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.