BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Study Questions (1)
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Beowulf
1. What qualities should a king possess?
2. What significance does “treasure” have to these kings and warriors? In Beowulf’s last
speeches, he again touches on the importance of treasure. Why is treasure important?
3. What special meaning does a hall like Heorot have to them?
4. Following a feast or a happy event, the poet always foretells a disaster or a war and vice
versa. What do you think is the purpose of this arrangement?
5. Give at least two examples of synecdoche, metonymy, litotes and circumlocution
respectively from the text.
6. Point out at least three kennings in the text.
7. Describe how you see the relationships between the warriors and their lord in Beowulf.
8. Give some examples of the Christian elements and some examples of the pagan
(non-Christian) elements in Beowulf. Which influence is stronger in Beowulf, the pagan or
the Christian?
9. Describe Beowulf’s character. How do you compare him with Hrothgar as the king? How do
you contrast the young and old Beowulf?
10. Does Beowulf’s funeral remind you of anything at the beginning of the poem?
11. What is the main theme of Beowulf? What are other possible subsidiary themes?
STUDY QUESTIONS ON The Canterbury Tales (1386-1400)
1. Describe the narrative voice of “The General Prologue.”
2. Who are the chief characters in the Pilgrimage? Identify and briefly characterize each.
3. How does Chaucer use physical description to show his attitude towards the characters?
Give examples.
4. According to what you have read, what qualities is Chaucer intolerant of ? Use specific
examples.
5. What qualities does Chaucer most admire? How does he show his admiration?
6. What does Chaucer reveal about his society through his description of his pilgrims and
their journey?
7. Many believe that the most important single part of The Canterbury Tales is “The General
Prologue.” What is the basis for this judgment?
8. Why does Chaucer have such a long detailed prologue for the wife of Bath?
9. Give a character sketch of the Wife of Bath.
10. What in your opinion was the underlying motive for the tale told by the Wife of Bath? How
does Chaucer use humor in this tale?
11. In what way is the pardoner one of the most complex figures in the entire pilgrimage?
12. What biblical examples has the pardoner used to illustrate his preaching? Comment on his
use of them.
13. What’s the function of the old man in the tale told by the pardoner?
14. Do you think the pardoner’s tale is consistent to the storyteller’s character?
15. How did Chaucer differ from other writers of his time in the English Middle Ages?
16. What role does realism play in Chaucer’s writing?
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BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Study Questions (2)
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
1. In stanza 2, the poet talks about Aeneas, Romulus and their offspring. Why does the poet
intentionally bring out the Greek and Roman mythological background?
2. How does the poet use humor in this poem?
3. How is King Arthur characterized in the beginning of the poem?
4. How does the poet use color and nature to describe seasonal changes?
5. What associations do the following have: the color green, green men, deer, boar, fox.
6. Does Gawain’s attitude towards King Arthur remind you of anything in Beowulf?
7. Discuss the relationship between the significance of the pentangle on Gawain’s shield and
the events of the poem.
8. Does the long elaborate description of Sir Gawain’s armor, shield, horse, etc. remind you of
anything in Beowulf?
9. Why does the Green Knight give Gawain two feigned blows and one little but real strike?
10. What moral lesson is being taught by the poem?
11. Discuss the functions of the uses of counterpoint and repetition (contrasts & parallels) in
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (Hints: festive scenes at the beginning and end, two
courts, three temptations, etc.)
12. Why do you think the poet portrays the court of King Arthur the way he does?
13. Discuss the journey motif and the symbolism of color, nature, animal and objects.
14. To what extent can the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight be credited with
originality?
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Morte Darthur (1485)
1. How is Arthur portrayed in Morte Darthur?
2. In Morte Darthur love vs. duty is an important theme. What is Malory’s idea of the
importance of these two? Which does he value more? Explain.
3. How could Morte Darthur be considered a “civilizing” force in the late medieval period?
STUDY QUESTIONS ON The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
(1604)
1. What is Faustus’ family background? Why is Faustus compared to Icarus, a Greek
mythological figure, in II. 21-22?
