英美文学选读复习资料.docx

1、英美文学选读复习资料English LiteratureChapter One The Renaissance PeriodI. Shakespeares sonnets1. With a few exceptions, Shakespeare writes his sonnets in the popular English form of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet usually ties the sonnet to one of the general themes, leaving the quatrains free to

2、develop the poetic intensity.2. The sonnets most common themes concern the destructive effects of time, the quickness of physical decay, and the loss of beauty, vigor, and love. Although the poems celebrate life, they are always with a keen awareness of death. 3. His sonnet 18 expresses that beautif

3、ul things can rely on the force of literature to reach eternity. Literature is created by man, thus it declares mans eternity. The poem shows the mighty self-confidence of the newly class. The vivid, variable and rich images reflect the lively and adventurous spirits of those who were opening new wo

4、rld. II. Shakespeares A Merchant of Venice1. Theme (1) Justice vs. mercy: Shakespeare suggests that all men should be merciful. There is a further aspect of justicethe injustice revealed in the Christians treatment of the Jews. (2) Appearance vs. reality: e.g. superficial or external beauty vs. mora

5、l or spiritual beauty or truth (in the case of three caskets); the letters of law vs. the spirit of the law.(3) Commercial or material values vs. love: True love is much more worthwhile than money and material values. Antonio epitomizes true love in his friendship for Bassanio.2. The character analy

6、sis of Shylock Shylock is a Jewish usurer, and he is a tragic-comic character.He is comic because he finally becomes the one punished by his own evil deed. He is avaricious. He accumulates as much wealth as he can and he even equates his lost daughter with his lost money. He is also cruel. In order

7、to revenge, he would rather claim a pound of flesh from his enemy Antonio than get back his loan.He is tragic, because he is the victim of the society. As a Jew, he is not treated equally by the society. The law is harsh to him. He has to make as much money as he can in order to protect him. He is a

8、bused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge. III. The character analysis of HamletHamlet is a scholar and a warrior. His father has been killed by his uncle, Claudius, who then take the throne and marries his mother. Hamlet is informed by the ghost of his father to take revenge, but the weakness of

9、 indecisiveness or indetermination in his character always delay his action, and finally leads to his tragic fall of death. Hamlet is not a man of action, but a man of thinking at first. He hesitates at some crucial moments. At last when he is forced to take some actions, he does kill Claudius glori

10、ously, but he also sacrifices his own life.V. Miltons Paradise Lost :1.Structure: The story is taken from the Old Testament. It extends chronologically from the exaltation of Christ before the creature of universe to the second coming of Christ. Geographically, it ranges over the entire world. 2. Th

11、e character analysis of Satan:He has the strength, the courage and the capacity for leadership, but he devoted all those qualities to evil. His defiance of God shows his egoistic pride, his false conception of freedom, and his alienation from all good. His own evil and damnation give him potentially

12、 tragic dimensions. Therefore, Satan is enveloped in dramatic irony because he fight in ignorance of the unshakable power of God and goodness. 3.Features: Parallel and contrastThe central conflict and contrast between good and evil are intensified by the contrast between heaven and hell, light and d

13、arkness, love and hate, reason and passion, etc.Chapter Two The Neo-classical PeriodIII. The social satire of Jonathan Swifts Gullivers TravelsThe account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tricks in the English government. T

14、he description of the competition in the games before the royal members leads to the fact that the success of those government officials such as the Prime Minister lies not in their being any wiser or better but in their being more dexterous in the game. This alludes to the practices in England. And

15、 the pompous words singing of the Lilliputian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity. IV. Henry Fielding and his Tom JonesIt is a good example of “comic epic in prose”. Fielding describes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style

16、of the Homeric epic. He first of all calls on the Muses to assist him in recounting the fight as if it were of great historical importance. Like Homer who would list names of gods involved in the battle, he lists the names of the villagers. He treats Molly as a great hero at battle, an “Amazonian he

