一选择题
1. _____ was the first to introduce the sonnet into English literature.
a. Thomas Wyatt b. William Shakespeare
c. Phillip Sidney d. Thomas Campion
2. The epoch of Renaissance witnessed a particular development of English Drama. It was _______ who made blank verse the principal vehicle of expression in drama.
a. Christopher Marlowe b. Thomas Loge
c. Edmund Spenser d. Thomas More
3. Great popularity was won by John Lyly’s prose romance_______ which gave rise to the term “euphuism”, designating an effected style of court speech.
a. Arcadia b. Venus and Adonis.
c. Eupheus d. Lucrece
4. At the beginning the 16th century the outstanding humanist_____ wrote his Utopia in which he gave a profound and truthful picture of the people’s suffering and put forward his ideal of a future happy society.
a. Christopher Marlowe b. Thomas More
c. Phillip Sidney d. Edmund Spencer
5. English absolute monarchy was once again adopted in the reign of ________after the Queen Elizabeth.
a. Edward VI b. James I
c. Charles I d. Queen Ann
6. Beowulf is the most important and the first epic in the Old English ever written. It was written in _______.
a. sonnets b. ballads
c. alliteration d. heroic couplet
7. Paradise Lost is a (n)________.
a. lyrical poem b. hymn
c. epic d. narrative poem
8. Pamela is a___________.
a. historical novel b. romance
b. novel of naturalism d. novel of epistles and psychology
9. Gulliver’s Travels is a ________.
a. sentimental novel b. novel of satire and allegory
c. Gothic novel d. novel of stream of consciousness
10. I Wandered lonely as a Cloud is a ________.
a. lyrical poem b. lyrical prose
c. romance in prose d. sonnet
11. The School of Scandal is a ______.
a. tragedy b. comedy of manners
c. novel d. romance
12. The Merry Wives of Windsor is a ______.
a. comedy b. tragedy
c. historical play d. morality play
13. A Red, Red Rose is a______.
a. lyric b. satirical poem
c. epic d ode
14. Clarrisa is a (n) ____________.
a. historical novel b. epistolary novel
c. metrical romance d. satirical novel
15. The title of “Poet’s poet” is given to the writer of the following work __ _____.
a. Death Be Not Proud b. Venus and Adonis c. Romeo and Juliet d. The Faerie Queen
16. The Merchant of Venice belongs to Shakespearian plays of_______.
a. comedy b. sequence of sonnets
c. tragedy d. historical play
17. Chaucer was the first important poet of a royal court to write in______ after the Norman conquest.
a. French b. Latin
c. English d. Celt
18. “He was not of an age, but for all the time”. “He” here refers to _____.
a. Shakespeare b. Chaucer
c. John Milton d. Ben Jonson
19. The father of the school of Metaphysical poets is _______.
a. Thomas More b. Spenser
c. John Donne d. Wyatt
20. The most important prose writer of Elizabethan Age was _______, who was also the founder of the English materialistic philosophy.
a. Thomas More b. Spenser
c. John Donne d. Francis Bacon
21. During the medieval time, there were several types of drama, among which the ______ denotes only dramas based on Saint’s lives.
a. miracle play b. morality play
c. mystery play d.interlude
22. Morality plays were dramatized _______of the life of man, his temptation and sinning, his quest for salvation and his confrontation with death.
a. elegy b. dream
c. ambition d. allegories
23. The hero in morality plays usually represents Mankind or _______.
a. Devil b. God
c. valiant d. everyone
24. The rhyme scheme of Spenser’s Amorretti is created by Spenser himself, and it is now called ____, rhyme pattern of which is ______.
a. English sonnet/ abab cdcd, efef gg
b. Italian sonnet/ abba abba cde cde
c. Miltonic sonnet/ abab bcbc cde cde
d. Spenserian sonnet/ abab bcbc cdcd ee
25. In the Faerie Queene, Spenser signifies glory in abstract, and the Queen Elizabeth______ in particular.
a. Glory b. fame
c. honesty d. virtue
26. Spenser not only wrote in Spenserian sonnet, he also invented Spensrian stanza, a nine-line stanza used by him in Faerie Queene, the rhyme scheme of which is ________.
a. abab ababa b. abab bcbcc
c. abcb cdcdc d. aabb ccddd
27. Spenser is usually considered “poets’ poet”, because of his superb technical skill, perfect melodies, rare senses of beauty. However, in his poetry there still remain two defects: _______.
