英美文学复习题

英美选读第三题英美选读第三题1．In the medieval tradition tragedy invariably represents the hero’s falling into misery or adversity from prosperity or happiness and thereby inculcates a moral or didactic lesson. There is no moral of this sort in Marlowe’s plays. He p erceived that tragic action must issue from, and be reflected in, the individual. Though death comes to all Marlowe’s tragic heroes, the kernel of his play lies rather in the struggle of a brave human soul against forces that in the end prove too great for it. This conception of serious drama – Renaissance virtue battling on to success and then falling unconquered before fate –is one of Marlowe’s most outstanding contributions to the development of a truly august type of English tragedy.3 .In several famous and eloquent soliloquies, Shakespeare reveals the deep conflict withinthe thoughtful and idealistic Hamlet as he is torn between the demands of his emotions and the hesitant scepticism of his mind. The 'To be or not to be' soliloquy is the best known and often felt to be central to Hamlet's personality. It provides an excellent example of Hamlet not doing anything. Trapped in a nightmare world of hypocrisy, treachery and general corruption, and apparently bearing the intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his father’s death, Hamlet is obliged to inhabit a shadow world, to live suspended between fact and fiction, language and action. He considers that it would be far better for us all to commit suicide, but that we don't because we are scared of what might happen to us in the afterlife. Furthermore, we very often put things off because of our understanding that we might be being sinful. We look too closely at our plans only to find reasons for not carrying them out. The speech conveys a sense of utter world-weariness as well as the author’s incisive comments on the social reality of his time. 5. What is the theme of Sheridan’s The School for Scandal?Morality is the constant theme in Sheridan’s plays. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day. In The School for Scandal, for example, he attacks the moral degeneracy of the aristocratic-bourgeois society in the 18th-century England. The idle rich spend their time scheming deception and intrigues and mongering scandals. By contrasting the life and deeds of the Surface brothers, Sheridan lays bare the depraved morality of Joseph Surface behind the mask of honorable life and high-sounding moral principles. He turns out a liar, a moral corruptor, and a hypocrite.7.what are the artistic features of Romantic literature?(1)t is a partial reaction against neo-classicism.(2)It is a golden period of poetry; there are two schools: the Lake School of Poetry and theSatanic School of Poetry(3)In verse form, it preferred to lyrics, odes, sonnets, ballads, blank verses, amd Spenserianstanzas.(4)In poetic diction, it stresses on the fresh, simple, commonly used and colloquial language.(5)In thematic matter, it tends to write on nature; the simple, common, rural life; the facts andideas of revolution; and medieval romances and myths.(6)In poetic effect, it shows a preference for the wild, the irregular or the grotesque in natureand art, the unrestricted imagination and strangeness in beauty19. According to the Greek mythology, Prometheus, the champion of humanity, who has stolen the fire from Heaven, is punished by Zeus to be chained on Mount Caucasus and suffers the vulture’s feeding on his liver. Finally Prometheus reconciles with the tyrant Zeus. Radical and revolutionary as Shelley, he gave a totally different interpretation, transforming the compromise into a struggle, which leads to the liberation of the oppressed. With the strong support of Earth, his mother; Asia, his bride and the help from Demogorgon and Hercules, Zeus is driven from the throne, Prometheus is unbound. The play is an exultant work in praise of humankind’s potential, and Shelley himself recognized it as ―the most perfect of my products.‖11.How do you explain Thomas Hardy’s being “intellectually advanced and emotionally traditional?In his novels, there is an apparent nostalgic touch in his description of the simple and beautiful though primitive rural life, which was gradually declining and disappearing in England at the time. And with those traditional characters, he’s always sympathetic and mourns over their failure and misfortune. On the other hand, he was greatly influenced by Darwin’s theory of ―survival of the fittest,‖ and other modern philos ophical thoughts, which led to the pessimistic determinism or naturalism in fiction. The naturalistic tendency is apparent in all his later works.13.What is the theme of G. B. Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession?ThemeThere are two possible interpretations of the play. The first polarizes around Mrs. Warren with the revelation that guilt for prostitution lies more upon the social system than immoral woman. In the play, Shaw shows clearly that all human sufferings are consequences of the cruel economic exploitation, which is pursued shamelessly by the so-called respectable members of the society through the lowest and the dirtiest means. So in this sense, the play is not only moral, but also has a strong realistic theme, which fully reflects the dramatist’s Fabianist idea.The second way of interpretation polarizes around Vivie, the heroine of the play. Vivie starts out in ignorance of the evil and corrupt world and progresses through a series of temptations, which put her in a better understanding of the capitalist world. All these temptations pose great attractiveness to Vivie; she even temporarily succumbs to some of them. But all the temptations are contaminated with worldliness. Each in its way is a dodge from reality and violates her sense of justice. Only by rejecting them, can Vivie achieve her ultimate salvation in the fervent pursuit