2. What is the function of the chorus in the play?
3. Analyze the structure of the play. Do you find the structure of the play satisfactory or
dissatisfactory? Why?
4. What do you think of the hero Marlowe creates? Comment especially on the final speech of
Faustus at the end of the play.
5. What are the possible themes established by the play?
6. What do you think of the comic scenes in the play? What is their function? How much do
you enjoy the humor there?
7. What does Faustus feel when he knows very well that his end is coming? Does he take his
friends’ advice to ask help from God? Why or why not?
8. What affinities does Doctor Faustus have with medieval drama? With tragedy?
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BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Study Questions (3)
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Lycidas (1638)
1. Is the poem merely a compliment to Edward King and an expression of grief at his death?
What is the real theme of the poem? How is the theme related to the fact of the death of
King? What is the relation of the apparently irrelevant passages (lines 64-84, lines 103-131)
to the theme as you see it?
2. Discuss the shifts in tone of this poem. How are they marked? What do they indicate about
the narrative element in the poem? What do the last 8 lines do for the tone as a whole?
3. Dr. Johnson objected to the mixture of pagan and Christian elements in this poem. Can you
justify it? Is there evidence that the poet mixed them consciously and for a purpose?
4. Note the water imagery. Why is there so much of it? Does it develop into a symbolism?
5. What is the significance of allusion in “Lycidas”?
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Paradise Lost (1674)
1. Why did Milton choose blank verse, iambic pentameter without rhyme, for use in
Paradise Lost?
2. According to your own responses to the first two books of Paradise Lost, do you
in any way see Satan as a hero? Is there anything in Milton's sources, or in the
events of his own life, which could have suggested the idea of Satan as hero? Is
there anything to suggest that Milton consciously intended such a portrayal?
3. What do you think of Milton’s picture or characterization of god?
4. Why does the Fall happen, and is God at all responsible for it, according to Milton?
What are the psychological causes of the Fall in Adam and Eve?
5. To what exent do Adam and Eve before the Fall represent the ideal state of gender
relations? Does Milton see their marriage as a model to be emulated?
6. Milton’s Paradise Lost can be read as an account of the education of Adam and
Eve. Describe what they learn both before and after the Fall, and also how they
learn. What differences do you seen in the way the first man and first woman
receive their education?
7. What do you think of Milton’s accounts of Eve’s personality?
8. How does Milton handle the question of time in Paradise Lost? What is the
purpose of all the flashbacks and shifts in time?
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Mac Flecknoe (1682)
1. What is the target of this satire? How do you appreciate Dryden’s wit and humor?
2. How do you describe the tone in this poem. How satirical or critical is Dryden?
3. From this poem, what literary standard of Dryden’s are you able to detect?
4. What topical references and classical allusions can you find in this poem? What effects
have they created?
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BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Study Questions (4)
STUDY QUESTIONS ON The Rape of the Lock (1712)
1.
2.
3.
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5.
6.
7.
8.
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In what ways is The Rape of the Lock a mock-heroic poem?
What is the background story (occasion) for the poem? To whom does the poet dedicate the poem?
In ll. 7-8, is the male protagonist well-bred? Can you describe him from his behavior?
Pay attention to the poetic diction Pope uses in ll. 7-11. To what does this kind of diction belong?
Heroic, gentle, graceful, sarcastic, ironic, cynical, witty, jeering, or satirical? What effect does this
create?
Comment on the guardian Sylph’s speech to Belinda. Is it quite a style?
When the Fair expires in all their pride, what happens to them?
Hint: ll. 63-64 (fire) fiery termagants—Salamander; ll. 61-62 (water) soft yielding minds—water nymph;
ll. 63-64 (earth) graver prude—Gnome; ll. 65-66 (air) light coquettes—Sylph in the air
Why does the Sylph advise Belinda to remain fair and chaste?