a. power and unity b. power and steadiness
c. steadiness and unity d. unity and melody
28. The Tragic History of Dr. Faustus is based on a _____.
a. German legend b. Greek legend
c. Roman Legend d. Celtic Legend
29. The hero of Dr. Fustus is a young ______.
a. scholar b. doctor
c. philosopher d. magician
30. The significance of Marlowe’s plays lies in the playwright’s presenting of, in various ways, the spirit of ________.
a. feudal lords b. the rising bourgeoisie
c. the intellectuals d. common people
31. Who was the greatest dramatist in the 18th century?
a. Goldsmith b. Sheridan
c. Sterne d. Fielding
32. Which play is regarded as the best English comedy since Shakespeare?
a. She Stoops to Conquer b. The Rivals
c. The School for Scandal d. The Conscious Lovers
33. Chaucer was the first important poet of royal court to write in ______ after the Norman Conquest.
a. French b. Latin
c. English d. Greek
34. Shylock is a character in the play _______.
a. Tamburlain written by Marlowe b. Othello written by Shakespeare c. The Jew of Malta written by Marlowe d. The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare
35. “To err, is human, to forgive, divine” and “ A little learning is a dangerous thing.” are taken from the poems written by ______.
a. John Milton b. Francis Bacon
c. William Shakespeare d. Alexander Pope
36. The Deserted Village is a ___________.
a. sentimental poem b. romantic poem
c. neo-classical poem d. allegorical poem
37. In English Poetry the phrase ‘the deep’ is often referred to _______.
a. the hell b. the heart
c. the sea d. the grave
38. At the turn of the 18th and 19th century, ______ appeared as a new literary trend in England.
a. Renaissance b. Reformation
c. Romanticism d. Sentimentalism
39. Of Truth was written by a British essayist_______.
a. William Shakespeare b. George Bernad Shaw
c. Francis Bacon d. John Donne
40. “Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold! Thus much of this will make black white, fool fair, wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant…”
These lines are taken from ________ by Shakespeare.
a. Volpone b. As you like it c. The School for Scandal d. Timon of Athens
41. “ Conceit” is a term applied in particular to the school represented by_______.
a. Herrick b. Ben Jonson
c. Pope d. John Donne
42. The general spirit of Shakespeare’s first period comedies is _______.
a. youthfulness with melancholy
b. pessimism with youthfulness
c. optimism with youthfulness
d. optimism with melancholy
43. _____ is one of Shakespeare’s famous four tragedies.
a. Romeo and Juliet b. Julius Caesar
c. Anthony and Claopatra d. Othello 44. The Merchant of Venice belongs to Shakespeare’s plays of ______in which Shakespeare highly praises the wits and wisdom of the heroin______ .
a. Sophia b. Portia
c. Ophilia d. Olivia
45. One of the following plays takes its subject matter from Chinese history.
a. Henry VI b. Everyone in His Humor c. The Rivals d. Tamburlain
46. Piers the Plowman is a realistic picture of _____ England, which indignantly satirized the ____ prevailing among the ruling classes, ecclesiastical and secular world.
a. Renaissance/ corruption b. medieval /reality
c. medieval /corruption d. Renaissance/ reality
47. One of the following writers is not known as a sonnet poet is _______.
a. Wyatt b. Shakespeare
c. Greene d. Spencer
48. Mephistophilis is a _______.
a. soldier b. devil’s servant
c. king’s clown d. noble man
49. Thomas More was killed because of ______.
a. his disagreement with the prince
b. his treason of England
c. his plot against King Henry VIII
d. his disagreement with the king’s divorce and the religious belief
50. More is known as a writer, statesman and _______.
a. humanist b. merchant
c. socialist d. soldier
51. All the following writers created the sonnet sequence except______.
a. Shakespeare b. Thomas More
c. Spenser c. Sidney
52. Apology for Poetry is a_______.
a. sonnet b. literary criticism
c. novel d. play
53. Of the following, the one that employs the form of romance is _______.
a. Euphues b. Amoretti
c. Of Studies d. Venus and Adonis
54. The “Mighty line” in Marlowe’s play means________.
a. blank verse b. sonnet
c. couplet d. free verse
55. The one who first made blank verse the principal instrument of English drama is ______.
a. Surry b. Marlowe
c. Shakespeare d. Ben Jonson
56. The recurrent theme of Marlowe’s plays is the praise of ______.
a. capitalism b. church
c. feudalism d. individualism
57. All the heroes of Marlowe’s plays end with ______.
a. happiness b. triumph
c. tragedy d. insult
58. The literary genre which best represents the literary achievement in Renaissance is _____.
a. novel b. drama
c. poetry d. romance
59. Thomas More’s masterpiece Utopia was written in _______.
a. French b. English
c. Latin d. Greek
60. Astrophel and Stalla was written by the author who also wrote _____.
a. Amoretti b. As You like It
c. Apology for Poetry d. Dr. Faustus 61. The poet who wrote the first sonnet sequence in English literature also wrote _____.
