英美文学选读完整笔记全面归纳

英美文学选读完整笔记全面归纳内容摘要：

akespeare39。 s authentic nondramatic poetry consists of two long narrative poems: Venus amp。 Adonis amp。 The Rape of Lucrece amp。 his sequence of 154 sonnets.　3. 领会His Influence　1) Contributions to language Many words and monly used phrases have been added to everyday English vocabulary through their appearance in Shakespeare39。 s works.　　2) Effects on literature Shakespeare39。 s plays amp。 poetry have had a pervasive influence on world literature. Most of the great literary figures of the world have been inspired amp。 stimulated by his achievement.On the whole, however, Shakespeare39。 s contribution has been to the language amp。 spirit of later writing rather than to its form. References amp。 parallels to Shakespeare39。 s phraseology have occurred in literature since the 16th century.Perhaps the greatest inspiration to subsequent authors has been Shakespeare39。 s capacity to depict life in all its plexity amp。 to illuminate man39。 s character amp。 destiny.4. 领会 His Major Works1) Drama　　　A. The Merchant of Venice Theme: to praise the friendship between Antonio amp。 Bassanio, to idealize Portia as a heroine of great beauty, wit amp。 loyalty, amp。 to expose the insatiable greed amp。 brutality of the Jew.Plot: The play has a double plot (P39)　　　B. Hamlet Hamlet is generally regarded as Shakespeare39。 s most popular play on the stage, for it has the qualities of a bloodandthunder thriller amp。 a philosophical exploration of life amp。 death. And the timeless appeal of this mighty drama lies in its bination of intrigue, emotional conflict amp。 searching philosophic melancholy.　　The play opens with Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, appearing in a mood of worldweariness occasioned by his father39。 s recent death amp。 by his mother39。 s hasty remarriage with Claudius, his father39。 s brother. While encountering his father39。 s ghost, Hamlet is informed that Claudius has murdered his father amp。 then taken over both his father39。 s throne amp。 widow. This, Hamlet, is urged by the ghost to seek revenge for his father39。 s foul amp。 most unnatural murder. Trapped in a nightmare world of spying, testing amp。 plotting, amp。 apparently bearing the intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his father39。 s death, Hamlet is obliged to inhabit a shadow world, to live suspended between fact amp。 fiction, language amp。 action. His life is one of constant roleplaying, 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 amp。 death.　　　C. The Tempest The Tempest, an elaborate amp。 fantastic story, is known as the best of his final romances. The characters are rather allegorical amp。 the subject full of suggestion. The humanly impossible events can be seen occurring everywhere, in the play. The playwright resorts to the supernatural atmosphere amp。 to the dreams to solve the conflict. To Shakespeare, the whole life is no more than a dream. Thus, The Tempest is a typical example of his pessimistic view towards human life amp。 society in his late years.　　　　2) Poems　　　A. Sonnets　　The first 126 sonnets are apparently addressed to a handsome young nobleman, presumably the author39。 s patron. The poems express the writer39。 s selfless but not entirely uncritical devotion to the young man.　　Twenty of the sonnets are about a young woman characterized as a dark lady, whom the poet distrust but cannot resist. The poems addressed directly to her are perhaps the most remarkable in the sequence because their unsentimental tone is unlike that of traditional love sonnets.　　A philosophical theme that appears in many of the sonnets is that of time as the destroyer of all mortal things. Also expressed in the poems is the author39。 s disillusionment with the false ness of earthly life.　　The form of the poems is the English Variation of the traditional Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, Shakespeare39。 s sonnets have three quatrains, or groups of four lines, amp。 a final couplet. Their rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. A theme is developed amp。 elaborated in the quatrains, amp。 a concluding thought is presented in the couplet. 　　　B. Other poems　　Venus amp。 Adonis, in which Shakespeare made his first bid for literary patronage amp。 fame, is a conventional Elizabethan narrative poem. Its mythological story, taken from Ovids Metamorphoses, tells of the passionate love goddess who woos the reluctant youth Adonis.The Rape of Lucrece, another narrative of passion, is based on the semi historical story of the rape of a chaste Roman matron by Tarquin, son of the king of Rome.　5. 领会His Major Theme　1) Shakespeare is against religious persecution amp。 racial discrimination, against social inequality amp。 the corrupting influence of gold amp。 money.　2) He was a humanist of the time amp。 accepted the Renaissance views on literature.　6. 领会His Literary Achievements　　1) Characterization　　His major characters are neither merely individual ones nor type ones。 they are individuals representing certain types. Each character has his or her own personalities。 meanwhile, they may share features with others. The soliloquies in his plays fully reveal the inner conflict of his characters. Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters. 　　The women in the plays are vivid creations, each differing from the others. Shakespeare was fond of portraying mocking wenches, such as Kate of the Taming of the Shrew, Rosaline of Love39。 s Labor39。 s Lost, amp。 Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing, but he was equally adept at creating gentle amp。 innocent women, such as Ophelia in Hamlet, Desdemona in Othello, amp。 Cordelia in King Lear. His female characters also include the treacherous Goneril amp。 Regan, the ironwilled Lady Macbeth, the witty amp。 resourceful Portia, the tender amp。 loyal Juliet, amp。 the alluring Cleopatra.　　2) Plot Construction 　　Shakespeare39。 s plays are well known for。