Where are the little Sylphs to protect her? To protect her from what kind of men?
When the world imagines women go astray, who guides them on their way?
What does Ariel predict? Does he know exactly what, how, and where this will happen?
How does Belinda end her dream?
To what does the poet compare Belinda’s dressing up?
Pay attention to the poetic diction of the last stanza. What kind of diction is this? (unveiled, silver
vase, mystic, robed in white, offerings, curious toil, glittering spoil,…)
The mention of India and Arabia expands the scope and the atmosphere. But what opposite effect
does it bring?
According to l. 139, what does the poet portray the lady as here?
STUDY QUESTIONS ON Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
1. At the beginning and end of each of the four Parts of Gulliver’s Travels Swift locates Gulliver’s
travels in a familiar world with exact geographical references, etc. What is the effect of this realistic
style on the reader? How does the realistic style establish the narrator’s persona?
2. How is Gulliver presented in the letter he wrote to his cousin? What are Gulliver’s qualities as a
narrator? Are you inclined to believe him and do you want to hear more?
3. What is the reader’s impression of the Lilliputians—at the beginning? Later? Find the reasons that
cause the reader’s change of opinions.
4. In Gulliver’s voyage to Lilliput, how does Swift portray Gulliver’s character?
5. How is the King of Brobdingnag portrayed? How about the Queen? What does Gulliver offer to the
king? Is this act how is Gulliver changed?
6. Discuss the size discrepancies in Gulliver’s Travels. What does Swift suggest by the small ness of
the Lilliputians and the big size of the Brobdingnagians?
7. Size discrepancies point to the relativism of human nature. Find assages that show how Swift
satirizes by treating humanity as malformed and diseased, both in body and soul, which is one of
the conventions of satire.
8. Gulliver never explains conditions in England to the Lilliputians as he does in Part II to the
Brobdingnagians. What may be his (the author’s) reason?
9. Who are the Struldbruggs? Are they happy to have eternal life? Why or why not?
10. Describe the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. What are their strength and weakness? What’s your
attitude toward them?
11. Who is captain Pedro De Mendez? Why does Swift put him at the end of the book?
12. How does Swift describe women in Gulliver’s Travels?
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BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Summary of more of Chaucer’s tales presented in the video
The Nun’s Priest’s Tale (beast fable)—Chanticleer, a splendid cock, belongs to a widow and has charge of seven
hens, of which the most beautiful is Pertelote, his favourite. One night Chanticleer wakes from a nightmare, in which he
is nearly caught by a fox. He tells Pertelote, who offers no sympathy whatever. Indeed she is scornful, blames his
dream on indigestion, and tells him to eat some laxative herbs. She quotes to him the words of dreams, citing St.
Kenelm, Daniel, Pharaoh, Croesus, and Andromache. Peace is eventually restored between them but meanwhile Sir
Russel the fox is lurking near the yard making plans. One day he waylays Chanticleer and asks him if he can sing as
well as his father used to. Chanticleer rises on his toes, opens his wings, and lifts his head—eyes closed—to sing.
Russel promptly seizes him and bolts. The widow hears the uproar made by Pertelote and the other hens, and at once
a party of men and dogs sets off in pursuit. Chanticleer is carried off and taunt his pursuers. Russel falls for the
ruse—and is outwitted in his turn; the moment he opens his jaws to call out insults Chanticleer is free. He promptly flies
into a tree and is safe. The story originated in the French Roman de Renart.