a. The Shepherds’ calendar b. Apology for Poetry
c. Hamlet d. Alchemist
62. The soldier, the poet, the critic, the courtier, all the titles can be applied to one of the following writers.
a. Spenser b. Marlowe
c. Sidney d. Ben Jonson
63. Spenser is famous for his _______.
a. musical rhythm b. colorful images
c. symbols d. all of the above
64. Test of courage, faith and loyalty is the theme of a _____.
a. romance b. novel
c. play d. ballad
65. La Morte’d Arthur describes the war, the tournament, illicit love and the quest for ______.
a. Christ b. Holly Grail
c. Bible d. King Arthur
66. All the following figures appear in the work La Morte’d Arthur, except_______.
a. King Arthur b. Guenevere
c. Lancelot d. Tamburlain
67. La Moret’d Arthur marked the ____ of the romance in England.
A. falling b. rising
c. summit d. ending
68. The English Romantic Movement began in the 1798 when “Lyrical Ballads” was published, and ended in1832 when ______.
a. Jane Austain died b. Scott died
c. Wordsworth died d. Shelley
69. Quotation and the author are correctly paired in all the followings except______.
a. a. “I might boast myself La Vainqueur”----- Johnson
b. b. “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” ------ Pope
c. c. A Truthful artist’s duty was to produce human nature”------ Wordsworth
d. d. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” --------- Shakespeare.
70. Virtue Rewarded in the novel by Richardson means___________.
a. a. Shopia was married to Mr. B finally.
b. b. Pamela was kicked out of Mr. B’s place.
c. c. Shopia was married to Tom Jones at last.
d. d. Pamela was married to Tom Jones.
71. The Spectator was started in the ______century.
a. early 18th b. late 19th
c. the late 18th d. early 19th
72. The figure of speech used in the article A modest Proposal is called _____.
a. satire b. paradox
c. irony d. pun
73. The Rape of the Lock gives an account of ______.
a. bull fighting b. a knight duel
c. a writer’s life d. an anecdote of the court
74. At the end of the History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,________.
a. Blifil was hanged b. Tom was put in jail again
c. Shopia divorced with Tom d. None of the above
75. Richardson was noted as a storyteller, letter-writer and a ______ as well.
a. critic b. moralizer
c. poet d. playwright
76. The couplet, originally French, was made full use by ______.
a. Pope b. Donne
c. Chaucer d. Johnson
77. All of the followings were from Ireland except________.
a. Sheridan b. Goldsmith
c. Swift d. Blake
78. The pair not correct associated is _______.
a. Blake----engraver b. Goldsmith______poet and novelist
c. Fielding ____playwright d. Richardson _____poet
79.The Sentimental School includes all of the following writers except_______.
a. Thomas Cowper b. Thomas Gray
c. Richardson d. Swift
80. Milton was nicknamed “the lady of the Christ” because he was ______.
a. a lady b. as serious as a lady
c. as hansom as a lady d. as gentle as a lady
答案；
1-5 a a c b b 6-10 c c d b a
11-15 b a a b d 16-20 a c a c d
21-25 c d d d d 26-30 b a a a b
31-35 b c c d d 36-40. a c d b d
41-45. d c d b d 46-50. b c b d a.
51-55. b b a a b
56-60. d c b c c
61-65. b c d a b
66-70. d c b c b
71-75. a c d d b
76-80. a d d d c
二，名词解释
1. Enlightenment
Enlightenment is a progressive intellectual movement, which swept over England and other lands in Western Europe in the 18th century. Enlightenment freed and reformed the thinking of man. Enlighteners strove to clear away the feudal remnants and replace them by bourgeois ideologue.
2. Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter. See also Meter. In the 1540s Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, seems to have originated it in English as the equivalent of Virgil's unrhymed dactylic hexameter. In Gorboduc (1561), Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton introduced blank verse into the drama, whence it soared with Marlowe and Shakespeare in the 1590s. Milton forged it anew for the epic in Paradise Lost (1667).
