英美文学选读 期末考试答案.
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1. What is the function of the opening sentenc e of “Pride and Prejudice”?“It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in wa nt of a wife.”1. This is the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice and stands as one of the most famous first lines in literature. Even as it briskly introduces the arrival of Mr. Bingley at Netherfield—the event that sets the novel in motion2. This sentence also offers a miniature sketch of the entire plot, which concerns itself wi th the pursuit of “single men in possession of a good fortune” by various female characters. The preoccupation with socially advantageous marriage in nineteenth-century English society manifests itself here, for in claiming that a single man “must be in w antof a wife,” the narrator reveals that the reverse is also true: a single woman, whose socially prescribed options are quite limited, is in (perhaps desperate want of a husband.3. It is often pointed out that Austen's novels emphasize characterization and romanticism, but in Pride and Prejudice the emphasis is on the irony, values and realism of the characters as they develop throughout the story.4. The first sentence is still shows that the novel is narrated in a female point of view.2. the symbolic meaning of “the west wind” is subject to various interpretations;1. It symbolizes regeneration which follows the destruction and death of winter.2. Personally. Shelley sees it as a force that will reinvigorate him, the wind of spirit and inspiration at a time when he feels his own powers as a poet are on the decline.3. Socially and politically, the wind represents the destructive and revolutionary energies that had been seen in Europe over the previous 30 years, overthrowing long-established and corrupt social order in France and Italy.4. Spiritually, it is an abstract expression or manifestation of the spirit within nature,a driving force behind the turning wheel of the seasons and the cycles of life and death.3. Jane Eyre:1. It is noted for its sharp criticism of the bourgeois system of education; the aim of bourgeois principles of education is to bring up obedient slaves for the rich.2. The heroine Jane is depicted as an intelligent, courageous, faithful girl and she is rebellious enough to revolt and striv e for equality against injustice and unfairness. She loves what she loves and hates what she dislikes. Jane Eyre is a completely new woman image. She represents those middle-class workingwomen who are struggling for recognition of their rights & equality as a human being. The vivid description of her intense feelings & her thought & inner conflicts brings her to the heart of the audience.3. Jane Eyre is a typical realistic work i4. Charlotte Bronte thought education can solve all social problems.4. Wuthering Heights1. Love in the novel is tragic, morbid and devastating. The power of the novel comes mainly from the psychic complexities of the two major characters. Here Emily Bronte’s psychological excavation is both deep and extensive. She manages to dive into the innermost recesses of human soul.2. At the same time, it is also a tragedy of social inequality; the novel is a powerful attack on bourgeois marriage system under which the pure love between the hero and heroine is destroyed by class prejudice founded on wealth.3.philosophically,we can say it is an illustration of workings of the universe that harmonious always is broken, but will return to harmony. The end of the novel, Cathy and Hareton are together.5. Tess of the D’Urbervilles1. Tess is a beautiful, innocent peasant girl. The poverty of the family forces her to claim kinship with the sham but rich D’Urbervilles. Alec, the young master of thed’Urbervilles, a dandy, seduces Tess and impregnates her. Tess finally kills him and she flees with Angel but is caught by the police and hanged.2. This novel is a fierce attack on the hypocritical morality of the bourgeois society and the capitalist invasion into the country and destruction of the English peasantry towards the end of the century. Tess is actually a victim of her society. Hardy created the heroine Tess in Tess of the D’ Urbervilles just to criticize the society in his time. Hardy’s works are known as “novels of the character and environment.” Tess is a tragic person simply because she is not accepted by the society in which agriculture is menaced by the forces of invading capitalism. So in a way, we say, Tess’ fate is decided by her society.3. Though determinism seems to have played an important role in this work. There is also bitter and sharp criticism and even open challenge of the irrational, hypocritical and unfair Victorian institutions, conventions and morals which strangle the individual will and destroy natural human emotions and relationships.4. It is a summit of Hardy‘s realistic works. He criticized the existing society in this novel, so the publication of the novel is also criticized by the upper class at that time, thus he began to write poems.The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"1. This poem is written as a dramatic monologue. it is an examination of the soul ofa timid man paralyzed by indecision and worry about his appearance to others, particularly women.2. Thematically, it is a mild satire on the decadence and futility of life in the upper class in bourgeois society.3. Structurally, The rhyme scheme of this poem is irregular but not random. While sections of the poem may resemble free verse, in reality, “Prufrock” is a carefully structured amalgamation of poetic forms.4. it is a modernist poetry. he use fragmentation, irony, allusion and juxtaposition in the poem.Irony: Prufrock's name is ironic and is deliberately provocative. "Pru" stands for "prudish" while "frock" is a female garment, so that the name sounds a little like the old British insult for a hopeless man: "a big girl's blouse."Juxtaposition: the name Alfred is an upper class name while prufrock is a common name. T.S Eliot put them together.When Eliot said, "Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets�"(ll 3-4 Eliot itshowed that Prufrock was numb. He had no feeling for anyone or his surroundings. J. Alfred Prufrock only felt one thing. He felt the fear of life and death. In some ways, he spent his entire life preparing for his death. Prufrock knew that his life had not provided the world with anything of great significance. Eliot pointed this out by juxtaposing Prufrock with Michelangelo. In lines 13-14 Eliot said, "In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo."In the title we find a clear ironic contrast between the romantic suggestions of "love song" and the rather prosaic ñame "J. Alfred Prufrock". The ñame comes from Prufrock-Littau, a furniture company which advertised in St. Louis, Missouri 2, where T.S. Eliot was born. The poet combined this ñame with a fatuous "J. Alfred," which somehow suggests the qualities this person. There is also irony in the title because it says the poem is a "love song," but then we read something completely different.Use of allusionIn "Time for all the works and days of hands" (29 the phrase 'works and days' is the title of a long poem - a description of agricultural life and a call to toil - by the early Greek poet Hesiod."I know the voices dying with a dying fall" (52 echoes Orsino's first lines in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.The prophet of "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald brought in upon a platter / I am no prophet - and here's no great matter" (81-2 is John the Baptist, whose head was delivered to Salome by Herod as a reward for her dancing (Matthew14:1-11, and Oscar Wilde's play Salome."To have squeezed the universe into a ball" (92 echoes the closing lines of Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress'. Phrases such as, "there will be time" and "there is time" are also reminiscent of the opening line of Marvell's poem:"Had we but world enough and time""'I am Lazarus, come from the dead'" (94 may be either the beggar Lazarus (of Luke 16 returning for the rich man who was not permitted to return from the dead to warn the brothers of a rich man about Hell or the Lazarus(of John 11 whom Christ raised from the dead, or both.[dubious – discuss]"Full of high sentence" (117 echoes Chaucer's description of the Clerk of Oxford in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.[24]"There will be time to murder and create" is a biblical allusion to Ecclesiastes 3.。