The Knight’s Tale (courtly romance)—Palamon and Arcite, royal cousins of Thebes, are prisoners of Theseus, Duke of
Athens. They are both in love with Emilia, whose sister is Hippolyta, the duke’s wife and queen of the Amazons. Arcite
is released but banished from Athens; he returns in the guise of a servant. Palamon escapes from prison but stays in
Athens, as determined as Arcite to win Emilia. The cousins meet by accident and agree to fight on the next day for the
right to their lady. The fight is interrupted by Theseus, who orders the cousins to return to Athens one year hence, with
a hundred knights each, to fight a tourney. At the tourney Palamon is defeated: Arcite is the favourite of Mars, while
Palamon has prayed to Venus, goddess of love. But Venus invokes the help of Saturn, and Arcite is thrown and
mortally injured at his moment of triumph. He yields Emilia to Palamon as he dies. The story originated in Boccaccio’s
Teseide.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale (exemplum)
The Merchant’s Tale (French fabliau—fable short story w/ a snappy ending; farcical, bawdy tale)—January, an aging
knight of Pavia, decides it is time, now his lusty days are over, to take a wife. He ignores advice to the contrary and
marries the youthful May. His squire, Damian, falls in love with her at the marriage feast—so passionately that he
becomes ill. May cures him by sending him a letter promising to requite his passion and he gets well at once. January
has a walled garden where he loves to walk and to which only he has a key. Unseen by him, Pluto and Proserpine
enjoy his garden too. January becomes blind and very jealous, whilst May has stolen the key of the garden and had a
copy made, which she has given to Damian. Damian lets himself into the garden and climbs into a pear tree, where
May will join him. Pluto, observing this, gives January back his sight so that he can see he is betrayed: Proserpine (on
behalf of her sex) retorts that she will frustrate his plan. January’s sight returns and he sees May and Damian coupling
energetically in the pear tree, into which January had helped his wife when May had said she wanted some of the fruit.
He is raging round the tree when May told him that she had to struggle with a man in a tree in order to restore his sight.
January retorts that she was not struggling—far from it. But she persuades him that the returning light has dazzled him,
and he has only thought he saw . . . what he saw. May and Proserpine have outwitted January and Pluto.
The Pardoner’s Tale (exemplum)
The Franklin’s Tale (Breton lay)—short romantic poem)Arveragus, a Breton knight, leaves his wife Dorigen to go to
Britain in quest of knightly adventure. Dorigen loves her husband and accepts him as her lord. In the absence of
Arveragus, Dorigen is wooed by Aurelius, a squire who has loved her for a long time; but she simply longs for her
husband’s return. She deals lightheartedly with Aurelius, telling him his love will be requited when the rocks which mar
the Breton coast and make it dangerous are moved away. Arveragus returns; but Aurelius enlists the help of a magician,
who for a thousand pounds agrees to create the illusion that the rocks have disappeared. This achieved, he reminds
Dorigen of her words. She tells her husband of her lightly given vow; he says that she must then honour it, however it
was given. This display of honor shames Aurelius into withdrawing, and Dorigen and Arveragus are secure in their
happiness once more. The magician, too, is honorable, waiving his fee from Aurelius since his illusion did not achieve
its purpose.
*Other genres included by Chaucer—burlesque romance, tragedy, sermon, didactic treatise, miracle of Virgin
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BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Summary of Paradise Lost (1)
Book I. Satan and the rebel angels have been driven out of Heaven and are disclosed lying
in the burning lake. Satan rouses his followers and tells them there is hope of regaining Heaven.
He orders them into legions, naming the leaders and telling them of a new world being created
somewhere in the utter darkness of Chaos. Then he summons a council and the palace of Satan,
Pandemonium, is built.
Book II. Satan and his followers debate whether or not to wage another war at once to
regain Heaven. They finally decide to investigate the new world. Satan himself will go. He
passes through Hell Gates and journeys into the realm of Chaos.
Book III. God observes Satan’s journey to the newly created world and tells of the future:
how Satan will succeed in bringing about the Fall of Man and how God will punish Man for
yielding to temptation. The Son of God offers himself as a ransom for Man, to answer for his
offence and undergo his punishment. To rejoicing in Heaven, God accepts him, and ordains his
incarnation on a future day. Satan meanwhile has reached the outer rim of the universe; he
passes the Limbo of Vanity and arrives at the Gate of Heaven, where he changes his form to
deceive Uriel, Guardian of the Sun. From him he learns the whereabouts of the new world, and
about Man, the creature God has placed there.