3. Fable
(1) A short, allegorical story in verse or prose, frequently of animals, told to illustrate a moral. (2) The story line or plot of a narrative or drama. (3) Loosely, any legendary or fabulous account.
4. Romance
Any imaginative literature that is set in an idealized world and that deals with heroic adventures and battles between good characters and villains or monsters. Originally, the term referred to a medieval tale dealing with the loves and adventures of kings, queens, knights, and ladies, and including unlikely or supernatural happenings. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the best of the medieval romances.
5.Comedy of manners
Its concern is to bring the moral and social behavior of its characters to the
test of comic laughter. The male hero lives not for military glory but for pleasure and the conquests that he can achieve in his amorous campaigns. The object of his very practical game of sexual intrigue is a beautiful, witty, pleasure loving, and emancipated lady, every bit his equal in the strategies of love. The two are distinguished not for virtue but for the true wit and well-bred grace with which they conduct the often complicated intrigue that makes up the plot.
6. Humor
A humor is a theory used by Ben Jonson in his play writing. A humor, according to the physiology and the psychology of the time, was one of the liquid constituents of the body, each of which had its peculiar emotional propensity. Every character in Jonson’s comedies personifies a definite humor, so his characters are like caricatures.
7. Novel
The extended prose fiction that arose in the 18th century to become a major literary expression of the modern world. The term comes from the Italian novella, the short \"new\" tale of intrigue and moral comeuppance most eminently disseminated by Boccaccio's Decameron (1348-1353). The terms novel and romance, from the French roman, competed interchangeably for most of the 18th century.
三．阅读题
Passage 1
To die, to sleep
No more and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devotedly to be wished. To die, to sleep
To sleep-perchance to dream: ay there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dream may come?
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us a pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns,
The patient merit of th’ unworthy takes
QUESTION:
1. These lines are taken from a famous play named________.
2. The author of the play is____________.
3. In the play these lines are uttered by ____________.
4. About the utterance what does the speech show?
Passage 2
What though the field be lost?
All is not lost: the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deify his power
Who, from the terror of this arm, so late
Doubted his empire-that were low indeed;
That were an ignominy and shame beneath
This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of gods
And this empyreal substance, cannot fail;
Questions:
1. These lines are written in __________.
2. In the second line ‘the unconquerable will’ refers to the will of _____.
a. Zeus b. Satan c. God d. Adam
3. These lines are taken from a very famous ________ entitled ________.
4. Who is the author of this poem?
5. What’s the central theme of these lines?
6. What do you think of the writing features of the passage?
Passage 3
My friend Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing; he has likewise given a handsome pulpit cloth, and railed in the communion table at his own expense. He has often told me that, at his coming to his estate, he found his parishioners very irregular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and a Common Prayer book, and at the same time employed an itinerant singing masters, who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct them rightly in the tunes of the Psalms, and indeed outdo most of the country churches that have ever heard.
Questions:
1. This passage is taken from a periodical named______.
2. The Title of the passage is ___________________.
3. The ‘I” in the passage is supposed to be _____________
a. Mr. Spectator b. Addison c. Steel
4. What kind of person is Sir Roger?
5. What is the writing features of the passage?
Passage 4:
I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember to have done in my life, and as I reckoned, above nine hours; for when I awaked, it was just daylight. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. .I likewise felt several slender figures across my body, from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me, but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky. In a little time, I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when bending my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and arrow in his hands, and a quiver at his back.
Questions:
1. this passage is taken from a well-known book written by______.
2. The ‘I’ in the passage was dropped in a strange country, the name of which is _______.
3. The title of the book is__________.
4. The ‘I’ in the passage is ______________.
5. what is the writing features of the passage?
Passage 5
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past childbearing.
Questions:
1. This passage is taken from a well-known essay entitled___________________________.
2. The author of the article is ______________________.
3. What is the most striking features of the article?
Passage 6
A little black thing among the snow
Crying “weep, weep, weep,” in notes of woe!
“Where are your father and mother? Say?”
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.”
“Because I was happy upon the hearth,
And smil’d among the winter’s snow;
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and His Priest and King,
Who make up a heaven of our misery.”
Questions:
1. What is the little black thing refers to_________?
2.What’s the title of the poem? _________
3.Who make up a heaven of our misery.” _________
4. What do you know from the line “ …and are gone to praise God and his Priest and King?”
5. Comment on the little speaker’s narrative.
Passage 7
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.
Save that from under ivy-mantled tower
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such, as wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.
Questions:
1. Those two stanzas are taken from-__________by _______.
2.The poem is written in the metrical meter of ______ pentameter.
