E316L, Review Guide: Exam 3
Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (Preparatory material to a poetry
collection)
1. What is the duty of the poet and why are feelings so important to their craft?
2. According to Wordsworth, who and what is a poet?
3. What is the role of pleasure in poetry?
Wordsworth, “Old Cumberland Beggar” (Poem)
1. What is the role of imagination in the poem?
2. What does this poem say about outdoor relief?
Coleridge, “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” (Poem)
1. What does imagination do for Coleridge’s speaker?
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol (novella) 1843
by Charles Dickens 1812-1870
Key Context
● The Industrial Revolution widened the gap between rich and poor
● Dickens believed that ignorance was a major contributor to charity and
education was a solution (Note Stave 3 where the child, Ignorance, is there
with Want)
● Dickens believed that charity and generosity were part of the solution to
poverty
● 1834 Poor Law was introduced to reduce the financial help available to the
poor, ruling that all unemployed people would have to enter a workhouse to
receive food and shelter
● Dickens is attacking what he considers an uncaring attitude towards the
poor – Scrooge tells the charity collectors in Stave 1 to “make idle people
merry” and he supports both the prison and workhouses.
● Workhouses were horrid places, where families were often split up and the
work was extremely hard; people were often understandably terrified of
ending up there.
● Millions of people were moving from the countryside to the cities in search
of work
● Between 1800 and 1900, London’s population grew from 1 million to 6
million
● The suffering of children was often particularly bad and there was
exploitation by factory owners, especially, who had children working long
hours, often in dangerous conditions because they were cheap labour
● Dickens experienced poverty as a child and spent a period of time working
in a factory trying to pay off his father’s debts
● Dickens wrote other novels about poverty, e.g. Hard Times and Oliver Twist,
that also address charity as a major theme.
Key Characters
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●
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Ebenezer Scrooge
Bob Cratchit
Tiny Tim
Mr. Fezziwig
The Ghosts (Christmas Past, Present, and Future, as well as Jacob Marley)
Key Sections
● Division into staves
● Stave 1
o 7 years after Jacob Marley’s death
o Scrooge is unkind to his employees and his family
o He refuses a dinner invitation from his nephew, Fred
o He turns away two men who are looking for a donation
o He refuses to give Bob Cratchit a day off on Christmas with pay, which
was a norm by this point
o He goes home to his cold, lonely house and his confronted with the
ghost of Bob Marley, who warns him that he will be confronted by
three ghosts
● Stave 2
o Ghost 1: Ghost of Christmas Past - presents Scrooge with key scenes
from his childhood and adolescence to make him feel sympathy for his
younger self
▪ Scrooge had a lonely childhood away at boarding school
▪ He loved his sister, Fran
▪ He loved Mr. Fezziwig, his first employer, who was very kind to
him and loved Christmas
▪ Scrooge prioritizes money over Belle, his fiancé
▪ Belle ends her engagement with Scrooge suggesting that he
has lost interest in higher ideals and become too obsessed with
money; notably, she suspects that he is afraid of the world
▪ Scrooge is very affected by all of these memories and the
metaphor of melting begins to work as Scrooge starts to
experience sympathy for his younger self.
● Stave 3
o Ghost 2: Ghost of Christmas Present – takes Scrooge to see people
from his present life
▪ a market where people are preparing to celebrate Christmas
▪ Fred’s Christmas party that Scrooge refused to attend
▪ Bob Cratchit’s house, where Scrooge gets to see Tiny Tim, who
is an immensely sympathetic character because of his goodness
and his physical disability
▪ The Ghost tells Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die if something
doesn’t change and Scrooge also sees two children, Ignorance
and Want following him around.
● Stave 4
o Ghost 3: the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – presents Scrooge with
what will be his future if things do not change.
▪ This ghost is suitably the most terrifying and he refuses to
speak to Scrooge throughout the encounter
▪ Funeral that people only attend because of the free food on
offer
▪ Employees (charwoman, laundress) and the local undertaker
take Scrooge’s belongings and things that he cares about are
given away
▪ Scenes of Tiny Tim’s death
● Stave 5
o The aftermath – Scrooge is relieved to wake up on Christmas morning
and is totally reformed
o He becomes a “second father” to Tiny Tim
o He gives Bob Cratchit a raise and a turkey
Some Questions:
● How does the Ghost of Christmas Present improve people’s moods?
● How does Scrooge react to the appearance of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to
Come?
● How are Marley and Scrooge alike and what is the significance?
● Why is it significant that Fred is Fran’s son?
● What do Ignorance and Want represent?
● To what extent is Scrooge a victim of his own selfishness?
