1. Generally speaking, the Old English poetry that has survived can be divided into two groups: the religious group and the secular one.
2. Beowulf, a typical example of Old English poetry, is regarded as the epic of the Anglo-Saxons.
3. Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the greatest poets in English.
●The Renaissance Period (14th---mid17th)
◆William Shakespeare: (38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 long poems)
1.作品:Henry IV, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, Sonnet 18, The Tempest
2. Greatest tragedies:Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth.
3. The Tempest is known as the best of Shakespeare’s final romance. The playwright resorts and to the supernatural atmosphere and to the dreams to solve the conflict. And this play is also a typical example of his pessimistic view towards human life and society in his late years.
4. William Shakespeare’s history plays are mainly written under the principal that national unity under a mighty and just sovereign is a necessity.
5.Try to analyze Hamlet Hamlet is a man of speculation, umbrage and contemplation.
Hamlet is neither a frail and weak minded youth nor a thought sick dreamer. He has none of the single minded blood lust of the earlier revengers. It is not because he is incapable of action, but because the cast of his mind is so speculative, so questioning and so contemplative that action, when it finally comes, seems almost like defeat. Trapped in a nightmare world of spying, testing and plotting, and apparently bearing the intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his father's death, Hamlet is obliged to inhabit a shadow world, to live suspended between fact and fiction, language and action. His life is one of constant role playing, examining the nature of action only to deny its possibility, for he is too sophisticated to degrade his nature to the conventional role of a stage revenger. By characterizing Hamlet, Shakespeare successfully makes a philosophical exploration of life and death. Hamlet is also a humanist, a man who is free from medieval prejudices and superstitions. He has an unbounded love for the world rather than heaven. He cherishes a profound reverence for man and a firm belief in man's power over destiny.
6. What did Shakespeare criticize in his play?
The conscientious playwright criticized various kinds of human vices and sins, like greed, betrayal, pride, prejudice and deception, including acts of social inequality, sexual and racial discriminations in plays such as The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. In his tragedies, he condemned the hypocrisy, treachery and general corruption at the royal court. He does not hesitate to describe the cruelty and anti-natural character of the civil wars against religious persecution and the corrupting influence of money and gold. In King Lear, he criticized the bourgeois egoism while he feared anarchy, hated rebellion and despised democracy.
7. Soliloquy is a nature medium for Hamlet
to release his anguish.
8.The theme of Sonnet 18 is that a nice
summer’s day is usually transient, but the
beauty in poetry can last for ever.
9.Discuss the four periods of
Shakespeare’s dramatic career.
The first period of Shakespeare’s dramatic
career was one of apprenticeship. He wrote
five history plays (e.g. Henry VI), four
comedies (The Comedy of Errors). In the
second period, Shak espeare’s style and
approach became highly individualized. He
wrote five histories (e.g. Henry IV), six
comedies (The Merchant of Venice) and
two tragedies (e.g. Romeo and Juliet). His
third period includes his greatest' tragedies
(e.g. Hamlet) and his so called dark
comedies (Measure for Measure). The last
period includes his principal romantic
tragicomedies (The Tempest).
10. Briefly discuss Shakespeare’s artistic
achievement in characterization, plot
construction and language
A. Shakespeare’s major char acters are
neither merely individual ones nor type
ones; they represent certain types; they are
individuals representing certain types. By
employing a psycho-analytical approach,
Shakespeare succeeds in exploring the
characters’inner world. Shakespeare also
portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts
are frequently used to bring vividness to his
characters.
B. Shakespeare seldom invents his own plot;
instead, he borrows them form old plays or
storybooks, from ancient Greek or Roman
sources. In order to make the play more
lively and compact, he would shorten the
time and intensity the story. There are
usually several clues running through the
play, thus providing the story with suspense
and apprehension.
C. Shakespeare can write skillfully in
different poetic forms, such as the sonnet,
the blank verse and the rhymed couplet. He
has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and
idiom. His coinage of new words and
distortion of the meaning of the old words
also creates striking effects on the reader.
11. About the four tragedies: What are
the characteristic of the four tragedies in
common? Briefly summarize each hero’s
weakness of nature
Each portrays some noble hero, who faces
the injustice of human life and is caught in
a difficult situation and whose fate is
closely connected with the fate of the whole
nation.
Each hero has his weakness of nature:
Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince,
faces the dilemma between action and mind;
Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by
the outside evil force; the old king Lear is
unwilling to totally give up his power; and
Macbeth's lust for power stirs up his
ambition and leads him to incessant crimes.
