Topic questions：

1. Why is the 18th century called the Age of Enlightenment?

The 18th century England is known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason.

(1) The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished in France and swept through the whole Western Europe. The movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance in the 15th & 16th centuries.

(2) Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modem philosophical and artistic ideas.

(3) English enlighteners believed in the power of reason. They considered that social problems could be solved by human intelligence.

(4) The Enlighteners criticized different aspects of contemporary England, discussed social life according to a more reasonable principle.

(5) The Enlightener celebrated reason or ration, equality, science and human beings’ ability to perfect themselves and their society. They called for a reference to order, reason and advocated universal education.

(6) Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Alexander pope and so on.

2. Comment on Alexander Pope and his contributions to English poetry.

Alexander Pope is the greatest poet of the Augustan age, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. His major works are Essay on Criticism, Essay on Man, The Rape of the Lock.

He was so perfect in heroic couplets that no one can approach him. And in the field of satiric and didactic verse, he was the undisputed master. He popularized the neo-classical literary tradition. He was one of the early representatives of the Enlightenment who introduced into English culture the spirit of rationalism and greater interest in the human world. He represented the highest glory and authority in matters of literary art and made great contributions to the theory and practice of prosody.

3. What do you find admirable in Robinson Crusoe? Discuss briefly some of his traits.

Robinson Crusoe developed from a naïve and artless youth into a clever and hardened man, tempered by numerous trials in this eventful life. He successfully struggled alone against the pitiless forces of nature on a lonely island. He is a real hero, and the best qualities of his character are shown to the full: his marvelous capacity for work, his boundless energy and persistence in overcoming obstacles.

4. Analyze the character of Tom Jones in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.

Tom Jones is the pattern of the good-natured unheroic hero of the age. He is a very handsome young man of manly virtues: kind, frank, generous, high-spirited, loyal and courageous, but impulsive, wanting prudence and full of animal spirits and sensuality. He represents everyman. (He is of manly virtues and yet not without fault.)

5. What is the symbolic meaning of the tiger in William Blake’s The Tyger?

The tiger initially appears as a strikingly sensuous image. However, as the poem progresses, it takes on a symbolic character, and comes to embody the spiritual and moral problems the poem explores: perfectly beautiful and yet perfectly destructive. Blake's tiger becomes the symbolic center for an investigation into the presence of evil in the world. Since the tiger's remarkable nature exists both in physical and moral terms, the speaker’s questions about its origin also encompass both physical and moral dimensions. The poem's series of questions repeatedly ask what sort of physical creative capacity the "fearful symmetry" of the tiger bespeaks; assumedly only a very strong and powerful being could be capable of such a creation. 

6. Make a comparison between the two volumes of William Blake: The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience.

The two books hold the similar subject matter, but the tone, emphasis and conclusion differ.

(1) Songs of Innocence is a lovely volume of poems, presenting a happy and innocent world, though not without its evils and sufferings.

(2) Songs of Experience paints a different world, a world of misery, poverty, disease, war and repression with a melancholy tone.

7. Who are the “Lake Poets” in English literature? To which literary movement do they belong?

Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey have often been mentioned as the "Lake Poets" because they lived in the Lake District in the northwestern part of England. The three traversed the same path in politics and in poetry, beginning as radicals and closing as conservatives.

They are part of the Poetic Revolution, which was started as a rebellion against the Neoclassical literature.

8. Romanticism is a very important literary trend in the history of the English literature. Give your understanding to Romanticism in English literature.

Romanticism is a movement that flourished in literature, philosophy, music, and in Western culture during most of the nineteenth century, beginning as a revolt against classicism. Many of the ideas of English Romanticism were first expressed by the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Romantic Movement expressed a more or less negative attitude towards the existing social and political conditions that came with industrialization and the growing importance of the bourgeoisie. Romanticism actually constitutes a change of direction from attention to the outer world of social civilization to the inner world of the human spirit. In essence it designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience.

