自考英美文学选读作品作家和重点串讲资料

自考英美文学选读作品作家和重点串讲资料内容摘要：

d equ ally 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 abused by Antonio, so he wants to get revenge. III. The character analysis of Hamlet Hamlet 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 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 gloriously, but he also sacrifices his own life. IV. Donne and his ―The Sun Rising‖ 1. Metaphysical poet: He wrote poems by using unconventional and surprising conceits and full of wit and humor, but sometimes the 第 4 页 共 92 页 logic argument and conceits bee pervasive. The language is colloquial but powerful, creating unorthodox images on the reader‟s mind. 2. His ―The Sun Rising‖: In this poem, the love‘s wedding room has been intruded by sun and the man takes offence at the intrusion. He attack the sun as an unruly servant, and finally he allow the sun to enter their chamber and warm them. The poem‘s true subject is the lady—his true emotional love. Every insult to the sun is a pliment to the lady. V. Milton‘s Paradise Lost : : The story is taken from the Old Testament. It extends chronologically from the exaltation of Christ before the creature of universe to the second ing of Christ. Geographically, it ranges over the entire world. 2. The 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 tragic dimensions. Therefore, Satan is enveloped in dramatic irony because he fight in ignorance of the unshakable power of God and goodness. : Parallel and contrast The central conflict and contrast between good and evil are intensified by the contrast between heaven and hell, light and darkness, love and hate, reason and passion, etc. Chapter Two The Neoclassical Period I. The allegorical meaning of ―The Vanity Fair‖ in John Bunyan‘s The Pilgrim‘s Progress The Vanity Fair refers to the real world where people have bee so degenerated that all they are concerned is to buy and sell everything they can. It allegorically represents vanity both in the society and in people‘s heart, so people are spiritually lost. However, the pilgrims refuse to buy any of the things in the Vanity Fair. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggle with their own weakness and social evils. Christians‘ refusal shows that they are one step nearer the Celestial City. II. Pope‘s point of view on poetry criticism and the characteristics of his own poetry 1. Pope‘s point of view on poetry criticism is best shown in his An Essays on Criticism. He emphasizing that literary works should be judged by classical rules of order, reason, logic, restrained emotion and good taste. He calls on people to turn to the old Greek and Roman writers for guidance. He advises the critics not to stress too much the artificial use of conceit or the external beaut y of language, but to pay special attention to true wit which is best set in a plain style. 2. Pope‘s poem strictly follows his idea of neoclassicism. He developed a satiric, concise, smooth, graceful and wellbalanced style, and finally brought to its last perfection of the heroic couplet. II. The social satire of Jonathan Swift‘s Gulliver‘s Travels The account of Lilliputian life, especially the games for people at court, alludes to the similar ridiculous practices or tri cks in the English government. The description of the petition 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 the pompous words singing of the Lilli putian emperor ridicule the aristocratic arrogance and vanity. V. Henry Fielding and his Tom Jones It is a good example of ―ic epic in prose‖. Fielding describes the fight between Molly and the villagers and her fistfight with Goody Brown in the grand style 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 heroine‖. Besides, he uses a mockepic 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. V. Thomas Gray and his ―Elegy Written in a County Church‖ In the poem, Gray presents a picture of the quiet and solitary county at dusk through the sounding of the curfew, the home ing plowman, the tinkling of bells under the necks of the cattle, the moping owl, the narrow cell (grave), etc.. He bemoans the fate of those mon laborers who are now buried in the graves, tries to imagine how they had lived as loving parents and hardworking 第 5 页 共 92 页 people, and praise their homely joys. He then express his contempt for those noblemen who once lived a pompous life, and despised the poor, but have ended up in a way no better than the ordinary folk. We can see Gray‘s sympathy for the poor and contempt for the rich. Chap。