3. The sequence time of the poem is from __________ to ___________, together with the country scene especially the cemetery in the churchyard to foil the sadness and melancholy.
4. This poem can be regarded as the typical poem of __________, or maybe you can call it a poem of ________.
why do you feel about this?
Passage 8
How the chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black’ning church appalls;
And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs down palace walls.
But most thro’ mid-night streets I hear
How the youthful harlots curse
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
Questions:
1.What is title of the poem?
2. Where is this poem taken from_________.
3. Who is the writer of this poem.
4. The theme of this poem is _____________________________.
ANSWER TO passage 1
1.“Hamlet”
2. Shakespeare
3. Hamlet
4.“To be or not to be” means to live or end one’s life by self-destruction. Hamlet has already spoken of suicide as a means of escape, and he dwells on it in a
later part of this very speech, giving however a different reason for refraining. The notion that in the words “or not to be ” he is speculating on the possibility of “something after death”---whether there is a future life –cannot be entertained for a moment. The whole drift of the speech shows his belief in a future life. Practically the whole speech has become proverbial as an outpouring of utter worldly weariness.
ANSWER TO passage 2:
1. A
2. B
3. “Paradise Lost”
4. John Milton
5. In this passage, God is depicted as a despot “Who now triumph, and in the excess of joy/sole reigning holds the Tyranny of Heaven;” while in contrast Satan is presented as the real hero, a rebel with “the unconquerable will, And courage never to submit or yield.” The epic turns out to be an eloquent expression of the revolutionary spirit of the English bourgeois revolution, a call to resist tyranny and to continue the fight for freedom. Herein lies the great significance of the passage and the work as well.
6. Milton is difficult to read, because of his involved style with frequent inversions and very complicated sentence structure. His sentences are often long. Yet, to express his sublimity of thought, he wrote in a style that is unsurpassed in its sonority, eloquence, majesty and grandeur—the “Miltonic” style. He is a great master of the blank verse. His lines are rich in the variations of rhythm and pause.
ANSWER TO passage 3:
1. The Spectator
2. Sir Roger at the Church
3. a
4. Sir Roger represents the country gentry. He is a country gentleman of old fashioned manners. He stands for the old-fashioned virtues of simplicity, honesty, and piety. His foibles, which are describes with a gentle humor, make a setting for his virtues, which point an example to the world of fashion. He is created as a character fit in the novel.
5. The periodical literature in “The Spectator” maintained its tone of courtesy and good breeding. Such prose is easy to understand yet capable of variety and beauty. Just as Dr. Johnson described, “His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not formal, on light occasions not
graveling; pure without scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always equable, and always easy, without glowing words or printed sentences.”
ANSWER TO passage 4:
1. Swift
2. Lilliput
3. Gulliver’s Travels 4. Lemuel Gulliver
5. The style is characterized by directness, simplicity and vividness. The most grotesque creations are combined with the bitterest satire.
ANSWER TO passage 5
1. “A Modest Proposal”
2. Jonathan Swift
3. A Modest Proposal is an example of Swift’s favorite satiric devices used with superb effect. Irony (from the deceptive adjective “modest” in the title to the very last sentence) pervades the piece. A
rigorous logic deduces ghastly arguments from a shocking premise so quietly assumed that the reader assents before he is aware of what his assent implies. Parody, at which Swift is adept, allows him to glance sardonically at, by then , the familiar figure of the benevolent humanitarian (forerunner of the modern sociologist, social worker, economic planner) concerned to correct a social evil by means of a theoretically conceived plan. The proposer, as naïve as he is apparently logical and kindly, ignores and therefore emphasizes for the reader the enormity of his plan. The whole piece is an elaboration of a rather trite metaphor: “The English are devouring the Irish.” But there is nothing trite about the pamphlet, which expresses in Swift’s most controlled style his pity for the oppressed, ignorant, populous, and hungry Catholic peasants of Ireland, and his anger at the rapacious English absentee landlords, who were bleeding the country white with the silent approbation of Parliament, ministers, and the Crown.
ANSWER TO passage 6:
1. It refers to the poor little boy who has been made black because of their sweeping. Chimneys.-
2.The title of the poem is “The Chimney-Sweeper”
3. It was the “God and Priest and king” who together build a Heaven of misery for the weak and the poor.
4. The language of this short lyric, though, very simple, yet somewhat ironical satirical which reveals his understanding and knowledge of the source of the misery and sufferings of the poor and the weak.