● How far do we sympathize with Scrooge and why does our sympathy (or lack
of it) matter for the story as a whole?
In Darkest England (1840)
General William Booth BUT ACTUALLY journalist W. T. Stead (Booth/Stead)
Journalistic exposé/fundraising document
Key context:
● Things are much worse in London from 1840 - 1900
● Rise of urban industry, population centers are exploding, there is a labor glut
which works in the favor of employers looking to hire cheap work
● Private business and religious groups try to alleviate need as best as they
can
● Journalists also become instrumental in documenting and publicizing the
condition of the poor
About the text:
● In Darkest England functions as a journalistic exposé. Aims to get support
for the Salvation Army and explain what the organization intends to do
● S. A. is a multi-faceted plan for assisting the poor; including labor bureaus,
immigration assistance, legal counsel, provision of basic needs for the poor,
housing, etc.
● Booth comes out of a Methodist tradition, and his ultimate goal is to get the
poor saved (religiously)
● Question of authorship -- Booth is named as sole author, work was likely
written by journalist W.T. Stead in collaboration with Booth, who would have
been taking care of his dying wife at the time
● Use the illustration to understand more clearly the vision of the Salvation
Army. The poor are drowning in a number of forces/social ills, are rescued by
a host of services and programs, and are then rehabilitated into society
through practical assistance AND spiritual rehabilitation
Key Sections
Chapter 1
● Particularly problematic connection to In Darkest Africa by Stanley, a
contemporary work which described conditions in Africa under the ethic of
the racist notion of the “white man’s burden”
○ Stanley a famous British explorer, famous for exploring Africa
○ a whole set of writing about Africa that serves as a background for
this work in a way that is quite offensive to a modern sensibility
● Stead trying to capitalize on the popularity of Stanley’s writing - the
metaphor that he sets up is as follows: just as Stanley is an explorer in
Africa, so is the Salvation Army an explorer among the poor
● Sets up a general idea of the role of the English and Christians in alleviating
poverty in London
● This opening sort of chapter here is one that should remind us that this work
does seem to rely on a lot of bias, even with all of its facts and figures
Chapter 2
● Stead introduces tables, figures, scientific rhetoric -- convincing the readers
of his practicality (it’s possible some of these figures are a little massaged)
● Illustration of the Cab Horse, p. 298
● 300-301: “Population” of Darkest England may be roughly equal to the
population of Scotland
Chapter 3
● Interviews with actual people in poverty in London -- this is the first time
that we have the opportunity to hear their voices
○ Many of those in poverty aren’t Tiny Tims, but they can be rather
optimistic and “make-do” about their situations
● Repeated emphasis for Booth/Stead on fact-finding
Chapter 4
● More firsthand accounts of those looking for work
● Notice the repeated verbal tic “You see” in the interviews -- what might this
tell us?
Chapter 5 + 6
● Insistence that religious change is the key for lasting rehabilitation for the
poor
● Discussion of the different causes/conditions of poverty that may make
wealthy London citizens uncomfortable
○ Alcoholism
○ Prostitution
● Emphasis placed on practicality -- help first, ask questions later
Some Questions
1. Describe Stead’s invocation of In Darkest Africa in Chapter 1. How does this
intertextuality support his argument in the text? How is it problematic?
Consider the comparison to the “barbarians” invoked by Swift in A Modest
Proposal.
2. What social conditions created the context for In Darkest England? Pay
special attention to urban environments, labor practices, and the role of
private groups (business societies, etc.) and the press in providing relief. In
what ways was the New Poor Law insufficient in addressing the needs of the
poor in London specifically?
3. What were Stead’s two aims for In Darkest England?
4. How is the language of water and drowning deployed in the piece?
5. Using the images we discussed in class, outline the Salvation Army’s
proposed general model for relief.
6. What kinds of poor people does In Darkest England attempt to address?
7. Describe the question of authorship of In Darkest England. How does
Stead’s journalistic style and experience manifest in the text?
8. In what ways does Stead skewer contemporary economic thinking?
9. Describe two ways that Stead presents his arguments as level-headed,
rational, or scientific in the piece.
10.In what ways do the interview subjects present differently from characters
like Tiny Tim? In what ways can they at times appear similar?
11.How does Stead frame social issues like prostitution and alcoholism? How is
this different from the ways in which similar issues were addressed at the
time?