9. Name three Romantic poets and state their chief characteristics.

Wordsworth: the great theme remains the world of simple, natural things, in the countryside or among people.

Coleridge: his interest is towards the strange, the exotic, and the mysterious things.

Shelley: expresses two main ideas --- the external tyranny is the main enemy; the inherent human goodness will eliminate evil form the world.

Byron: example of a personality in tragic revolt against society; prototype of romantic hero.

Keats: his poetry is a response to sensuous impressions; cares about beauty.

10. In what way is the West Wind both a destroyer and a preserver in Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind?

The west wind is both a destroyer and a preserver because it destroys in autumn (blowing the leaves off the trees and bury them beneath the earth) in order to revive in the spring (the seeds grow and bring new life to the Earth). It marks the cycle of the seasons. It is around this image the poem weaves various cycles of death and regeneration.

11. What is the “Byronic hero”?

Byronic hero is a proud, mysterious rebel figure of noble origin. With immense superiority in his passions and powers, this Byronic hero would carry on his shoulders the burden of righting all the wrongs in a corrupt society, and would rise single-handedly against any kind of tyrannical rules wither in government, in religion, or in moral principles with unconquerable wills and inexhaustible energies. The conflict is usually one of rebellious individuals against outworn social systems and conventions. Such a hero appeared in many of his works, for example, Don Juan. The figure is somewhat modeled on the life and personality of Byron himself, and makes Byron famous both at home and abroad.

12. How is Romanticism different from Neoclassicism? Provide brief analysis with examples of literary works you know best.

Neoclassicists upheld that 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. Pope's Essay on Criticism advocates grace, wit (usually though satire/ humor), and simplicity in language (and the poem itself is a demonstration of those ideals, too).

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 were (Wordsworth's I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, or The Solitary Reaper).

13. What are the strength and weakness of English Critical Realism?

The English critical realists of the 19th century not only gave a satirical portrayal of the bourgeoisie and all the ruling classes, but also showed profound sympathy for the common people. In their best works, the greed and hypocrisy of the upper classes are contrasted with the honesty and good-heartedness of the obscure “simple people” of the lower classes. Hence humor and satire abound in the English realistic novels of the 19th century. Humorous scenes set off the actions of the positive characters, and the humor is often tinged with a lyricism which serves to stress the fine qualities of such characters. At the same time, bitter satire and grotesque is used to expose the seamy side of the bourgeois society.

Critical realism reveals the corrupting influence of the rule of crash upon human nature. Here lies the essentially democratic and humanistic character of critical realism. But the critical realists did not find a way to eradicate the social evils they knew so well. They did not realize the necessity of changing the bourgeois society through conscious human effort. They were unable to find a good solution to the social contradictions. Their works do not point toward revolution but rather evolution or reformism. They often start with a powerful exposure of the ugliness of the bourgeois world in their works, but their novels usually have happy endings or an impotent compromise at the end. Here we see the strength and weakness of critical realism.

14. How do you understand Pip’s so called “Great Expectation”?

(1) When he was young, he wanted to become a blacksmith like Joe, his brother in law.

(2) His meeting with Havisham changed his attitude towards life, and he admired his decent way of living like a gentleman. He met Estella and fell love with her, but he cannot marry her because of his inferior status and his expectations changed. He wanted to raise his social status and to become a gentleman, get a better education and then marry Estella.

(3) When Pip discovers that his benefactor is in fact a convict, his “great expectation” turns out to be bubble, beautiful but transient. Pip finally realized the money and social status is not the most important things in life. What is important is love and loyalty. Man's true value has nothing to do with his money and status.

15. Charles Dickens is one of the greatest Victorian writers in his own unique way. Discuss Dickens’s art of novels: the setting, the language, and the characters, etc. based on his novel Oliver Twist.

(1) He uses a mixture of the contemporary and recollected past as his fictional settings.

