古英语时期和中世纪时期的英国文学考点.doc

第一章古英语时期和中世纪时期的英国文学考点1. The Old English poetry can be divided into two groups: the religious group and the secular one. The Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Beowulf 贝尔武夫, a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded as the greatest national epic of the Anglo-Saxons. The epic describes the exploits of a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, in fighting against the monster Grendel, his revengeful mother, and a fire-breathing dragon in his declining years. While fighting against the dragon, Beowulf was mortally wounded. However, he killed the dragon at the cost of his life. Beowulf is shown not only as a glorious hero but also as a protector of the people.2. Romance is a popular literary form in the medieval England. It sings knightly adventures or other heroic deeds. Chivalry (such as bravery, honor, generosity, and kindness to the weak and poor) is the spirit of romance.3. John Gower is the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the best romance of the period.William Langland is a more realistic writer who dealt with the religious and social issues of his day in Piers Plowman农夫皮尔斯.4. Geoffry Chaucer is the greatest writer of Middle Ages. His masterpiece The Canterbury Tales坎特伯蕾故事集presents, for the first time in English literature, a comprehensive realistic picture of the medieval English society and creates a whole gallery of vivid characters from all walks of life. In “The Canterbury Tales”, Chaucer developed his art of poetry still further towards drama and the art of the novel. In Troilus and Criseyd, he gave the world what is virtually the first modern novel. Chaucer wrote in Middle English and did much in making London dialect the foundation for modern English language. Though essentially still a medieval writer, Chaucer bore marks of humanism and anticipated a new era to come. As a forerunner of humanism, he praises mans energy, intellect, quick wit and love of life. His tales exposed and satirized the evils of his time. These tales attacked the degeneration of the noble, the heartlessness of the judge, the corruption of the church, etc. In his works, he developed his characterization to a higher level by presenting characters with both typical qualities and individual dispositions. “The Wife of Bath” is a famous tale in which the heroine is depicted as the new bourgeois. Taking the stand of the rising bourgeoisie, he affirms men and opposes the dogma of asceticism preached by the church. Chaucer introduced from France rhymed stanzas of various types into English poetry to replace the Old English alliterative verse. It was he who used for the first time in English the rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter that was later called the “heroic couplet”. The Chaucers reputation has been securely established as one of the best English poets for his wisdom, humor, and humanity. John Dryden called Chaucer the father of English poetry.第二章 文艺复兴时期的英国文学考点1. Renaissance refers to the transitional period from the medieval to the modern world. It first started in Italy in the 14th century, lasting into the 17th century. The Renaissance means rebirth or revival. It was marked by a humanistic revival of ancient Roman and Greek classics expressed in a flowering of the arts and literature and by the beginnings of modern science. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. The English Renaissance did not begin until the reign of Henry VIII. It was usually regarded as Englands Golden Age, especially in literature. Among the literary giants were Shakespeare, Spenser, Johnson, Sidney, Marlowe, Bacon and Donne, and John Milton was the last great poet of the English Renaissance. The real mainstream of the English Renaissance is the Elizabethan drama.2. Humanism is the essence of the Renaissance. It emphasizes the dignity of human beings and the importance of the present life. Humanists voiced their beliefs that man was the center of the universe and man did not only have the right to enjoy the beauty of the present life, but had the ability to perfect himself and to perform wonders.3. Petrarch was regarded as the fountainhead of literature by the English writers. Wyatt introduced the Petrarchan sonnet into England. Surrey brought in blank verse（无韵体诗），i.e. the unrhymed iambic（抑扬格的）pentameter（五音步的）line. 4. Renaissance drama: the Elizabethan drama is the real mainstream of the English Renaissance. English dramas were influenced by the Greek and Roman classics. Thomas Kyd wrote the earliest popular tragedy of blood and revenge, The Spanish Tragedy. The most famous dramatists in the Renaissance England are Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Johnson. Elizabethan drama reached its peak in Shakespeares works. Shakespeares compassionate understanding of the human fate has perpetuated his greatness and made him the representative figure of English literature for the whole world. Francis Bacon was the first important English essayist. He was the founder of modern science in England. His writing paved the way for the use of scientific method.5. University Wit refers to any of a notable group of pioneer English dramatists writing during the last 15 years of the 16th century. They transformed the native dramatic inheritance of interlude and chronicle play into a potentially great drama by writing plays of quality and diversity. In doing so they prepared the ground for genius of William Shakespeare. Their forerunner was John Lily, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, Robert Green, and Thomas Kyd, etc. All these writers except Thomas Kyd took degrees from universities like Oxford and Cambridge.6. Edmund Spenser: The Shepherds Calendar is his early work. Spensers masterpiece is the Faerie Queene 仙后, a great poem of its age. There