◆John Milton
1.作品:Paradise Lost,Paradise Regained,
Samson Agonistes,Lycidas
2.John Milton’s greatest poetical work
Paradise Lost is the only generally
acknowledged epic in English literature
since Beowulf
3.His literary achievement can be divided
into 3 groups: the early poetic works, the
middle prose pamphlets and the last great
poems.
4. Milton wrote his three major poetical
works after the Restoration.
5. Paradise Lost is taken from Genesis of
the Bible; the theme is “the fall of man”
6. According to the setting of the poem
Paradise Lost, discuss the theme, the
author’s intention to create it and the
implication that the poem expresses.
A. The theme of the poem Paradise Lost is
the "Fall of Man”, i. e. man's disobedience
and the loss of Paradise, with its prime
cause-Satan.
B. The author's intention to write this poem
is to expose the ways of Satan and to
"justify the ways of God to men".
C. In this poem, the author implicitly
expresses his fundamental concern with
freedom and choice and his belief that the
unquestionable truth of Biblical revelation
means that an all knowing God was just in
allowing Adam and Eve to be tempted and
of their free will to choose sin and its
inevitable punishment.
7. What is M ilton’s fundamental concern
in Paradise Lost?
At the center of the conflict between human
love and spiritual duty lies M ilton’s
fundamental concern with freedom and
choice. The theme is the” Fall of Man,” i. e.
man’s disobedience and the loss of Paradise.
In the fall of man Adam discovered his full
humanity. The freedom of the will is the
keystone of Milton's creed.
1.Shall I compare thee to a summer
day?thou art more lovely an d more
temperate:rough winds do shake the
darling buds of May.adn summers lease
hath all too short a date:
答:sonnet 18,Shakespeare
Speech Figure Personification
Them of the poem:A nice summer’s day is
usually transient but the beauty in poetry
can last forever.
2.So long as men can breathe or eyes can
see,/So long lives this,and this gives life to
thee.
答:Implication of the work: the beauty in
poety can last forever,
Idea of the two line express:Shakespeare’s
faith in the permanence of poetry.
3.For herein Fortune shows herself more
kind/than is he custom.It is still her use/To
let the wretched man outlive his wealth/to
view with hollow eye and wrinkled
brow/An age of poverty:from which ling
ring penance/Of such misery doth she cut
me off.
答:Shakespeare, She refer to Fortune.
Mean:Antonio thinks Fortune is more kind
toward him because Fortune is taking away
both his wealth and life,which means
Antomio will not feel the pain of losing
everything.
4.To be or not to be-that is the question:
答:William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
Mean:To live on in this world or to die:to
suffer or to take action.
Characteristic of the protagonist:He is a
man of speculation,umbrage and
contemplation
What does the third line imply:The
protagonist lived in a world that was full of
trouble, and he was often determined to
take up arms against troubles that sweep
upon him like a sea,But he did not succeed.
5. If thou beest he -but O how fallen! How
changed/From him who in the happy
realms of light/Clothed with transcendent
brightness didst outshine/Myriads,though
bright! If he whom mutual league /United
thoughts and counsels,equal hope/And
hazard in the glorious enterprise,/Joined
with me once,now misery hath joined/In
equal ruin:into what pit thou seest...
答:Paradise lost John Milton
The story is taken from Genesis of the
Bible,The theme is the Fall of Man.
What does the poet intend to do in writing
it? Intended to expose the ways of Satan
and to “justify the ways of God to men.
The word he refers to God.
本文档为【英美文学选读1.The Renaissance Period】,请使用软件OFFICE或WPS软件打开。作品中的文字与图均可以修改和编辑,
图片更改请在作品中右键图片并更换,文字修改请直接点击文字进行修改,也可以新增和删除文档中的内容。
该文档来自用户分享,如有侵权行为请发邮件ishare@vip.sina.com联系网站客服,我们会及时删除。
[版权声明] 本站所有资料为用户分享产生,若发现您的权利被侵害,请联系客服邮件isharekefu@iask.cn,我们尽快处理。
本作品所展示的图片、画像、字体、音乐的版权可能需版权方额外授权,请谨慎使用。
网站提供的党政主题相关内容(国旗、国徽、党徽..)目的在于配合国家政策宣传,仅限个人学习分享使用,禁止用于任何广告和商用目的。