good at studies. His auntie and uncle never discovered any oddity about him. He certainly proved quite helpful when he accompanied his aunt on her shopping trips. After his missed venture with Araby he lost interest in his studies. His teacher stared feeling concerned about him. But he did not know the real reason for this lack of interest in his studies. He is a hardworking and responsible boy and is capable of changing his attitude in keeping with the changing
conditions. His unrequited love has proved disappointing experience for him, but certainly it would have made him wiser and more practical in future.
3.Is anything gained by the boy through his frustration and humiliation?
The boy is initiated into knowledge through a loss of innocence
The boy worships and desires Mangan’ssister , and Mangan’s sister is the light that contracts to the gloomy reality.But the quest ends when he arrives at the bazaar and realizes with slow, tortured clarity that Araby is not at all what he has imagined. He feels angry and betrayed and realizes his self-deception.The boy is initiated into knowledge through a loss of innocence and fully realizes the incompatibility between the beautiful and innocent world of the imagination and the very real world of fact. So the “quest” is not fruitless, becaus e it helps the narrator come to self-knowledge.
D.H. Lawrence
The rocking-horse winner
Does the house really whisper?
No, it is not the house whispers.
The expensive and splendid toys, the shining modern rocking horse and the smart doll’s house are the reflection of the parents’ vanity. This couple bought so many expensive things means that they want to have a life of nabobism and a nabobism life means that there must be more money.This phrase was used intentionally to emphasize the theme“greed”
Does luck mean money? How do you define luck?
No….
Who kills Paul?
It was the society killed Paul.The development of urban industrialism caused people only care money. At that time,people thought money is everything. So,in the novel, the house whispered and mom emphasized luck so many times. Paul wanted to get his mother’s attention by money which forced him to ride the rocking-horse again and again. Paul was ill and the whole society was ill too.
Matthew Arnold Dover Beach
Form
•Preserves the structure of the Romantic Lyric (Descriptive-Meditative-Descriptive)
•“Dover Beach” is a poem with the mournful tone of an elegy and the personal intensity of
a dramatic monologue. Because the meter and rhyme vary from line to line, the poem is
said to be in free verse—that is, it is unencumbered by the strictures of traditional versification. However, there is cadence in the poem, achieved through the following: •Parallel Structure
•The tide is full, the moon lies fair (Stanza 1); So various, so beautiful, so new (Stanza 4);
•Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain (Stanza 4)
•Rhyming Words
•to-night, light; fair, night-air; stand, land; bay, spray; fling, bring; begin, in (Stanza 1) •Words Suggesting Rhythm
•draw back, return; Begin, and cease, then begin again (Stanza 1); turbid ebb and flow (Stanza 2)
Figures of Speech
•Alliteration:
•to-night , tide; full, fair (Lines 1-2); gleams, gone; coast, cliff; long line; which the waves;
folds, furled; to-night, tide; full, fair; gleams, gone; coast, cliff (Stanza 1) •Assonance: t ide, l ies;
•
Paradox and Hyperbole: grating roar of pebbles
•Metaphor:
•which the waves draw back, and fling (comparison of the waves to an intelligent entity that rejects that which it has captured)
•turbid ebb and flow of human misery (comparison of human misery to the ebb and flow of the sea)
•The Sea of Faith (comparison of faith to water making up an ocean)
breath of the night-wind (comparison of the wind to a living thing)
•Simile:
•The Sea of Faith . . . lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled (use of like to compare the sea to a girdle)
•the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams (use of like to compare the world to a land of dreams)
•Anaphora:
•So various, so beautiful, so new (repetition of so)
nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain (repetition of nor) Theme
Arnold’s central message is this: Challenges to the validity of long-standing theological and moral precepts have shaken the faith of people in God and religion
•Decay of orthodox religious beliefs
•“Let us be true to one another”: Emphasizes personal connection
•Subverts Romantic View of Nature
•The underlying theme of the poem is the hollowness of human lives, how everything looks beautiful at face value but is far from it in reality
•The superficial calm prevailing in the world is brought out.
1.Humanity-----the sea
2.Sea-----humanity’s religious faith
(ebbing tide is to nature----- loss of faith is to humanity)
3.Sea-----land of dreams。