are five main qualities in Spensers poetry: a perfect melody; a rare sense of beauty; a splendid imagination; a lofty moral purity and seriousness, and a dedicated idealism. It is Spensers idealism, his love of beauty, and his exquisite melody that earn him the title of “the poets poet.” (诗人的诗人)The Faerie Queene is written in the stanza invented by Spenser himself, the Spenserian stanza, i.e., a stanza（诗的一节）of nine lines, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last line in iambic hexameter（六音步）, rhyming ababbcbcc.7.Christopher Marlowe: (1) As the most gifted of the “University Wits”, Marlowe composed six plays within his short lifetime. Among them the most important are: Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus, The Jew of Malta and Edward II. Tamburlaine is a play about an ambitious and pitiless Tartar conqueror in the fourteenth century who rose from a shepherd to an overpowering king. By depicting a great hero with high ambition and sheer brutal force in conquering one enemy after another, Morlowe voiced the supreme desire of the man of the Renaissance for infinite power and authority. Dr. Faustus is a play based on the German legend of a magician aspiring for knowledge and finally meeting his tragic end as a result of selling his soul to the Devil. It celebrates the human passion for knowledge, power and happiness; it also reveals mans frustration in realizing the high aspirations in a hostile moral order. And the confinement to time is the cruelest fact of mans condition. The play is a good example to illustrate the idea that a man gains the whole world but loses his own soul. (2) Marlowes greatest literary achievement lies in that he perfected the blank verse and made it the principal medium of English drama. He brought vitality and grandeur into the blank verse with his “mighty lines” which carry strong emotions. Marlowes second achievement is his creation of the Renaissance hero for English drama. Such hero is always individualistic and full of ambition, facing bravely the challenge from both gods and men. Such a hero embodies Marlowes humanistic ideal of human dignity and capacity. With the endless aspiration for power, knowledge, and glory, the hero embodies the true Renaissance spirit.8. William Shakespeare (15641616): (1) Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, into a merchants family in Stratford-on-Avon. In 1582, he got married and had three children. It was probably because he had to support his growing family that he left for London. Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems. He is the greatest dramatist of the English Renaissance. Shakespeare is above all writers in the past and in the present time. Robert Greene, one of the “University Wits”, resentfully declared him to be “an upstart crow.” He died on April 23, 1616. Shakespeare is surpassingly great because his works never fail to bear a kind of closeness to human life and never fail to be the mirror reflecting human nature. Shakespeare is so great that maybe only Ben Johnsons praising poem will somewhat cover his greatness: “Soul of the Age! The applause! delight! The wonder of our stage! Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time!”(2) Shakespeares four dramatic periods: a. His first dramatic period was one of apprenticeship. He wrote five history plays: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III, Richard III, and Titus Andronicus; and four comedies: The Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, and Loves Labours Lost. b. His second dramatic period was highly individualized. He wrote five history plays: Richard II, King John, Henry IV, Parts I and II, and Henry V; six comedies: A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and The Merry Wives of Windsor; and two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. Romeo and Juliet eulogizes the faithfulness of love and the spirit of pursuing happiness. The play, though a tragedy, is permeated with optimistic spirit. Shakespeares history plays of these two periods are mainly written under the principle that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity. c. His third period includes his greatest tragedies and his so-called dark comedies. The tragedies of this period are: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida, and Coriolanus. The two comedies are: Alls Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth are Shakespeares four greatest tragedies. They have some characteristics in common. Each tragedy portrays a noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate of the whole nation. Each hero has his weakness of nature: Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind; Othellos inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force; the old King Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer from treachery and infidelity. In King Lear, Shakespeare has not only made a profound analysis of the social crisis in which the evils can be seen everywhere, but also criticized the bourgeois egoism; and Macbeths lust for power stirs ups his ambition and leads him to incessant crimes. In these tragedies Shakespeare portrays the weakness of each hero and shows the conflict between the individual and the evil force in the society. d. Shakespeares last period includes romantic tragicomedies: Pericles，Cymbeline, The Winters Tale, The Tempest, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. The Tempest is the best of his final romances. It typically shows Shakespeares pessimistic views towards human life and society in his late years. e. Shakespeares non-dramatic poetry consists of two long narrative poems: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece， and 154 sonnets. Shakespeares sonnets are the only direct expression of the poets own feelings. His sonnets