英美文选复习资料

1.“Let it not be supposed by the enemies of the system, that during the period of his solitary incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the pleasure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation.”What do you think Charles Dickens intends to say in the above ironic statement taken from Oliver Twist?The sentence is a typical example of irony. What Dickens intends to say is just the opposite of the sentence s literal meaning.For the “benefit” of exercise, Oliver whipped every mornin g in a stone yard; for the “pleasure” of society, he was carried away every other day to the dinning hall and flogged as a public warning and example to the boys; as for the “advantages” of the religious consolation, he kicked out into apartment every evening at prayer time and listened to the boy s prayer to be guarded against his sins and vices.The ironic statement is, in fact, a bitter denunciation and fierce attack at the brutal, inhuman treatment of the poor orphan by the workhouse authority.2. How is Romanticism different from Neoclassicism? Provide brief evidence from the literary works you know best? Neoclassicists upheld that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity, and thus, literary expressions should be of proportion, unity, harmony and grace.Alexander Pope s “An Essay on Criticism” advocated grace, wit (usually though satire / humor), and simplicity in language (and the poem itself is a demonstration of those ideals, too), Henry Fielding s Tom Jones helped establish the form of novel; Gray s Elegy Written in Country Churchyard displays elegance in style, unified structure, serious tone and moral instructions.Romanticists tended to see the individual as the very center of all experience, including art, and thus, literary work should be “spontaneous overflow of strong feelings”, and no matter how fragmentary those experiences are (Wordsworth s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud or The Solitary Reaper or Coleridge s Keble Khan), the value of the work lied in the accuracy of presenting those unique feelings and particular attitudes.In a word, Neoclassicism emphasized rationality and form but Romanticism attached great importance to the individual s mind.3. English Romanticism is generally said to have begun in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge s Lyrical Ballads. Why is Lyrical Ballads considered the milestone to mark the beginning of English Romanticism? In this book, Wordsworth and Coleridge explored new theories and innovated new techniques in poetry wring. Thepreface to the Lyrical Ballads acts as a manifesto for the new school. In the preface, Wordsworth defines poetry and poets.Wordsworth s poems in this book differ in marked way from his early poetry: simplicity of the language, sympathy for the poor, and expressions of inward states of mind.4. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen explored three kinds of motivations of marriage the middle-class people had in the second half of the 18th century. Try to make a brief discussion about them with specific examples from the novel. Make comments on Austen s attitude towards these motivations.Motivation one: to pursue material wealth and social position through marriage. Wickham, Miss Bingley and Charlotte Lucas are examples of this kind.Motivation two: to seek sensual pleasure and beauty. Lydia and Mr. Bennet are examples of this kind.Motivation three: to search for true love and also take personal merits and financial positions into consideration. Elizabeth Bennet is a typical example of this kind.Austen celebrated the third kind of motivation of marriage while criticizing the first two motivations.5．“ My boy! said the old gentleman, leaning over the desk. Oliver started at th e sound. He might be excused for doing so, for the words were kindly said, and strange sounds frighten one. He trembled violently, and burst into tears.”（from Charles Dickens Oliver Twist）Explain why Oliver Twist started first, then trembled violently and burst into tears when the words were “kindly” said. The boy started at the words because kind words were not expected; it must be the first time in all his life that the boy Oliver Twist had ever “kindly” greeted, strange words may predict another sufferi ng.6. Discuss the way symbolism is used in Melville s Moby-Dick.To Ahab, the whale is either an evil creature itself or the agent of an evil force that controls the universe, or perhaps both. The chase of the white whale symbolizes Ahab s pursuit of truth and fighting against the evil force.To Ishmael, the whale is an astonishing force, an immense power, which defies rational explanation due to a sense of mystery it carries. It also represents the tremendous organic vitality of the universe.To the reader, the whale can be viewed as a symbol of the physical limits that life imposes upon man. It may also be regarded as a symbol of nature.7. As a rule, an allegory is a story in verse or prose with a double meaning: a surface meaning, and an implied meaning. List two works as examples of allegory. What is the implied meaning an allegory is usually concerned with?Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress and Spenser s The Faerie QueeneIt usually concerned with moral, religious, political, symbolic or mythical ideas.8. Take Mark Twain s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as an example to illustrate the statement that Mark Twain was a unique writer in American literature.Mark Twain shaped the world s view of America and made the extensive combination of American folk humor and serious literature.The novel has become a great contribution to the legacy of American literature.The novel is written in a language that is totally different from the rhetorical language used by his contemporary writers such as Emerson, Poe and Melville. It is simple, direct, lucid and faith to the colloquial speech. This style of colloquialism is best described as vernacular.He successfully used local color and historical settings to illustrate and shed light on the contemporary society. That s why he is known as a local colorist.Mark Twain s humor is remarkable, too. Most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc. some of them are typical of tall tales. And a great deal of his humor is characterized by puns, straight-faced exaggeration, repetition, and anti-climax. He uses his humor to criticize the social injustice and satirize the decayed romanticism.9. How do you philosophically define Transcendentalism?Transcendentalism has been define d philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the sense”. Emerson once proclaimed in a speech, “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind”. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant.10. Thomas Hardy is often regarded as a transitional writer. Some critics believe that he is emotionally traditional and intellectually advanced. How do you understand this idea?Living at the turn of the century, Hardy is often regarded as the transitional writer. In him we see the influence from both the past and the modern. As some people put it, he is intellectually advanced and emotionally traditional. In his Wessex novels, there is a nostalgic touch in his description of the simple and beautiful though primitive rural life, which was gradually declining and disappearing as England marched into an industrial country. And with those traditional characters he is always sympathetic.On the other hand, the immense impact of scientific discoveries and modern philosophic thoughts upon the man is quite obvious, too. He read Darwin s The Origin Speci es and accepted the idea of “survival of the fittest”. He was also influenced by Spenser s The First Principle, which led him to the belief that man s fate is predeterminedly tragic, driven by a combined force of “nature”, both inside and outside.11. Hemingway Code heroesIt refers to some protagonists in Hemingway s works. In the general situation of Hemingway s novels, life is full of tension and battles; the world is in chaos and man is always fighting desperately a losing battle. Those who survive in the process of seeking to master the code with the honesty, the discipline, and the restraint are Hemingway code heroes.12．“In your rocking-chair, by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such h appiness as you may never feel.”（from Theodore Dreiser s Sister Carrie）What idea can you draw from the “rocking-chair”?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.。