英国文学复习资料.doc

What is the French influence over English literature
The French influence is most marked in the drama. Rimed couplets instead of blank verse, the unities, a more regular construction, and the presentation rather than individual — these were some of the French requirements which the English dramatists had more or less in mind. The comedies are coarse in language and their view of the relations between men and women is immoral and dishonest.
What is the main theme of Sonnet 18
This poem asserts the power of literature to combat the ravages of time and declare the greatness of man and his immortality. Shakespeare expresses that as long as there are breaths in mankind, his poetry will also live on, and ensures the immortality of his thought.
What are the features of Dickens’s works
Dickens’s novels offer a most complete and realistic picture of the English bourgeois society of his age. They reflect the protest of the people against capitalist exploitation; criticize the vices of capitalist society.
Dickens is a petty bourgeois intellectual. He could not overstep the limits of his class. He failed to see the necessity of a bitter struggle of the oppressed against their oppressors. There is a definite tendency for a reconciliation of the contradictions of capitalist society.
Almost all his novels have happy endings. His novels tell much of the experiences of his childhood. Dickens is a great humorist. His novels are full of humor and laughter.
What are the common features of the novels in Victorian Age
The common features of the novels in Victorian Age are:
a. The plot is unfolded against a social background.
b. The cause-effect sequence is much more striking.
c. Most of the Victorian novels were first published in serial form, that is, by installment, before they were fully published in a single book.
d. The Victorian novels were tainted by the spirit of Puritanism of the Victorian age.
e. The Victorian novels were characterized by their moral purpose.
1. Give a summary about the English literature during the Renaissance.
English literature in the Renaissance Period is usually regarded as the highlight in the history of English literature. In the second period of English Renaissance that is, in Elizabethan Period, English literature developed with a great speed and made a magnificent achievement. The greatest and most distinctive achievement of Elizabethan literature is the drama. Thus appeared a group of excellent dramatists and great poets, such as John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard and Edmund Spenser.
Since English Renaissance Period was an age of poetry and drama, and was not an age of prose, there were not so many prose writers. In the beginning period, the great humanist, Thomas More wrote his famous prose work Utopia, which may be thought of as the first literary masterpiece of the English Renaissance. In Elizabethan Period, Francis Bacon wrote more than 50 excellent essays, which make him one of the best essayists in English literature.
2. Give a brief introduction to Utopia.
Utopia is More’s masterpiece, written in the form of a conversation between More and a returned sailor. The whole work is divided into two books. The first book contains a long discussion on the social conditions of England. In the second book, More describes in detail and ideal society called Utopia. The name “Utopia〞 comes from two Greek words meaning no place. It was used by More to name his ideal society.
Book One of Utopia is a picture of contemporary England. The author severely criticizes English society and exposes social evils: the enclosure for land and the ensuing expulsion of peasants. Book two offers us a good picture of an ideal society in some unknown ocean.
All citizens in Utopia are politically equal. Everybody takes part in labor. The products of the society are distributed according to the needs of the citizens. All religions in this ideal society are authorized and tolerance is the law. Life there is pleasant.
This work became very popular after its publications. It is regarded as one of the earliest work of Utopian socialism. Karl Marx highly commended this work
3. Give a brief comment on The Merchant of Venice.
Of Shakespeare’s earlier comedies, The Merchant of Venice is certainly the most outstanding one in which Shakespeare creates tension, ambiguity, a self-conscious and self-delighting artifice that is at once intellectually exciting and emotionally engaging. The sophistication derives in part from the play between high, outgoing romance and dark forces of negativity and hate. 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, especially the holocaust committed by the Nazy Germany during the Second World War, it is very difficult to see Shylock as a conventional evil figure. And many people today tend to regard the play as a satire of the Christian hypocrisy and their false standards of friendship and love, their cunning ways of pursuing worldliness and their unreasoning prejudice against Jew.
4. What is the main idea of Hamlet
The story of the play comes from an old Danish legend. It is very likely that Shakespeare borrowed something from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. The whole play shows how Hamlet, hero of the play who represents good and justice, fights against his uncle in whom all the evil things of the time can be seen. Hamlet’s father, the old King has been poisoned to death by his own brother. The new king, that is, Hamlet’s uncle, has married the Queen, Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet wants to revenge for his father. He is not a weak-minded young man. He loves his people and is loved by them.
He shows his bravery in running after the Ghost of his father, in killing the king’s minister, Polonist, in fighting with the pirates on the sea, and with Laertes. He has seen through the wicked and unjust world which he lives in. He observes that “Denmark is a prison〞. He is determined to do away the evils in the society. Finally he kills all the enemies and avenges his father. He dies a heroic death.
Shakespeare showed his great creative abilities in writing this play. Hamlet is made a hero of the Renaissance period and the representative of humanism. Through him Shakespeare expressed his own humanist ideas. This play is usually regarded as the summit of Shakespeare’s art.
5. In which period did Shakespeare write his main comedies What did he tell us in this comedies
【第一问略】
In these plays Shakespeare portrayed the young people who had just freed from the feudal fetters. He sang of their youth, their love and ideal of happiness. The heroes and heroines were sons and daughters of the Renaissance. They trust not in God or King but in themselves.
Shakespeare put women characters at a prominent place in his comedies. He showed great respect for the dignity, honesty, wit, courage, determination and resourcefulness of women. The young heroines in Shakespeare’s comedies are independent in character and very frank. In speaking, thinking and feeling, they are equals or even superiors of men. Shakespeare’s comedies are imbued with bourgeoisie ideas and show progressive significance.
6. When were Shakespeare’s main tragedies written What did he write about in his tragedies
【第一问略】
Shakespeare’s main tragedies are associated with a period of gloom and sorrow in his life. During this period, England witnessed a general unrest and social contradictions became very sharp.
His main tragedies are: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. All of these plays express a profound dissatisfaction with life. They show the struggle and conflicts between good and evil of the time, between justice and injustice. In these plays, the writer Shakespeare condemns the dark and evil society.
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