numbered 1-126 are addressed to a young man, Shakespeares beloved friend. The sonnets numbered 127-152 involve a mistress of Shakespeare, a mysterious “Dark Lady”. His sonnets most common themes concern the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Sonnet 18 is one of Shakespeares most beautiful sonnets. In the poem he has a profound meditation on the destructive power of time and the eternal beauty brought forth by poetry to the one he loves. A nice summers day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever. Thus Shakespeare has a faith in the permanence of poetry. The rhyme of the poem is abab cdcd efef gg. (3) Shakespeares literary ideas: As a humanist writer, Shakespeare has accepted the Renaissance views on literature. He holds that literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness and truth, and should reflect nature and reality. He claims through the mouth of Hamlet that the “end” of dramatic creation is to give faithful reflection of the social realities of the time. He also says that literary works which have truly reflected nature and reality can reach immortality.(4) The Merchant of Venice:The play has a double plot: an impoverished young man, Bassanio asks his friend, Antonio, for a loan so that he might marry Portia, a rich and beautiful heiress of Belmont. They fall in love with each other at first sight. Bassanio passes the test of the caskets and he chooses the right one containing Portias portrait. However, their rejoicing is interrupted by a letter from Antonio; Antonios money is all invested in mercantile expeditions. He has to borrow money from Shylock, the Jewish usurer. Shylock has made a strange bond requiring Antonio to surrender a pound of his flesh if he fails to repay him within a certain period of time. Antonios letter reads that his ships are lost at sea, and he is penniless, and will have to pay the pound of flesh. The most famous part of the comedy is Act IV, Scene I. It is the major climax of the play. It takes place in a court of law at which Portia appears disguised as a young lawyer instructed to judge the case. She first appeals to Shylock to have mercy. But when he insists on the letter of the law, she lets him have it. He may take his pound of flesh, but there is no mention of blood in the bond; if he sheds a single drop of a Christians blood, his lands and goods will be confiscated by the State according to the law of Venice. Thus Antonio is saved, and Shylock has to undergo certain severe penalties, including compulsory conversion to Christianity. The traditional theme of the play is to praise the friendship between Antonio and Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit and loyalty, and to expose the Insatiable greed and brutality of the Jew. But people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christians hypocrisy and their false standards, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jews. (5) Hamlet Hamlet is considered the greatest of Shakespeares tragedies. It has the qualities of a “blood-and-thunder” thriller and a philosophical exploration of life and death. Shakespeare takes the bare outlines of Revenge Tragedy used in Thomas Kyd in his The Spanish Tragedy. The timeless appeal of Hamlet lies in its combination of intrigue, emotional conflict and searching philosophic melancholy. In the play Hamlet is urged by the ghost of his father (who is murdered by Claudius) to seek revenge. Hamlet hesitates in his revenge not because he is incapable of action, but because the cast of his mind is so speculative, so questioning, and so contemplative that action, when it finally comes, seems almost like defeat, diminishing rather than adding to the stature of the hero. He lives suspended between fact and fiction, language and action. For Hamlet, soliloquy is a natural medium，a necessary release of his anguish. “To be or not to be” soliloquy is the best known and often felt to be central to Hamlets personality. It provides an excellent example of Hamlet not doing anything. In his case we can conclude that too much thinking makes action impossible. The play is also Shakespeares most detailed expose of a corrupted court-“an unweeded garden” in which there is nothing but “a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours”（汇集着各种罪恶肮脏的气体）. (6) Macbeth Macbeth is one of Shakespeares four greatest tragedies. He is introduced in the play as a warrior hero, whose fame on the battlefield wins him great honor from the king. His physical courage is joined by a consuming ambition and a tendency to self-doubt-the prediction that he will be king brings him joy, but it also creates inner turmoil. These three attributes-bravery, ambition, and self-doubt-struggle for mastery of Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of character. (7) King Lear Lears basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances above reality. He wants to be treated as a king and to enjoy the title, but he doesnt want to fulfill a kings obligations of governing for the good of his subjects. Similarly, his test of his daughters demonstrates that he values a flattering public display of love over real love. But his values do change over the course of the play. As he realizes his weakness and insignificance in comparison to the awesome forces of the natural world, he becomes a humble and caring individual. Eventually, Lear displays regret, remorse, empathy, and compassion for the poor, a population that Lear has not noticed before. He comes to cherish Cordelia above everything else and to place his own love for Cordelia above every other consideration, to the point that he would rather live in prison with her than rule as a king again. King Lears madness: The madness in King Lear enables him to realize the essence of a corrupt society, in which each is ready to