英国文学 上册 大作品赏析汇总

1.Beowulf
(1)Style: It is an epic written in Wessex dialect. It contains 3183 lines and the story in it is based on partly historical and partly legendary materials.
(2)Characters: Hrothgar(Danish King);
Grendel(monster)A demon descended from Cain. Grendel preys on Hrothgar’s warriors in the king’s mead-hall, Heorot. Because Grendel’s ruthless and miserable existence is part of the retribution exacted by God for Cain’s murder of Abel, Grendel fits solidly within the ethos of vengeance that governs the world of the poem. ;
Beowulf(finally rules wisely and well for 50 years; He is a glorious hero,protector of people and has high spiritual qualities, resolution to serve his country, true courage,courteous, love of honor) He is the protagonist of the poem. Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf’s exploits prove him to be the strongest, ablest warrior of his time. In his youth, he personifies the values of the heroic culture. In his old age, he proves a wise and effective ruler. ; Wiglaf(companion,help Beowulf kill the dragon) (3)Artistic features or techniques: (the poem is a mixture of paganism and Christian elements);caesura,alliteration,accented syllable, kenning,exaggeration,repetition,variation
(4)Theme: a vivid picture of how the primitive people wage heroic struggles against the hostile forces of the natural world under a wise and mighty leader.
2.Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
(1)Style: The poem is a brilliant example of the wisdom of the minstrels of the Middle Ages.It contains several elements:(1)a vivid portrayal of the hero and a fine analysis of his psychology.(2)a well undefined and exciting plot full of climaxes and surprises.(3) the three hunting scenes are closely related to each other.(4) a mixture of Anglo-Saxon and France poetry,combine alliterative verse with metrical verse.
(2)Characters and plot: King Arthur held a feast with his Round Table Knights at Camelot(Green Kight) Sir Gawain ax his head; Sir seeks the Green Chapel(a castle);deer(mild and gentle),boat and fox(3 kiss and a girdle,he violates the chivalric code of honesty);host of the castle-Green Knight(coward&covetous) forgave him and gave the girdle back.
Sir Gawain- The story’s protagonist, Arthur’s nephew and one of his most loyal knights. Although he modestly disclaims it, Gawain has the reputation of being a great knight and courtly lover. He prides himself on his observance of the five points of chivalry in every aspect of his life. Gawain is a pinnacle of humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty. His only flaw proves to be that he loves his own life so much that he will lie in order to protect himself. Gawain leaves the Green Chapel penitent and changed.
Green Knight:The Green Knight shows himself to be a supernatural being when he picks up his own severed head and rides out of Arthur’s court, still speaking. At the same time, he seems to symbolize the natural world, in
that he is killed and reborn as part of a cycle. At the poem’s end, we disco ver that the Green Knight is also Bertilak, Gawain’s host, and one of Morgan le Faye’s minions.
(3)Artistic features or techniques：alliterative lines, synecdoche
(4)Theme: It shows the nature of chivalry:humility, piety, integrity, loyalty,honesty and self-protection(weakness). It's about temptation and testing, hunting and seduction, nature and chivalry and reflect the ideal of feudal knighthood:chivalry,chastity, piety,friendliness and free-giving. The colour green symbols nature and rebirth(in English folklore and literature), allude to love and the base desires of man(medieval period),misfortune and death(celtic mythology).
3. The Canterbury Tales
(1)Style: metrical feature:iambic pentameter. It contains 24 tales.The tone of it is merry, cheerful and joyful.This approach gives the opening lines a dreamy, timeless, unfocused quality, and it is therefore surprising when the narrator reveals that he’s going to describe a pilgrimage that he himself took rather than telling a love story.The Canterbury Tales is more than an estates satire because the characters are fully individualized creations rather than simple good or bad examples of some ideal type. (2)Characters and plot: 29 pilgrims, Chaucer, Harry Bailey(hearty,boisterous,frank,rough,improper use of word about God,keep the company generally in good spirits)---each one tells two stories on the
way to it and another two on the way back,the best will be rewarded a free supper.(only 24were written)
Prioress:(45lines)Although the Prioress is not part of the royal court, she does her best to imitate its manners. She takes great care to eat her food daintily, to reach for food on the table delicately, and to wipe her lip clean of grease before drinking from her cup. She speaks French, but with a provincial English accent. She is compassionate toward animals, weeping when she sees a mouse caught in a trap, and feeding her dogs roasted meat and milk. The narrator says that her features are pretty, even her enormous forehead. On her arm she wears a set of prayer beads, from which hangs a gold brooch that features the Latin words for “Love Conquers All.” Another nun and three priests accompany her.
(3)Artistic features: image,metaphor,personification, tansfer epithet, alliteration,irony.