Major Barbara (play) 1905
George Bernard Shaw
Key Context
● Another response to the New Poor Laws and industrialism etc
● Addresses the agenda of Stead/Booth’s In Darkest England through its
treatment of the Salvation Army
● Attacks capitalism
● Engaged with Fabian socialism, which advocated social justice, a kind of
socialism, wanted reformation of the British imperialist foreign policy, better
wages, remedies for poverty etc; tolerance of capitalism while challenging
and rectifying its negative effects (e.g. the effects of economic inequality,
empire).
o “The universal regard for money is the one hopeful fact in our
civilization, the one sound spot in our social conscience. Money is the
most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength,
honor, generosity and beauty as conspicuously and undeniably as the
want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness and
ugliness. Not the least of its virtues is that it destroys base people as
certainly as it fortifies and dignifies noble people. It is only when it is
cheapened to worthlessness for some, and made impossibly dear to
others, that it becomes a curse. In short, it is a curse only in such
foolish social conditions that life itself is a curse. For the two things
are inseparable: money is the counter that enables life to be
distributed socially: it is life as truly as sovereigns and bank notes are
money.”
Key Characters:
● Andrew Undershaft
● Barbara Undershaft
● Stephen Undershaft
● Sarah Undershaft
● Charles Lomax
● Adolphus Cusins
● Lady Britomart
● Bill Walker
● Peter Shirley
● Jenny Hill
Key Scenes: (note, play divides into three acts)
● Act 1:
o Return of Andrew Undershaft and his inability to recognize his
children
o Lady Britomart’s discussion with Stephen about her relationship with
her husband, what caused the rift in their marriage, and how the
financial arrangements work
o Undershaft and Barbara discussing her work in the Salvation Army
and Undershaft’s response to the idea that his daughter is involved in
the organization:
▪ Agreement that Undershaft will visit Barbara’s place of work
and she will visit his so they can each determine the relative
importance of religion/charity and industry in the way the world
works
● Act II
o In a shelter, Rummy Mitchens, Bill Walker, Peter Shirley, and Jenny,
where Bill Walker attacks Jenny, hits her.
o Shirley confronts Bill; Barbara shows up and especially challenges Bill
for his behavior.
o Addresses Shirley’s shame at having to take handouts (Bill challenges
him about this too when they are arguing).
o
o
o
o
o
o
Undershaft arrives, Barbara introduces him as a secularist but he
insists he is a millionairist – he has faith in money.
Barbara asks Shirley to help at the shelter – he says he has no choice
because he is in debt
Barbara also continues going after Bill for his behavior; he leaves
determined to go and beat Mog
Cusins shows Undershaft around the shelter and Undershaft explains
that he believes money and gunpowder are what lead to salvation
while other things, ideals like love, truth, mercy, honor, justice, and
onward are the graces of a “rich, strong, and safe life.”
Cusins and Undershaft are basically on the same page and they
determine to win Barbara over
Barbara refuses money on principle (both from Bill and Undershaft) –
shattering of her faith – money will always be tainted, she realizes,
and organizations like the Salvation Army can’t go without it
● Act III
o Barbara is to visit her father’s cannon works and she is out of uniform
o The visit to Undershaft’s town
o Peter Shirley has work; Cusins accepts work too.
o Undershaft and his view that poverty is the greatest vice and must be
overcome with provision of work, food, shelter, and clothing, take
over.
Some Questions:
1. How does Undershaft’s performance as a father – his absenteeism – affect
attitudes towards him? He is made to look rather ridiculous in Act I when he
is unable to recognize his children – why?
2. Whose side are you on in the dispute between Barbara and Undershaft?
3. How well does Barbara handle the situation with Bill Walker and how might
her treatment of him serve as a critique of the Salvation Army?
4. What is Fabian socialism and how does Shaw mobilize it through
Undershaft?
5. Obviously there is a set up of religion versus money in this play, leading to
the idea of money as religion, but how far do you accept this idea of money
as religion? Is Shaw’s juxtaposition suitable?
6. What does Shaw’s criticism of the Salvation Army and his presentation of
Undershaft’s attitudes suggest about Shaw’s views on charity, money, and
religion? Is it important that we factor in Shaw’s personal beliefs when
judging the attitudes to charity etc in this play?
7. What about the characterization of Cusins? He follows Barbara and wants to
marry her but his motives are not necessarily sound; how is his relationship
with Undershaft interesting? How do his attitudes to money and charity
change? How far do you think the change is justified?
Fra Lippo Lippi -- Browning
Context
● Here, Browning gives us a sense of how ideas of charity and sympathy (esp.
from Wordsworth and Dickens) apply to the artist in society.
