英国文学大题

TheCanterburyTales:Chaucer’smasterpiece is The Canterbury Tales, one of the most famous works in allliterature .The plan of work is magnificent ,to represent the wide sweep of English life bygathering a motley company together and letting each class of societyell its ownfavorite stories.The Canterbury Tales he has given us a picture of contemporary English life ,its work and play ,deeds and dreams,funand sympathy and hearty joy of living such as no other single work of literature has ever equaled.The Prologue is a splendid masterpiece of realistic portrayal,the first of its kind in the history of English literaturthere rides a worthyknight ,this is Chaucer’s ideal of a national champion,ride the knight’s attendant,mighty bow recalls to the reader the image ofRobin Hood ,Prioress who weeps when she see a mouse caught ina trap ,but turns her head when she see a beggar in his “ugly rags”In his greatest work ,The Canterbury Tales,Chaucer created asrikingly brilliant and picturesque panorama of his time and his country.Renaissance 1. The term Renaissance originally indicated arevivalofclassartsand sciences after the dark ages of medieval obscurantism.Indeed,a great number of works of classical authors were translated into English during the 16th century 2.The study and propagation ofclassical learningand art was crried on by the progressive thinkersof the humanists.3.They held their chief interest not in ecclesiastical knowledge ,but in man,his environment and doing and bravelyfought for the emancipation of man from the tyranny of the church and religious dogmas.4.At the beginning ofthe 16th century theoutstanding humanist Thomas More (1478-1535)wortehis Utopia(1516) 5.At the end of the century the great English scieentist and philosopherFrancis Bacon(1561-1626)d.In thesecond half of the 16th century lyrical poetry became widespread in England . Romanticism 1.Romanticism as a literary movenment came into beingin Englandearly in the latter half of the 18th century .It prevailed inEngland during the period of 1798-1832 . .Beginning with the publication of William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads (1798),ending with WalterScott’s death(1832).2.William Blake and RobertBurns represented the spirit of what is usually called Per-Romanticism.3.With the publication of William W ordsworth’s (1798-1822) Lyrical Ballads in collaboration with S.T.Coleridge,romanticism began to bloom and found a firm placein the history of English literature.Enlightenment:With the advent of the 18th century, in England, as in other European countries ,the sprang into life a public movementknown as the Enlightment .The Enlightment was an expression ofstruggles of the then progressive of bourgeoisie against feudalism.The enlighteners fough against class inequality, stagantion, prejudices and other survivals of feudalism.They attemptedplace all branches of science at the serive of manking by connecting them with the actual deeds and requirements of the people. Thomas Hardy’s period of writing career(poetrynovelpoetry)literary achievements.1.Thomas Hardy,last and one of thegreatest of Victorian novelists,bagan his writing career with poetry.He tried unsuccessfully to publish his poems.2.Hoping that his novel would sell better than poetry ,he began to write fiction,which proved to be successful at the beginning .Hisimportant works of fiction include Under the Greenwood Tree,Far from the Madding Crowd,The Mayor of Casterbridge.3.His last important works Tess of t he D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure were badly criticized and shocked British prudery and Hardy was terribly abused for being “filthy”.Partly because of the reception of these two novels. 4.Hardy announcedthat Jude was his last novel,he turned to thewriting of poetry again.His career is thus divided sharply between his Victorian novels and his post-Victorian poetry.“The Merchant of Venice” about a man named Antonio whowant a marriage with the beacuful Portia and borrows money from his Merchant friend who was in fianacial difficult and have tofind help from shylock a jew and money lenden\r, Shylock, howeveragreedon the condition that a pound of flesh should be paidif the money cannot be returned in time ,when the shipwreck make it possible for the repay Skylock went to coant and demanded the flesh, the clever portiadisguised herself as a lawer and defeated Skylock inthe case Theme: the playis to show the bretherly love christians have and the with of the woman,in face of male friendship.S hakepears’s attitude toward Shylock？