(4)Themes: The Pervasiveness of Courtly Love The Importance of Company The Corruption of the Church
the significance: a comprehensive picture of Chaucer's time, the pilgrims cover a wide range of characters in the England of the time; the dramatic structure of the poem has been highly commended by critics. Most stories are related to eh personality of the teller; Chaucer's humor:(Charles Dickens and Bernard Shaw),he has shown sympathy to lower class but he has to please people at court.His gentle satire and irony;
prestige of the English language French(court and upper class language)Latin(language of the learned and the church) He proved that the English is a beautiful language and can be easily handled to express different moods.(2) the pervasiveness of courtly love,the importance of company, the corruption of the church.
4.Sonnet 18
(1)Style:This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. The simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.
(2)meaning: On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the "eye of heaven" with its "gold complexion"; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the "darling buds of May" giving way to the "eternal summer", which the speaker promises the beloved.
(3)language: is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets; He opens the poem with a question. It is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause--almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.
(4)theme: the power of the speaker's poem to defy time and last forever,
carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved's "eternal summer" shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see," the speaker writes in the couplet, "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
5.Romeo and Juliet
(1)Style:Romeo and Juliet is a comedy factors with the tragedy, reflecting the characteristics of Shakespeare's early creativity, His Romeo and Juliet love, full of humanism of the Renaissance romance, Shakespeare is relatively unique style of a play.
(2)analysis: The conflict of the tragedy is Romeo and romance and two old grudge of household and opposition of Juliet, it performance freedom of of love and feudalism influence of sharp of antinomy conflict. Montagues&Capulets(feud); Romeo(brave,loyal,symbol of romantic male love);Juliet(unyielding,loyal,beautiful)
(3)Artistic features: soliloquy(dramatic irony) , imagination, symbols, personification
(4)theme: connect love theme with conflict in the renaissance period. In the thesis, he criticized feudal mores and expressed ideals of pursuing personal freedom and welfare. Feudalism kills true love, love one and die for love. The idea is young lovers crushed by fetters of feudalism and even die for love.
(5)The basic elements of drama: character, plot(action),setting, costume,
light, music, dialogue, theme, stage direction
6.The Merchant of Venice
(1)character:
Shylock
A Jewish moneylender in Venice. inhuman monster, frequently mocking him for being obsessed with money. In person, however, Shylock comes across as far more than a caricature or stereotype. His resentment at his mistreatment, his anger at his daughter’s betrayal, and his eloquent expressions of rage make him a convincing, entirely human character. He is mercenary, cunning, vengeful, greedy, stubborn, cruel, unpopular in the city.
Portia
A wealthy heiress from Belmont. Portia’s beauty is matched only by her intelligence. (obeisance )Bound by a clause in her father’s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor chooses correctly among three caskets, Portia nonetheless longs to marry her true love, Bassanio.
Antonio
The merchant whose love for his friend Bassanio prompts him to sign Shylock’s contract and almost lose his life. Antonio is something of a mercurial figure, often inexplicably melancholy and, as Shylock points out,
possessed of an incorrigible dislike of Jews. Nonetheless, Antonio is beloved of his friends and proves merciful to Shylock, albeit with conditions.
Bassanio
A gentleman of Venice and a kinsman and dear friend to Antonio. Bassanio’s love for the wealthy Portia leads him to borrow money from Shylock with Antonio as his guarantor. An ineffectual businessman, Bassanio nonetheless proves himself a worthy suitor, correctly identifying the casket that contains Portia’s portrait.
Gratiano
A friend of Bassanio’s who accompanies him to Belmont. A coarse and garrulous young man, Gratiano is Shylock’s most vocal and insulting critic during the trial. While Bassanio courts Portia, Gratiano falls in love with and eventually weds Portia’s lady-in-waiting, Nerissa.
Jessica
Although she is Shylock’s daughter, Jessica hates life in her father’s house and elopes with the young Christian gentleman Lorenzo. Launcelot jokingly calls into question what will happen to her soul, wondering if her marriage to a Christian can overcome the fact that she was born a Jew. We may wonder if her sale of a ring given to her father by her mother isn’t excessively callous.
(2)theme: Self-Interest Versus Love, The Divine Quality of Mercy, Hatred as a Cyclical Phenomenon
7. Julius Caesar
(1)characters: Brutus emerges as the most complex character in Julius Caesar and is also the play’s tragic hero. In his soliloq uies, the audience gains insight into the complexities of his motives. He is a powerful public figure, but he appears also as a husband, a master to his servants, a dignified military leader, and a loving friend. Brutus’s rigid idealism is both his greatest virtue and his most deadly flaw
Antony proves strong in all of the ways that Brutus proves weak. His impulsive, improvisatory nature serves him perfectly, first to persuade the conspirators that he is on their side, thus gaining their leniency, and then to persuade the plebeians of the conspirators’ injustice, thus gaining the masses’ political support Antony is adept at tailoring his words and actions to his audiences’ desires
(2)theme: Julius Caesar raises many questions about the force of fate in life versus the capacity for free will. Cassius refuses to accept Caesar’s rising power and deems a belief in fate to be nothing more than a form of passivity or cowardice. Misinterpretations and Misreadings Inflexibility versus Compromise
The ability to make things happen by words alone is the most powerful
type of authority.