● There is widespread connection b/t art and poverty in Dickens’s/Browning’s
time -- artists occupy a particular space of dependency, and they’re aware of
that positionality and how similar it is to the perspective of someone in
poverty. In the poem, Browning suggests that there are benefits for artists
having the perspective of the poor -- it sharpens one’s vision and makes one
more aware of the human condition in a way that’s arguably pleasurable.
● Artists, like the poor, are always in a position to be monitored by those in
power.
● Here, Browning is casting his vision back re: the creative re-imagining of
what it’s like to be a painter, monk, etc.
● Genre that Browning is working in: DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
○ A spoken monologue by a recognizable character. What the character
says gives you a full sense of the context -- you could almost stage the
thing. Who is listening to this? These are all questions you need to ask
as we work through the poem.
○ It’s not a stage play (it’s just the one performed piece), but it is in
blank verse. It’s also quite colloquial -- this character speaks as if he’s
talking to someone up close and personal.
○ We get the sense that the speaker is talking to someone on the same
social level as himself.
● There was a market for poetry in the Victorian era, and it was tough to
become a poet. As a result, Browning was dependent on his father and his
own wife (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) until her death. He knew what it was
like to depend on someone else to do your own work.
Fra Lippo Lippi
Sections of the Poem:
1. Lines 1-80: Opening, establishing setting and characters
2. Lines 81-142: Lippo explains how he got to be a monk, links street urchin
past to present
3. Lines 143-269: FLL doesn’t see art the way that others do
4. Lines 270-365: Why art?
5. Lines 366-end: Remorse
● Here, Browning is expounding his theory of poetry by using visual art
(painting) as a stand-in for writing. The theory he forwards is called formal
realism, re: the value of small human experiences. There’s a sense in which
that certain kinds of details that Victorians espouse operate in this mode -psychological interest, colloquialism, etc.
● Like a lot of Victorians, Browning has a certain amount of anxiety about
what it means to be an artist. Victorian artists have a mixed mission they
need to fill:
○ Wordsworth: poets lose themselves in what they see, etc. This attitude
could lead to excesses (and was seen by contemporary readers to do
so) There had been a real reaction to the perception of excesses -- esp.
With the environment of revolutions afoot. The Victorian ethos is all
about exploring the senses, and the Victorians are anxious about
social propriety (control those senses!)
○ So what do you do if you’re a Victorian poet and you inherit Romantic
sensibilities but need to operate in a “proper” Victorian worldview?
One tactic that a number of poets (incl Browning, Tennyson, etc.)
deploy -- find an escape hatch in the past!
■ Set the characters, monologues in a context that was beyond
the reach of contemporary propriety. They could depict things
that were too upsetting, even violent, for their contemporaries
and write off their situation in the past.
● Browning sets this poem in the past partly because he knows a lot about art
and sympathizes with the real FLL, aiming to think about what he had in
common with FLL. Merging his own mind with FLL was a way to think about
art and a way to think about art in the Victorian era. FLL was a monk, but
also and artist. This tension speaks to a Victorian tension, too.
Some Questions
1. What is Browning allegorizing in this poem by having Lippo’s view of art
conflict with that of The Church?
2. How does the poem dramatize the relationship between the powerful and
the poor?
3. What skill made Lippo a talented artist, and how does that tie themes of
poverty and art together?
4. What kind of art is Lippo trying to make, and how does that conflict with the
social mores of The Church?
5. Why does Browning set the poem in the far away past?
6. What is Formal Realism and how does it relate to the poem? What does
Lippo say specifically about his preferred mode of art?
Passage IDs
1. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the
curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which his face
was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge,
starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with
the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I
am standing in the spirit at your elbow.”
2. Well, I'm goin to av er out. Not that I care a curse for her or you: see? But I'll
let er know; and I'll let you know. I'm goin to give er a doin that'll teach er to
cut away from me. Now in with you and tell er to come out afore I come in
and kick er out. Tell er Bill Walker wants er. She'll know what that means;
and if she keeps me waitin it'll be worse. You stop to jaw back at me; and I'll
start on you: d'ye hear?
3. Let's see what the urchin's fit for"—that came next.
Not overmuch their way, I must confess.
Such a to-do! They tried me with their books:
Lord, they'd have taught me Latin in pure waste!
Flower o' the clove.
All the Latin I construe is, "amo" I love!
