Name the title of the poem and interpret it.
Can you say some comment on the poem?

Answer:
Sunset, evening star: the images of the death; sea symbolizes life. (P277—278)
The title is “Crossing the Bar”. It means leaving this world and entering the next world –the world of the spirit
The poem expresses the fearlessness to death of the poet and his faith in God and an afterlife.
(The poem is musical in language, rich in poetic images, elaborate in texture and melancholy in air –the characters of Tennyson.) (P273/P278)

“My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard of her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace –all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men –good! But
thanked
Somehow –I know not how –as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift”

Name the author and the title of the works. What does it mean “a nine-hundred-years-old name”, and to whom the word was spoken?
Interpret the passage and analyze the character of the speaker. What is the literary form?
Answer:
This is the “My last Duchess” written by Robert Browning. (P286)
It means the title of the Duchess (of Ferrara) the Duck gave her through marriage has a family history of over 900 years. (P288)
Interpret: My favor –the title of the Duchess is better and more proud than any gifts of the world, but my last duchess was ready to be grateful to others’ flatter and The Duck was a self-conceited, cruel, possessive, and tyrannical person.
The word was spoken to the agent who comes to negotiate the marriage of the Duck. (P287)
The literary form is “dramatic monologue”. (the Duck’s own defensive words betrays and condemns himself) (P287)

“I will drink
Life to the lees:
all times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: ……
……but honour’d of them all”

Identify the name of the poem. Explain “drink life to the lees”.
What is the theme of the poem?In what form is the poem written?
Answer:
The name of the poem is “Ulysses”. (P278)
The sentence means: I will keep travelling and exploring till the end of my life. (P281)
The theme is Ulysses can’t endure the peaceful commonplace everyday life. Old as he is, he persuaded his old followers to go with him and to set sail again to pursue a new world and new knowledge. (the poem also expresses Tennyson’s own determination and courage to brave the struggle of life but also reflects the restlessness and aspiration/anxiety of the age.) (P281)
The literary form is “dramatic monologue”. (P281)

“Come, Tess, Tell me in confidence.” …
“The trees have inquisitive eyes, haven’t they? … and drive all such horrid fancies away!”

1) Interpret the passage.
Answer:
Tess, as pure woman brought up with the traditional ideas, is abused and destroyed by the destructive force, and the misery made her frightened to the future, which implied the naturalistic viewpoint of Hardy. (P303)

7. “Break, break, break,
On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thought that arise in me.”

Name the poet and the poem.Name the main tone of the whole poem, the device and the rhyme.Interpret the passage.

Answer:
Alfred Tennyson. “Break, Break, Break”. (P276)
The main tone is Sadness. The device is contract. The rhyme scheme is “a b c d”. (P277)
The poem expressed the poet’s feeling of sadness in memory of his best friend. (P276)

III. Questions and answers:
Ideologically, what influenced Victorian literature? What characters does it have?
Darwin’s theory “the survival of the fittest” shook the theoretical basis of the traditional faith, many authors expressed their doubts and uncertainty in their works;
Utilitarianism was widely accepted and practiced, many conscious authors severely criticized the Utilitarianism, especially its devalue of culture and its cold indifference to human feeling and imagination;
Realism novels criticized the society and defended for the mass, and they concerned about the fate of the common people such as their poverty misery, angry with the inhuman social institution, the social immorality, injustice and money-worship.
Victorian literature represents the reality of the age. The high-spirit vitality, the down-to-earth earnestness, the good-natured humour and unbound imagination are unprecedented. (P235—237)

Jane Eyre is the greatest governess image in the literature history; can you analyze the character of her?
Jane Eyre was a little plain governess with quick wit, honesty, frankness, loving heart and the spirit of independence and self-dignity.
In literature, she is an individual conscious to self-realization. She was lonely and neglected young woman with a fierce longing for love, understanding and a full, happy life.
In author’s mind, man’s life is composed of perpetual struggle between sin and virtue, good and evil. The heroines’ joy, comes from the sacrifice of self and the overcome of some weakness.
By Jane’s experience, we can see the cruelty, hypocrisy, and other evils of the upper classes and the misery and the suffering of the poor, and the false social convention on love and marriage. (P256—259)

Analyze the background of the Victorian Period.
Economic developed rapidly and social problems prevailed in England and it became the “workshop of the world”.
England settled down to a time of prosperity and stability, the people valued earnestness, respectability, modesty, and democracy.
In the last decades, British empire declined, and Victorian values decayed.

