英国文学史-作品赏析.doc

English Literature1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight2. The Canterbury Tales3. Dr. Faustus4. Sonnet 185. Hamlet6. Paradise Lost7. The Rape of the Lock8. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard9. The School for Scandal10. Robinson Crusoe11. A Modest Proposal12. Tom Jones13. London14. I wandered lonely as a cloud15. The Isles of Greece16. Ode to the West Wind17. Prometheus Unbound18. Walter Scott19. Pride and Prejudice 20. Vanity Fair21. Jane Eyre22. Wuthering Heights23. The Mill on the Floss24. Tess of DUrbervilles25. Break, Break, Break26. Mrs. Warrens Profession27. Pygmalion101. Make comments on the romance Sir Gawain and the Green KnightTwo motifs: The story seems to show the testing of faith, courage and purity. A true knight should not only dedicate himself to the church but also should possess the virtues of great courage, of fidelity to his promise, and of physical chastity and purity. And another theme of the story is the test of human weakness for self-preservationSir Gawain and the Green Knight is the most accomplished example of medieval romance and a poem of rich psychological and moral interest. The unknown author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was Chaucers contemporary, but his alliterative verse form was old fashioned even in his own day, and his dialect, that of Northwest England, is also very difficult for the modern readers.However, superficially the poem is an account of a typical chivalric adventure, an amalgam of a number of the best-known motifs of Arthurian romance - a challenge by a mysterious superhuman knight, a bargain, which turns out to have unforeseen consequences; a lone quest; an attempted seduction of a Christian knight by a bewitching temptress. And the courtly romances also married to archetypal folk myths and to religion.The brief summary of the action of the poem reveals that it is concerned with the rights and wrongs of conduct. Its theme is a series of tests on faith, courage, purity and human weakness for self-preservation. The story presents a profoundly Christian view of mans character and his destiny. By placing self-protection before honor, and deceit before his trust in the love of God, Gawain has sinned and fallen and become an image of Adam. Human excellence is marred by original sin and courtly values alone are no protection. Though Gawain can hope to be excused, the girdle itself remains a perpetual reminder of his weakness. The motif of the Green Knights head-cutting might originate in ancient vegetation myth in which the beheading would have been a ritual death to ensure a rebirth in the following spring.There is a very clear structure in the poem with a prologue, an epilogue and its main body. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is undoubtedly a romance told with the purpose of portraying ideal character in action. With a preference for irony, suggestion and implication, the unknown author tries to make his romance the vehicle of a wise morality in which the humorously grotesque merges with the morally serious. 2. What is the function of the prologue to The Canterbury Tales?The General Prologue is the key to The Canterbury tales that narrates about the gathering of a group of people in an inn that intend to go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury (England) next morning. In the General Prologue, the narrator of The Canterbury Tales, who is one of the intended pilgrims, provides more or less accurate depictions of the members of the group and describes why and how The Canterbury Tales is told. If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer determined that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. The host of the inn offers to be and is appointed as judge of the tales as they are told and is supposed to determine the best hence winning tale. As mentioned before, The Canterbury Tales was never finished.The General Prologue is usually regarded as the greatest portrait gallery in English literature. It is largely composed of a series of sketches differing widely in length and method, and blending the individual and the typical in varying degrees. The purpose of the General Prologue is not only to present a vivid collection of character sketches, but also tries to reveal the authors intention in bringing together a great variety of people and narrative materials (Ranging in status from a Knight to a humble Plowman, the pilgrims are a microcosm of 14th-century English society) to unite the diversity of the tales by allotting them to a diversity of tellers engaged in a common endeavor, to set the tone for the story-telling - one of jollity which accords with the tone of the whole work: that of grateful acceptance of life killing the time in a joyful way, secular purpose of the pilgrim; to make clear the plan for the tales, to motivate the telling of several of tales and to introduce the pilgrims and the time and occasion of the pilgrimage. 3. Summarize the story and the theme of Dr. Faustus and analyze its main character.According to the conventional view, Doctor Faustus is a predominantly Christian play, carrying the essential elements of the medieval Morality. It vindicates humility, faith and obedience to the law of God. By exhibiting the punishment of man for trying through the proud exercise of forbidden knowledge to transcend the bounds of his nature, the Faust-myth is actually a warning against the sin of pride and presumption. The struggle in Doctor Faustus is the same struggle between Heaven and Hell, between God and Lucifer; Faustuss fall is caused by the same pride and ambition that caused the fall of the angels in Heaven.In a radical view, the plays dominant moral is human rather than religious. 