But, mind you, when a boy starves in the streets
Eight years together, as my fortune was,
Watching folk's faces to know who will fling
The bit of half-stripped grape-bunch he desires,
And who will curse or kick him for his pains,—
Which gentleman processional and fine,
Holding a candle to the Sacrament,
Will wink and let him lift a plate and catch
The droppings of the wax to sell again,
Or holla for the Eight and have him whipped,—
4. Most Schemes that are put forward for the Improvement of the
Circumstances of the People are either avowedly or actually limited to those
whose condition least needs amelioration. The Utopians, the economists, and
most of the philanthropists propound remedies, which, if adopted to-morrow,
would only affect the aristocracy of the miserable. It is the thrifty, the
industrious, the sober, the thoughtful who can take advantage of these plans.
But the thrifty, the industrious, the sober, and the thoughtful are already
very well able for the most part to take care of themselves. No one will ever
make even a visible dint on the Morass of Qualor who does not deal with the
improvident, the lazy, the vicious, and the criminal.
5. They die and make no sign, or, worse still, they continue to exist, carrying
about with them, year after year, the bitter ashes of a life from which the
furnace of misfortune has burnt away all joy, and hope, and strength
6. …it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight
provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.
Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands
are in want of common comforts, sir.
7. “Very well, then!” cried the woman. “That’s enough. Who’s the worse for the
loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose.”
8. The intelligent-looking elderly man, who was just fixing himself up on a seat,
informed me that he frequently made that his night’s abode. ‘You see,’ quoth
he, ‘there’s nowhere else so comfortable. I was here last night, and Monday
and Tuesday as well, that’s four nights this week. I had no money for
lodgings, couldn’t earn any, try as I might. I’ve had one bit of bread to-day,
nothing else whatever, and I’ve earned nothing to-day or yesterday. I had
threepence the day before. Gets my living by carrying parcels, or minding
horses, or odd jobs of that sort.
9. Eight years together, as my fortune was,
Watching folk's faces to know who will fling
The bit of half-stripped grape-bunch he desires,
And who will curse or kick him for his pains,—
Which gentleman processional and fine,
Holding a candle to the Sacrament,
Will wink and let him lift a plate and catch
The droppings of the wax to sell again,
Or holla for the Eight and have him whipped,—
How say I?—nay, which dog bites, which lets drop
His bone from the heap of offal in the street,—
Why, soul and sense of him grow sharp alike,
He learns the look of things, and none the less
For admonition from the hunger-pinch.
10.I should have given you up and married the man who accepted it. After all,
my dear old mother has more sense than any of you. I felt like her when I
saw this place—felt that I must have it—that never, never, never could I let it
go; only she thought it was the houses and the kitchen ranges and the linen
and china, when it was really all the human souls to be saved: not weak
souls in starved bodies, crying with gratitude for a scrap of bread and
treacle, but fullfed, quarrelsome, snobbish, uppish creatures, all standing on
their little rights and dignities, and thinking that my father ought to be
greatly obliged to them for making so much money for him—and so he
ought. That is where salvation is really wanted. My father shall never throw
it in my teeth again that my converts were bribed with bread. [She is
transfigured]. I have got rid of the bribe of bread. I have got rid of the bribe
of heaven. Let God's work be done for its own sake: the work he had to
create us to do because it cannot be done by living men and women. When I
die, let him be in my debt, not I in his; and let me forgive him as becomes a
woman of my rank.
11.The Cab Horse is a very real illustration of poor broken-down humanity; he
usually falls down because of overwork and underfeeding. If you put him on
his feet without altering his conditions, it would only be to give him another
dose of agony; but first of all you’ll have to pick him up again. It may have
been through overwork or underfeeding, or it may have been all his own
fault that he has broken his knees and smashed the shafts, but that does not
matter.
12.Or say there's beauty with no soul at all—
(I never saw it—put the case the same—)
If you get simple beauty and nought else,
You get about the best thing God invents:
That's somewhat: and you'll find the soul you have missed,
Within yourself, when you return him thanks.
13.Old Aunt Lapaccia trussed me with one hand,
(Its fellow was a stinger as I knew)
And so along the wall, over the bridge,
By the straight cut to the convent.
Practice Essays
The authors of A Christmas Carol and In Darkest England both regard charity from
a
religious perspective, but they see what it means to be religious differently. Explain
how the religious views and orientations of the author of each work shape the way
he regards charity.
Major Barbara presents a female character who hopes to do good in the world
through charitable actions. How does the author of this work view the capacity of
female characters to do good? How does this relate (if at all) to the Victorian idea
of the separation of the spheres? How does this author deploy and challenge the
ideology of the spheres in the text?
Consider the sympathetic imagination of the poet, someone who creates and
imagines feelings and things where they can't find them. How does the
sympathetic imagination as defined in Wordsworth's theory of poetry align with
Coleridge's use of imagination in "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison"? Where do you
observe Wordsworth's theory in A Christmas Carol?