Analyze the character created by George Eliot with an example and his style.
George Eliot set a new type of realism –both naturalistic and psychological novel;
She sought to present the inner struggle of a soul and to reveal the motives, impulse and hereditary influences, the slow growth or decline of the character;Her masterpiece “Middlemarch” is a study of provincial life, showing a panoramic view of life in a small English town;
She concerned for the destiny of women, the heroin in “Middlemarch” –Dorothea, was a typical character of Eliot. She was a lady with great intelligence, potential and social aspiration. She had the ideals to devote to the society, later, she married an elder man to realize her ideals by helping him in the holy Christianity Career. At the end of the story, she became content with giving her second husband “wifely help”.From her experience, we can see Eliot’s view: women were born with the pathetic tragedy. Her spirit declined owing to the social environment and her own weakness.(the story is full of an air of a lifeless bitterness and disappointment) (P292—294)

Analyze the style of Charles Dickens.
Adeptness/skilfulness with the vernacular and large vocabulary;
The most distinguishing/remarkable character-portrayal;
The best writing from the child’s point of view; (His best depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, persecuted, helpless children)
The depiction of those horrible and grotesque characters;
The mingling/mixing features of humor and pathos/sorrow. (P241)

How do you know the naturalistic idea of Hardy?
The tragic sense is the keynote of Hardy’s novels, and he is a nostalgic author.
Hardy’s novels always set in Wessex, the fictional primitive and crude region, which is threatened by the invading capitalism, expressing the conflict between the traditional and the modern, the old and the modern.
Man’s fate is tragic with born, driven by the force of the nature of outside and inside, and man is bound by his inherent nature and hereditary traits which prompt him to go and search for happiness or success, and set him in conflict with the environment; we can see he is influenced greatly by Darwin’s theory “survival of the fittest”.
Man proves to be incompetent/impotent before Fate, and he seldom escapes his destiny. The pessimistic view of life predominates most works of Hardy, which earns him the name of a naturalistic writer.
Hardy is noted for he rustic dialect and a poetic flavor, so he is also called local-colorist. (P300--302)

 

Chapter 5 The Modern Period
I. Choose the right answer:
1. The three trilogies of_____Forsyte novels are masterpieces of critical realism in the early 20th century.
A. D. H. Lawrence’s B. John Galsworthy’s C. James Joyce’s D. Thomas Hardy’s
Answer: B (P337)
2. ____is the most outstanding stream-consciousness novelist.
A. T.S. Eliot B. Richard Brinsley Sheridan C. James Joyce D. Oscar Wilder
Answer: D (P317)
3. In his famous poem_____, Yeats explores the problems of death, love, old age and art.
A. "Leda and the Swan" B. "No Second Troy" C. "September 1913" D. "Sailing to Byzantium"
Answer: D (P354)
4. ____is a poem concerned with the spiritual breakup of a modern civilization in which human life has lost its meaning, significance and purpose. A. Ulysses B. The Waste Land C. The Confidential Clerk D. Dubliners
Answer: B (P360)
5. The Rainbow and_____are generally regarded as D.H. Lawrence’s masterpieces.
A. Women in Love B. Son s and Lovers C. Lady Chatterley’s Lover D. The Plumed Serpent
Answer: A (P370)
6. In ____, James Joyce intends to present a microcosm of the whole human life by providing an instance of how a single event contains all the events of its kind, and how history is recapitulated in the happenings of one day.
A. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man B. Dubliners C. Ulysses D. Finnegans Wake
Answer: C (P388)
7. Structurally and thematically, George Bernard Shaw follows the great tradition _______.
A. Modernism B. Romanticism C. Realism D. Naturalism
Answer: C (P323)
8. Galsworthy was a _____writer, having inherited the fine traditions of the great Victorian novelists of the critical realism such as Dickens and Thackeray.
A. naturalistic B. romantic C. realistic D. conventional
Answer: D (P338)
9. In "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy, a typical Forsyte has a remarkable characteristic-----a strong sense of______.
A. money B. property C. success D. privilege
Answer: B (P339)