Book IV. Satan arrives on earth and finds the Garden of Eden, where he observes Adam
and Eve. They speak of the Tree of Knowledge and Satan decided to base his temptation on
this. But meanwhile Uriel has heard that one of the fallen has escaped from Hell, and of the
shape which sought knowledge of the world from him. He warns Gabriel, who in Eden finds
Satan at Eve’ s bower, trying to tempt her in a dream. The tempter is ejected.
Book V. Eve awakens, troubled by her dream of temptation, and is comforted by Adam.
God sends Raphael to Adam: so that Man may know the nature of his enemy and the need for
obedience to God, Raphael tells him of Satan’s revolt in Heaven. Satan had gathered many to
hear him and had proclaimed his resistance to the supreme authority of God. Only one of those
who heard, Abdiel, opposed Satan and refused to embrace his cause.
Book VI. Raphael continues his narrative. Michael and Gabriel command the hosts of
Heaven but it is the Son of God who decides the outcome. He orders his angels to hold, then
from the center he charges straight into Satan and his legions, driving them to the wall of
Heaven, and down from there into the Deep of Hell.
Book VII. Adam asks Raphael about the making of the world. The archangel tells him that
God, after the defeat of Satan, decided upon another world, from where Man may aspire to
Heaven. He sends His Son to perform the Creation in six days.
Book VIII. Adam asks for knowledge of the celestial bodies and Raphael tells him that his
first need is for knowledge of his own world. Adam then talks to him of Eve and of the passion
she arouses in him. The archangel warns him to attend also to his higher instincts, lest he
subordinate these to his love for Eve. Then Raphael departs from Eden.
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BRITISH LITERATURE I
Ms. Jennifer Chiu
Summary of Paradise Lost (2)
Book IX. Eve suggests to Adam that they labor separately in the Garden. Adam s uneasy
as, if separated, they could be tempted more easily. Eve says they can do more work on their
own; she is hurt that he doubts her strength to resist temptation. Adam weakens and, reassuring
himself that awareness adds strength, allows her to persuade him. Satan meanwhile has
returned to Eden as a mist by night, and has entered into a sleeping serpent. He finds Eve alone
and speaks flatteringly to her, extolling her beauty. Eve is curious that the creature has the gift
of speech. He tells her he gained it by eating of a certain fruit from a tree; at once she
recognizes the Tree of Knowledge and turns away but the serpent says she will not die from the
fruit—if it did not kill a serpent, what has she to fear? The fruit gives Life to Knowledge. At
length he weakens her resolve and she eats of the fruit. Then Satan, his design accomplished,
slips out of the Garden. Eve, feeling transformed in awareness, takes more of the fruit and goes
with it to Adam who sees at once that she is lost; he eats of the fruit also in order to share her
transgression—they will fall together. Their innocence departs: they look for cover from their
nakedness and soon are quarrelling bitterly.
Book X. After the transgression, the guardian angels return to Heaven. The Son of God
goes to Eden to deliver the judgment on Adam and Eve (as known from the Gook of Genesis).
Before he leaves the Garden he clothes them, out of pity for their shame in their nakedness.
Satan has returned triumphant to Hell; henceforth a path is open for Sin and Death to enter the
world of Man. Adam and Eve approach the Son of God in repentance and supplication,
begging for mitigation of the doom pronounced upon their children.
Book XI. The Son of God intercedes with the Father. God hears His Son but declares that
Adam and Eve must go from Eden. Michael and a Band of Cherubim come to the Garden;
Michael tells them they must now go into the world, which he shows Adam from the crest of a
hill. Adam is also shown what will happen in the world until the time of the Flood.
Book XII. Michael continues his account of the world, telling of Abraham and of the
Messiah promised in the Son’s intercession. Adam is comforted by these revelations; he wakes
the sleeping Eve and Michael lead them from the Garden.
—from The Cambridge Guide to English Literature
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