Shylock is no simple character in shakepear’s hands, His is both disgusti ng for his greed and cruelty and symparthetie for his jewish identity and wretched fate, in the end shakespear’s did not show completely negative views toward Shylock insteads hepictured him as a shrew jew vowed to revenge upon wrongs done to the jews to same extent hia tragic hero story of “Hamlet ”1.Is the first work of literature to show on ordinary person looking at the futiliby and Hamlet is a trangedy written by Shakespeare ,2.After being told by his father ghost than he was murdered by the uncle , Hamlet,the prince and scholar just back fro abroad determined to talk revenge 3、Yet !he was helpnessand always encountered traps set by his enemies ，At last he manage to his uncle sand clean up the plotical corruption ,at the cost of his own life ,the play is a man of thought being sacrified by the demand of action. Hamlet文学特点：hamlet is considered to be the summit of shakespeare’s art.2hamlet is the profoundest expression of hishumanism and his criticism of contemporary life. writing characteristics of John Donne?1.His poems awaystake the from of argument sometimes with a god.2.His poem usuallyemploys conceit a for fetched in etaphor which parauels two disimital things and point out the simitarity in a strikingly convincing way.3.His poems are very ofter unmusical breaks off with tradition metrical rhythm that poems of his time liked the chief reason for the unmusicalness s that hie poems are two much like conversations.John Donne’s writing style:the first thing to strike the reader is Donne’s extraordi nary frankness and penetrating realism.instead of decorating his theme by conventional comparisons,he illumines or emphasizes his thought by fantastic metaphorsand extravagant hyperboles .he likes to adopt conceitful writing in his works .the employment of “conceits”in his works is one of his writing features as a metaphysicist.Donne’s religious poems and his magnificentsermons reached astounding heights of subtlety and intensity.his prose style is one of the more glorious monuments to the spirit ofthe early seventeenth century.Paradise Lost1. tells the story of how Satan rebelled against God and how Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden.2.the poem Paradise Lost ,consisting of twelve bookes.It is based on the biblical legend of the imaginary progenitors of the human race—Adam and Eve,and involves God and his eternal adversary,Satan in its plot.3The theme of Paradise Lost is to glorify God’s power and expose satan’s Evil and toshow the intercting forces of god and evil acting opon the man on earth.Paradise Lost presents the author’s views in an allegeoric religious form ,and the reader will easily discern its basic idea –the exposure of reactionary forces of his time and passionate appeal for freedom.Satan’s character: The freedom-loving Satan led the angels to riseagainst God ,but was defeated .Satan and his followers are banishedfrom heavenly domains and sequestered into the nether world .Hence forward infernal torments are to be their lot, but they are notdiscouraged.Satan’s proud spirit is not subdued.he stoically withstands all agonies and passionately strives for victory.Reading analysis Pilgrim’s progress )The excerpted part is from the best-know episode Vanity Fair in Bunyan’s works.2)Make a comment on the episode “Vanity” “emptiness”, and hence the fa ir is an allegory of worldliness and corruption of the religious life through the attractions of the world.character Robinson Crusoe : He is one of the protagonists drawnmost successfully in English novels.He is depicted as a hero strugglingagainst nature and human fate with his indomitable will .From an individual to a master ,he stands for bourgeois creativity.A Modest Proposal “proposal” frist paragraph：Jonathanswift propose that the baies by poor English families are useful only as food .It’s the best t reatment and cure of poverty andstarvationcommon in the lower class of coure ,he is not serious in his proposal with is a harsh satire towards the English ruling class who did nothing but let the people starve and live miserably.real purpose：A Modest Proposal is an example of Swift’sfavorite satire devices used with superb effect.The whole piece isa metaphor :“The English are devouring the Irish.”But there is nothing trite about the pamphlet ,which expresses his pity for the oppressed ,ignorant,populous ,and hungry Catholic peasants ofIreland ,and his anger at the Engliah landlords.The School for Scandal(Sheridan)the Lady Sneer and Mr Snake?They are very snobbish people inthe upper class。