ANSWER TO passage 7:
1. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray
2. quatrains, iambic
3. dusk, darkness
4. sentimentalism, graveyard school
Sentimentalism seemed to have appeared hand in hand with the rise of realistic English novel. Sentimentalism often relates to sentimentality and sensibility in some literary works . In Poetry, we have Thomas Gray’s “An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, not mention the various odes of sensibility which flourished in the later half of the century.
ANSWER TO passage 8:
1. “London”
2. Songs of Innocence
3. William Blake
4. The poem provides a comprehensive picture of the many miseries, physical and spiritual, in London.
五. Answer the following questions回答下列问题（There are 2 questions in this part , one is for 5 point , totally 10 points）
1. Analyze the image of Robinson Crusoe.
Robinson Crusoe is one of the protagonists drawn most successfully in English novels. Through the characterization of Robinson Crusoe, Deofoe depicts him as a hero struggling against nature, and human fate with his indomitable will and hand, and eulogizes creative labor, physical and mental, an allusion to glorification of the bourgeois creativity when it was a rising and more energetic class in the initial stage of its historical development. From an individual laborer to a master and colonizer, Crusoe seems to have gone through various stages of human civilization.
2. Briefly comment on the characteristics of Hamlet’s personality.
Hamlet is the typical of humanists under the pen of Shakespeare, who is characteristic of the perfection and perseverance in personality embodied in the Renaissance superman. As Ophelia tells us that he had been the ideal Renaissance prince___ a soldier, scholar, courtier, “the glass of fashion and the mold of form.”
But since his father died and his mother hastily remarried, there is transition in his character. He was in the state of depression, melancholy and delay of revenging. Why? Because he realizes, as a humanist, what his real duty lies in. So he pretended to be mad, melancholy, depressed and slow in action. By large, he is very sensitive, resourceful and has his own ideas, and the essence of his revenging his father is not for himself or for the bloody family feuds and hatred but lies in punishing the social corruptions, the wrongs, praising the good, and setting it right. As humanist himself he is all alone, detaching himself from the mass, which is the major reason why he failed himself.
3. Briefly talk about the image of Satan in Paradise Lost.
Satan is created by Milton in the poem as a very brave rebel against authority and tyranny, who loves freedom. Facing god and his powerful army, Satan still perseveres in his fight against God’s reign. He encourages his followers never to subdue. He is a born leader. Just because of him, he, at last, attempts Eve to eat forbidden fruit so as to defeat God’s control over human beings. In this sense every thing about Satan really reflects the characteristics of humanists’ ideals. But in the Bible he is a devil, from which we can see something contradicted in Milton’s deep thought of religion. From the creation of the epic Paradise Lost, the two most essential things to be remembered about him are his Puritanism and republicanism.
4. Talk about the essential features of romance in the Medieval British literature.
The romance is a literary genre which prevails during the medieval time. It was a long composition, sometimes in verse, and sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero, especially a knight. The general features of this composition are:
1). It lacks general resemblance to truth or reality.
2). It exaggerates the vices of human nature and idealizes the virtue.
3). It contains perilous adventures more or less remote from the ordinary life.
4). It lays emphasis on supreme devotion to a fair lady.
5). The central character of the romance is the knight, a man of noble birth skilled at the use of weapons. He is commonly described as riding forth to seek adventures, taking part in tournaments, or fighting for his lord in battle. He is devoted to the church and the king.
5. What are the characteristics of Spenser’s poetry?
Spenser’s poetry possesses the following main qualities:
a. a perfect melody
b. a rare sense of beauty
c. a splendid imagination
d. a lofty moral purity and seriousness
e. a delicate realism. It is idealism, his love of beauty and his exquisite melody that make him known as “the Poet’s poet”.
6. What is Chaucer’s contribution to English language?
Chaucer is worth being considered as father of poetry, because during his lifetime, he did great contribution to English literature. The rhymed couplet of iambic pentameter later called the “heroic couplet” was actually introduced by him, together with some other rhymed stanzas of various types of poetic forms. He is also the first important poet to write in the current English language. Chaucer did much in making the dialect of London the foundation for modern English language.
7. what is Dryden’s contribution to English literature.
During his life time, Dryden established the heroic couplet as one of the principal verse forms. He clarified the English prose and made it precise, concise and flexible. By his On Criticism (poem), the manifesto of neo-classicism, and his Essay on Dramatic Poesy and Preface to the Fables raised English literary criticism to a new level and opened a way of the new and persuasive prose style for English prose. He was founder of English neo-classicism.
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