10. In "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", William Bulter Yeats expresses his ____________.
A. hope to go abroad B. desire to escape into a "fairyland" C. love for common life D. hatred for war
Answer: B (P356)
11. In which of the following poems by Yeats did you find the allusion to Helen and Trojan War?
A. Sailing to Byzantium B. Down by the Sally Garden C. The Lake Isle of Innisfree D. Leda and the Swan
Answer: D (P354)
12. Of the following poems by T.S. Eliot, which is hailed as a landmark and a model of the 20th Century English Poetry?
A. Poems 1909----1925 B. The Hollow Men C. Prufrock and Other Observations  D. The Waste Land
Answer: D (P359)
13. "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes,/ The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes/ Linked its tongue into the corners of the evening,/ Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains." The stanza is taken from_________.
A. T.S. Eliot’s "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" B. Emily Dickinson’s "Because I could not stop for Death"
C. Alfred Tennyson’s "Break, Break, Break" D. William Wordsworth’s "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
Answer: A (P363---364)
14. Which of the following best describes the speaker of ’The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?
A. He is a man of an action. B. He is a man of apathy. C. He is a man of inactivity. D. All the above are wrong.
Answer: C (P363)
15. Of the following works by D.H. Lawrence, _______established his position as novelist.
A. The White Peacock B. The Trespasser C. Women in Love D. Sons and Lovers
Answer: D (P370)
16. Which of the following is considered to be a better-structured novel?
A. Women in Love B. Son s and Lovers C. The Rainbow D. Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Answer: A (P372)
17. ’The Lawrence trilogy" refers to the following three plays except ______.
A. A Collier’s Friday Night] B. The Daughter -in-Law  C. The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyed  D. Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Answer: D (P373)
18. Which of the following writings is not the novel of D.H. Lawrence’s?
A. Sons and Lovers B. A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man C. The White Peacock. D. The Rainbow
Answer: B (P369---370)
19. Of the following writings by James Joyce, which is a prime example of modernism in literature?
A. Ulysses B. A Portrait of the Artist as a Yong Man C. Dubliners D. Finnegans Wake
Answer: A (P386)
20. Which of the following is not true according to James Joyce?
A. Ulysses has become a prime example of modernism in literature.
B. Joyce is regarded as the most prominent stream-of-consciousness novelist.
C. Joyce is a realistic writer in English literature history.
D. His novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young man" is a naturalistic account of the hero’s bitter experiences and his final artistic and spiritual liberation.
Answer: C (P386---389)

II. Read the quoted part and answer the questions:
1. Analyze the poem of T. S. Eliot -"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
1) "In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo"
<1> Why does the sentence repeat in the poem for several times? Answer:
The sentence symbolizes the remote and faraway things, it implies the inability to face up with the reality and the life of the hero. (P363)
2) "And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, ...
There will be time, there will be time ...."
<1> What deep implication can you get from the passage?Answer:
The hero was unable to face up with the life and reality bravely, but he was anxious to find time passing so quickly that he was very depressed. The passage shows the tragic character of the indecision of the young man. (P363)
3) "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from the father room.
So how should I presume?
<1> What did the speaker presume?<2> Interpret the excerpt.
Answer:<1> He will propose marriage to a girl, but he dare not. <2> The Excerpt shows the futile and boring life of the upper class. (Every day, they drink coffee, listen to music, but they can’t really enjoy the pleasure of life, leading a boring life.)
4) "I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floor of silent seas." <1> Interpret it. Answer:If he had been a crab on the ocean bed, maybe he would have been better. The motion of the crab suggests futility and growing old. (P368 注释5)
5) "But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worthwhile" (此节选部分在P367)
<1> Interpret it.Answer: The sentence implies the speaker’s incapability of facing up to love and to life. He is always fearful that others will see through his ideas and truth of falling love, which makes himself live in frightening and restlessness. (P363)
2. "I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade"
1) Identify the poem and poet;2) Interpret the poem.
Answer:
1) The poem is "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", which was written by William Butler Yeats. (P355) 2) In the poem, the poet imagined a place where he could live like a hermit, implying that he was tired of the life of his day, he sought to escape into and ideal "fairyland" where he could live calmly as a hermit and enjoyed the beauty of the nature.

 3. "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ school set the boys free ..., gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces."
1) Comment the main tone of the story with the concrete images of the passage.
2) Analyze the theme of the story.3) Explain the devices of symbols with the examples of the article.

Answer: 1) The tone of the story is a fine tuned melancholy. The scene is drab, lifeless. The Christian School sounds like prison -it sets the boys free. The brown color also showed the tone of the story. (节选部分在P390) 2) The story introduced a little boy’s love experience, expressing his awareness of reality and expectation, and pointing out the drabness and harshness of the adult world. (P385) 3) In this article the author used many images to show the symbols meaning, expressing the frustrated quest for beauty. (P390)For example: The little boy lived with his uncle and aunt -a symbol of the isolation and the lack of proper relationship;His uncle forgot his arrangement is a symbol of the boy’s failure;The deserted train symbol the indifference relationship, and "all the stalls were in closed and the greatest part of the hall was in darkness" and "the upper part of the hall was now completely dark" symbol the destined failure of the boy’s quest for the beauty.

4. "You are not, my son. Battle-battle -and suffer. It’s about all you do, as far as I can see."
"But why not, my dear? I tell you it’s the best ---"
"It isn’t. And one ought to be happy, one ought."
By this time Mrs. Morel was trembling violently ...
"Eh, my dear -say rather you want me to live."

1) Name the works and its writer.2) Who are the two speakers? How do you know her?
Answer:1) The novel is named "Sons and Lovers". It’s the works of D. H. Lawrence. (节选部分在P383)
2) The two speakers are Mrs. Morel and her son (Paul).Mrs. Morel is a strong-willed, intelligent and ambitious woman. Having been disappointed with her husband, a coal miner, she puts all her feeling on her son, hoping to realize her ideas of success, happiness and social esteem. The distorted relationship reflects the inhuman mechanical civilization and the indifference of the men. (P375—376)