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. (A rebellion against Christianity) it reflects the conflict between Medieval and Renaissance value. The medieval world placed God at the center of existence and shunted aside man and the natural world. The Renaissance carried with it a new emphasis on the individual, on classical learning, and on scientific inquiry into the nature of the world.4. What is the theme of the poem (Sonnet 18)?It was written in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.Sonnet 18 is one of the most beautiful sonnets written by Shakespeare, in which 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 forever. Thus Shakespeare has a faith in the permanence of poetry.5.“To be, or not to be”The story of Hamlet: King Hamlet is murdered by his brother Claudius. Claudius marries the Queen Gertrude to become king. Prince Hamlet is forced by his fathers ghost to take revenge on his uncle Claudius.In the meantime Fortinbras tries to conquer Denmark, which his father had lost to King Hamlet. Hamlet uses a theatre group to perform a play to show the guilt of his uncle. Now Claudius realizes that Hamlet knows the truth and tries to kill him.Accidentally his mother, the queen Gertrude drinks the poisoned drink intended to kill Hamlet.It discusses the attitude of a Renaissance humanist toward life and death. Is it worth it dying in the fight with evil? Or is it better to ignore evil and endure the pain and live on? Death may be the way out of all the suffering of life, but is death the end of all? Isnt ther more anguish and sorrow in the next world? Though thought guides action, excessive thinking makes people cowardly and jeopardizes the chances of success of great undertakings.Hamlets attitude towards revenge: the revenge may serve no useful purpose as it cannot bring his dead father back to life nor save his mothers honor.The substance of the soliloquy serves to indicate within the limited space of its few lines the whole process of growth of Hamlets character, which is in a way an indication of the history of human thinking from the Renaissance through modern existentialism.The reasons for Hamlets hesitation in action: Hamlet has doubts about the ghost and his “truth”.The social and religious education that he has received makes him hate to kill a man in his moments of repentance.6. Make a comment on the image of Satan in Paradise Lost.(1) He has strength, the courage, and the capacity for leadership(2) Satans defiance of God(3) His egoistic pride, his false conception of freedom, and his alienation from all good;(4) His unconquerable will7. The Rape of the Lock It is the finest mock heroic poem in English, based on an actual episode. It concerns an event in which a young man, Lord Petre, cuts a lock of“sacred hair”from a young lady considered for marriage, Arabella Fermor.The spontaneous haircut causes a rift between two friendly families who Pope is close to, and he intends the poem to mend wounded feelings.The purpose is to pacify the lady by finally making holy the lock of hair and to ridicule the trivial incident, and to emphasize the pettiness of the quarrel, the foolish, meaningless life of the lords and ladies in the aristocratic bourgeois society of the eighteenth century England.8. Elegy Written in a Country ChurchyardIt consists of 32 four-line stanzas in iambic pentameter. In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second line rhymes with the fourth (abab). Life is short, transitory, as Line 36 makes clear: The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Because of poverty or other handicaps, many talented people never receive the opportunities they deserve. The poet meditates in a village cemetery on the graves of the humble around him, showing his great sympathy for the poor and expressing his censure on the great, the powerful and the wealthy who in their lifetime have contempt for the common people. He recollects through imagination the bliss in the simple lives of the poor and goes on to reflect on death, the sorrows of life, and the mysteries of human life with a touch of personal melancholy. While on the one hand the poet tries to celebrate the simple lifestyle that these rural people lived, even at the expense of reputation or wealth, he also claims that they have been spared from the excesses of power and corruption. The poem rests, then, on the traditional Tory justification of the plight of the poor; they may have been deprived, but it is, after all, for the best, since their poverty kept them out of trouble.9. The School for Scandal There are two plots the scandal plot which revolves Lady Teazles loss of innocence and growth and the inheriting plot which revolves Sir Oliver Surfaces selection of an heir. The play is a sharp satire on the moral degeneracyof the aristocratic-bourgeoissociety in the 18th-century England. The satire is on the vicious scandal-mongering among the idle rich, on the reckless life of extravagance and love intrigues in the high society and, above all, on the immorality and hypocrisy behind the mask of honorable living and high-sounding moral principles.10. Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe is universally considered as Daniel Defoes masterpiece. It was based on an real sailor who once stayed alone on the inhabited island for 5 years. It consists of three parts. The first part is about Crusoes first experience as a sailor, who was involved in a series of dangers and hardships and finally became a plantation owner in Brazil. The second part deals with the heros adventures alone on the uninhabited island, which is the most significant part of the story. The third part tells of the heros successful escape from the island and his final return to England.It has different levels of meaning. It is an adventurous story. It is a moral tale. His success was due to the sturdy qualities in his character, to his own unaided efforts, to his courage and patience, to his practical skill, and to his intelligent persistence. It is a puritan fable. Crusoe is a real hero and he is the embodiment of the rising middle-class virtues in the mid-18th century England. It is a myth of modern civilization, an imperialist dream.The themes: It celebrates the strength of human rational will to conquer the natural environment (conflict between man and nature). It glorifies labor, both physical and mental. It is a glorification of the rising middle class (who has the courage and will to face hardships and the ingenuity and determination to preserve himself and improve on his livelihood by struggling against nature). Robinson is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. 11. A Modest ProposalIt is a modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public. The author made a “modest” proposal that Irish babies should be reared and cut and sold as food for the British rich to help earn money and relieve the misery of their poor parents. It is the expression of Swifts indignation toward the terrible oppression and exploitation of the Irish people by the English ruling class. Assuming the cool tone of an impartial outsider, the author suggests that children of the poor Irish people be sold at one year old as food for the English nobles. The apparent eagerness and sincerity add force to the bitter irony and biting sarcasm.12. Tom JonesIt gives a vivid and truthful panoramic view of English life in the 18th century: in the country, in London and on the open road. It touches upon all kinds of persons and exposes the hypocrisy and depravity of the ruling class, and pictures the poverty of the working masses who are driven by want to crime. It shows the writers great sympathy for the poor and oppressed as well as his very definite antipathy toward all the wicked and deceitful persons.The moral theme: the good gets rewarded while the evil receives its due punishment. it is also a study of human nature. In authors opinion, human nature is not without flaws; it is human to err. A man who is rash, imprudent in his life, like Tom, can still be lovable and admirable so long as he has a good heart and is naturally remediable and can finally come to control his weakness with rationality or morality. On the other hand, those who are by nature selfish, heartless, cruel and wicked, like Blifil, would have no hope of redemption, although they may appear respectable and decent.Tom, honest, kind-hearted, high-spirited, loyal, and brave, but impulsive, wanting prudence and full of animal spirits, is Everyman. Being expelled from Paradise Hall, he must through hard experience gain the knowledge of himself which will enable him to be united with the girl, Sophia, whose very name signifies Wisdom. And his reunion with Mr. Allworthy and his marriage with Sofia finally made this indiscreet youth become matured into a perfect gentleman of virtue and benevolence.13. LondonThe poem consists of four quatrains of iambic tetrameter, with alternate lines rhyming.The speaker wanders through the streets of London and comments on his observations. He sees despair in the faces of the people he meets and hears fear and repression in their voices. 3 gloomy imagery and 6 kinds of sounds express the evils of this city, chimney-sweeper, hapless soldier, youthful harlot. The woeful cry of the chimney sweeper stands as chastisement to the Church, and the blood of a soldier stains the outer walls of the monarchs residence. The nighttime holds nothing more promising: the cursing of prostitutes corrupts the newborn infant and sullies the “Marriage hearse”.In the poem, the poet reflects the miseries of the common people in the English capital and pours out his bitter criticism on the ruling class, which forced the English working people into abyss of sufferings and disasters.14. I wandered lonely as a cloud The four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poets wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless.The poem consists of two parts: drawing a picture about nature and revealing his feeling about life. It discloses the relationship between nature and human beings: how nature can affect ones emotion and behavior with its motion and sound. “Daffodils” are flourishing and dancing in the breeze, which bring him so much fun and make him not feel lonely as a cloud in the sky. Nature can cure peoples mental scar and have healing effect on mind. This poem reflects his deep love of nature, his vision of a unified world, and also his celebration of the power of imagination.15. The Isles of Greece“The Isles of Greece” is taken from Don Juan Canto ，which is sung by a Greek singer at the wedding of Don Juan and Haidee. In the early 19th century, Greece was under the rule of Turks. By praising Greeces ancient brilliant culture, splendid civilization, great military achievements and heroic militant tradition and satirizing the Greeks apathy towards their countrys being slaved by Turks, (by contrasting the freedom enjoyed by the Greek ancient people with the enslavement of the early 19th century Greeks under the Turkish rule) Byron tries very hard to encourage and impel the Greek people to rise and fight for their national liberty and independence, which shows the poets enthusiastic support for people against all forms of oppression.The 16 six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme: ABABC