of freedom and independence as a new woman. On this level, the play is a spiritual triumph for the heroine who experiences a journey from illusion to reality.15.. What are some of the general artistic features of Walt Whitman’s poetry?Walt Whitman was an important poet in American literary history. His originality lies first of all in his use of the poetic form free verse, by means of which he becomes conversational and casual. He usually uses the first person pronoun "I" to stress individualism, and oral language to acquire sympathy from the common reader. His topics are sometimes sexual but his themes are far more than sexual.17.How important is Walden; or Life in the Woods written by Henry David Thoreau? The book can be considered a spiritual autobiography dramatized in a symbolic fashion; an effort on the part of Thoreau to actualize Emersonian Transcendentalism, especially the idea of self-reliance; a demonstration of Thoreau's different approach to nature.19.In what way is Twain's realism different from James’s realism?Twain's realism is tainted with local color, while James's realism is concerned with psychology. Twain's language is simple and colloquial filled with fun and humor; whereas2James's is elaborate and refined with lengthy psychological analyses. Thus, one is said to be lowbrow, the other is said to be highbrow. However different, both have moral problems and humanities as the very focus of their literary creation.21.Why is Sister Carrie considered a naturalistic novel?Theodore Dreiser belonged to the school of literary naturalism, which as a genre emphasized heredity and environment as important deterministic forces shaping individualized characters who were presented in special and detailed circumstances. Dreiser's naturalism found expression in almost every novel that he wrote. In Sister Carrie Dreiser expressed his naturalistic pursuit by expounding the purposelessness of life and attacking the conventional moral standards. Carrie obtains her success because she behaves according to the desires and aspirations in her heart. Yet Hurstwood loses his wealth, social position, pride and eventually his life also because of uncontrolled desires.23.The poetic world of Robert Frost is that of the rural world, the simple country life, the pastoral landscape. But why is Robert Frost still difficult to understand?Most of Frost's poems are simple in the way that they are dramatic monologues or dialogues, and they are short and direct on the informational level, and they have simple diction. However, profound ideas are delivered under the disguise of the plain language and the simple form, for what Frost did is to take symbols from the limited human world and the pastoral landscape to refer to the great world beyond the rustic scene. These thematic concerns include the terror and tragedy in nature, as well as its beauty and the loneliness and poverty of the isolated human being. Those simple poems underlie the true love and his deep concerns for the whole world. Therefore Robert Frost is not easy to understand. 25．ThemeThere are two possible interpretations of the play. The first polarizes around Mrs. Warren with the revelation that guilt for prostitution lies more upon the social system than immoral woman. In the play, Shaw shows clearly that all human sufferings are consequences of the cruel economic exploitation, which is pursued shamelessly by the so-called respectable members of the society through the lowest and the dirtiest means. So in this sense, the play is not only moral, but also has a strong realistic theme, which fully reflects the dramatist’s Fabianist idea.The second way of interpretation polarizes around Vivie, the heroine of the play. Vivie starts out in ignorance of the evil and corrupt world and progresses through a series of temptations, which put her in a better understanding of the capitalist world. All these temptations pose great attractiveness to Vivie; she even temporarily succumbs to some of them. But all the temptations are contaminated with worldliness. Each in its way is a dodge from reality and violates her sense of justice. Only by rejecting them, can Vivie achieve her ultimate salvation in the fervent pursuit of freedom and independence as a new woman. On this level, the play is a spiritual triumph for the heroine who experiences a journey from illusion to reality.27．The ―rocking-chair‖ is a symbol standing for fate. It is like a cradle that makes one feel peaceful. It is also like a tide that ever goes on with life, the destiny of which is uncertain. At the end of the novel, Carrie sits in the rocking-chair, which implies that her future is stilluncertain and hard to foresee.29．Page 33.31．A: Rip, like America, is immature, self-centered, careless, anti-intellectual, imaginative, and jolly as the overgrown child. His wife is another symbol— of puritanical discipline andthe work-ethic of Franklin. The town itself is emblematic of America— forever and3rapidly changing.B: Washington Irving has Rip sleep through his own country’s history, through what we might call the birth pangs of America, and return to the ―busy, bustling, disputatious‖ self-consciously adult United States of America. His conflicts and dreams are those of the nation— the conflict of innocence and experience, work and leisure, the old and the new, and the head and the heart.C: The escapist tradition— of those who choose not to climb the socio-economic ladder of success— conflicts with our self-made, get-ahead concept of hard work and success. D: At any level, the story is one of a man who has looked toward the onset of civilization in America and made a choice in his analysis of his own life. In many ways, Americans are obsessed with these same agonizing contradictions. In many ways, too, all Americans fantasize about and others actually climb a mountain, like Rip, to gain perspective.4。