(2) With his first sentence, he engages the reader is attention and holds it to the end.

(3) His best-depicts characters are those innocent, virtuous, persecuted, helpless child characters such as Oliver Twist.

(4) The figures that he depicted, marked out by some peculiarity in physical, speech or manner, are both types and individuals.

(5)Dickens’s works are also characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.

(6)Adept with the vernacular and large vocabulary, he brings out many a wonderful verbal picture of man and scene.

16. What are the major themes of Pride and Prejudice? List at least two and elaborate them in a few sentences.

The major themes can include marriage and women’s fate, self-acknowledge, manners, virtue and sense of responsibility

17. Discuss briefly the character of Elizabeth, the heroine in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Elizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-headed, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a woman of distinct character. She is not passive, but pursues her true love bravely. She turns down the marriage proposal of the servile Mr. Collins’s and seeks her happiness with Darcy, the one she possesses true affection for. She is also courageous. When Darcy’s aunt lady de Bourgh comes to force her into a promise of never consenting to marry Darcy, she boldly challenges her authority, contempt and arrogance. On the whole, Elizabeth is a typical image of the good, attractive lady in the 19th century.

18. Comment briefly on the theme of Jane Eyre. Please show your understanding on the love between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.

Jane Eyre is not only a love story. It is also a plea for the recognition of the individual’s worth and sex equality that Women attempt to assert their own identity within the male-dominated society.

Though poor and plain, Jane Eyre, who had a strong will of life, tried hard to get her rights of equality. She loved the man who was about 20 years older than she and richer. She just wanted him to treat her equally. She was great because her love made disillusioned Rochester happy again. Mr. Rochester was a man full of life’s misery, yet he loved Jane truly and respected her very much. That’s why he got her love.

19. (1) What do you think causes Tess’s tragedy?

(2) Please comment briefly on the fate of Tess in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

(1) Tess was an innocent, pure girl. She was honest and sweet-natured and full of love for her family and sympathy for others. Her tragedy can be attributed to the poverty of her family, the social environment and the collapse of the Agricultural economy. For a girl as Tess, her life was something that she couldn’t control. Chance of some unknown forces determined everything.

(2) Tess is actually a victim of her society. Hardy created the heroine Tess just to criticize the society in his time. Tess is a tragic person simply because she is not accepted by the society in which agriculture is menaced by the forces of invading capitalism. So in a way, Tess’ fate is decided by her society.

20. The sub-title of Tess of the D’Urbervilles is “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. What is your opinion about the heroine?

Tess is a pure woman, although society and other people believed otherwise. She has done nothing wrong. She is seduced, but does not have sex of her own accord with Alec. She is sacrificed to society, yet she has no evil intensions when she goes across the threshold of her parents’ and enters the world. She is a victim.

21. Make a comment on Modernism, including the historical background and the characteristics

Around the two world wars, many writers and artists began to suspect and be discontent with the capitalism. They tried to find new ways to express their understanding of the world. It was a movement of experiments in techniques in writing. It flourished in the 20s and 30s in English literature. They turned their interest to describing what was happening in the minds of their characters. Because of their emphasis on the psychological activities of the characters, their writings are also called psychological novels. The Representatives are W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Foster, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

It is marked by a strong and conscious break with the traditional form and techniques of expression, being richly experimental; It employs a distinctive kind of imagination, one that insists on having its general frame of reference within itself; It implies a historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, loss and despair and rejects traditional values, assumptions as well as rhetoric; It also elevates the individual and the inner being over the social being and prefers the subconscious, unconscious to the self-conscious.

22. Make a comparison between James Joyce and D. H. Lawrence.

Both are modernist novelists. James Joyce is interested in technical innovation. He introduced three new techniques into English literature: the use of myth, stream-of-consciousness and epiphany. Lawrence is interested in the tracing of the psychological development of his major characters and the criticism of the dehumanizing effect of industrialization on human nature.

英国文学简答题