17、roine”. Besides, he uses a mock-epic tone and seems very solemn about what he is describing. He uses formal words and refined language. Finally, he makes use of different figures of speech, particularly, irony and hyperbole. Chapter Three The Romantic PeriodI. Wordsworth and his “I wandered lonely a

18、s a cloud”The poem is crystal clear and lucid. Below the immediate surface, we find that all the realistic details of the flowers, the trees, the waves, the wind, and all the realistic details of the active joy, are absorbed into an over-all concrete metaphor, the recurrent image of the dance. The f

19、lowers, the stars, the waves are units in this dancing pattern of order in diversity, of linked eternal harmony and vitality. Through the revelation and recognition of his kinship with nature, the poet himself becomes as it were a part of the whole cosmic dance. II. Shelley and his “Ode to the West

20、Wind”In the poem, Shelley eulogizes the west wind as a powerful phenomenon of nature that is both destroyer and preserver. The wind enjoys boundless freedom and has the power to spread messages far and wide. The keynote in the poem is Shelleys ever-present wish for himself and his fellow men to shar

21、e the freedom of the west wind, remembering meanwhile his own and common human miseries. And the dominant mood is that of hope rather than despair, as the poet is hoping for the realization of the freedom and joy. The optimism expressed in the last two lines show the poets critical attitude toward t

22、he ugly social reality and his faith in a bright future for humanity. IV. The character analysis of Elizabeth in Jane Austens Pride and PrejudiceElizabeth is a beautiful young lady in the Bennets. She is intelligent, contrasting her empty-minded, snobbish and vulgar mother. She is a women of distinc

23、t character. She is not passive, but pursue her true love bravely. She turns down Mr. Collins marriage proposal and seeking her happiness with Darcy, the one she possesses true affection for her. She is also courageous. When Darcys aunt lady comes to force her into a promise of never consenting to m

24、arry 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.Chapter Four The Victorian PeriodI. The features of Charles Dickens1. His critical realism: While sticking to the principle of faithful

25、 representation of the 18th-century realist novel, he carried the duty to the criticism of the society and the defense of the mass.2. He is a master storyteller. With his first sentence, he engages the readers attention and holds it to the end.3. What he writes is mainly the middle and lower-middle

26、class life in London.4. He is a master of language with a large vocabulary and an adeptness with the vernacular. 5. He is a great humorist as well as a great painter of pathos. He always mingles the two to make his fictional world realistic. 6. His characters are not only true to life but also large

27、 than life. There are both individual characters and type characters. II. Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre1. Theme: The novel sharply criticizes the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions like Lowood School, where girls are trained to be humble slaves. It rebukes the social discrimination and false

28、convention about love and marriage. Besides, the novel is a moral fable. It tells us that people have to go through all kinds of physical or moral tests to obtain their final happiness.2. The character analysis of Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre is an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and

29、be loved. She is poor and plain, but she dares to love her master, a man superior to her in many ways, as a little governess. She is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him. She cuts a completely new women image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for reco

30、gnition of their basic rights and equality as a human being. III. Emily Brontes Wuthering Height1. The novel is an extraordinary moving love story: the passion between Heathcliff and Catherine is the most intense, beautiful, and the most horrible passions ever found among human beings.2. It is also

31、a work of critical realism. Heathcliff is abused, rejected and distorted by the society only because he is a poor orphan of obscure parents. He suffers all kinds of inhuman treatment after the death of his benefactor. He loves Catherine dearly but forced to be separated from her. So, Heathcliffs cru

32、el revenge upon his enemies is justified in a way. 3. The author makes clear that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of social status, and it is cruel and destructive to break genuine, natural human passions. Although Catherine and Edgars marriage is ideal in the eyes of the whole neighborhood, her love for Heathcliff is hard and everlasting.Chapter Five The Modern PeriodI. The features of Shaws plays:1. Problem plays: He took the modern social issues as his subject with the aim of directing social reforms. Most of his plays are concerned wi