8. Hamlet
(1)style: unique features: dramatic structure and the language is courtly, anaphora(首语重复法) , irony and metaphor
(2)Character: Hamlet: enigmatic, philosophical, contemplative, rush, impulsive, melancholy and procrastination
(3)Theme: Shakespeare expressed his praise of the noble quality of Hamlet as a representative of humanist thinkers and his disillusionment with the corrupt and degenerated society in which he lived. His revenge is not only a personal matter, but injustice, conspiracy and betrayal in the society.t he play’s early scenes explore the sense of anxiety and dread that surrounds the transfer of power from one ruler to the next. Throughout the play, characters draw explicit connections between the moral legitimacy of a ruler and the health of the nation.
9. Moll Flanders
(1)style: Defoe wrote Moll Flanders at a time when there was still little precedent for the novel as a genre, and he accordingly felt compelled to justify his book by presenting it as a true story. He draws on the established conventions of the rogue biography--a genre that presented the lives and escapades of real criminals in semi-fictionalized and entertaining ways.
(2)Characters: Moll Flanders - The narrator and protagonist of the novel, who actually goes by a number of names during the course of her lifetime. Born an orphan, she lives a varied and exciting life, moving through an astonishing number of marriages and affairs and becoming a highly successful professional criminal before her eventual retirement and repentance. "Moll Flanders" is the alias she adopts, or rather is given by the criminal public, during her years as an expert thief.
Defoe creates in Moll a character of limitless interest, in spite of her unconcealed ethical shortcomings. His vision is one that values the personal qualities of self-reliance and perseverance, and that dignifies human labor, even when it takes the form of crime.
(3)theme:the fact that crime is the occupation that presents itself (we can hardly imagine that needlework, Moll's only real alternative, would have been as fulfilling or empowering) might be taken as an indication of Defoe's insight into predicament of women in his day, and particularly of the dearth of acceptable outlets for their talent and ambition.
Moll Flanders generates a conflict between an absolute Christian morality on the one hand and the conditional ethics of measurement and pragmatism that govern the business world, as well as the human struggle for survival, on the other.
10.The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling
(1)style: There are 18 books divided neatly into 3 parts with 6 in each. The
first part: Tom's childhood in Mr. Allworthy's country home, the second part: adventures on the road to London, the last:what happens in London to Tom and Sophia. Fielding uses his dramatic talent, his comic approach to human vanity and falsehood and make the book open to allegorical readings. And Fielding is a master of human portraits and dialogues.
(2)Characters: Mr. Allworthy - Allworthy has a reputation throughout England because of his benevolent, altruistic behavior. The moral yardstick of the novel, Allworthy's only fault (which ironically propels much of the plot) is that—due to his goodness—he cannot perceive the evil in others. He is also a gentleman with a sense of justice judging from his speech to Jenny
Bridget Allworthy - Bridget Allworthy is the mother of Blifil and Tom. An unattractive lady who resents beautiful women, Bridget marries Captain Blifil because he flatters her religious views. Although Bridget's affection wavers between Blifil and Tom as the boys mature, she becomes devoted to Tom before her death—largely due to his good looks and gallantry.
Mrs. Deborah Wilkins decent to his master and pretensions in virtue and lack of compassion for the innocent baby. We see how she acts a hound and
a persecutor in search for Tom's mother.
(3)Tom Jones - Tom Jones, a "bastard" raised by the philanthropic Allworthy, is the novel's eponymous hero and protagonist. Although Tom's
faults (namely, his imprudence and his lack of chastity) prevent him from being a perfect hero, his good heart and generosity make him Fielding's avatar of Virtue, along with Allworthy. Tom's handsome face and gallantry win him the love and affection of women throughout the countryside. His dignified, though natural air induces characters to assume that he is a gentleman—which ultimately turns out to be true.
11.Elegy written in a Country Churchyard
(1)style: The poem is written in heroic quatrain. Iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme is abab. This poem has earned Gray a respected and deserved place in literary history. The figure of speech used are alliteration, metaphor, personification, euphemism, rhetorical question, synecdoche.
(2)analysis: The speaker of this poem sees a country churchyard at sunset, which impels him to meditate on the nature of human mortality. The poem invokes the classical idea of memento mori, a Latin phrase which states plainly to all mankind, "Remember that you must die." The speaker considers the fact that in death, there is no difference between great and common people. He goes on to wonder if among the lowly people buried in the churchyard there had been any natural poets or politicians whose talent had simply never been discovered or nurtured. This thought leads him to praise the dead for the honest, simple lives that they lived. (3)theme: The poem was written at the end of the Augustan Age and at the
beginning of the Romantic period, and the poem has characteristics associated with both literary periods. On the one hand, it has the ordered, balanced phrasing and rational sentiments of Neoclassical poetry. On the other hand, it tends toward the emotionalism and individualism of the Romantic poets; most importantly, it idealizes and elevates the common man.。