Exercise Two of Book II
A. Multiple-choice questions:
(Each of the statements below is followed by four alternative answers. Choose the
one that would best complete the statement and put the letter in the brackets.)
1. In Hard Times, Dickens attacks __________ that rules over the English educational
system and destroys young hearts and minds.
A. bourgeois commercialism
B. religious hypocrisy
C. the utilitarian principle
D. political corruptness
2. _________ is the first important governess novel in the English literary history.
A. Jane Eyre
B. Emma
C. Wuthering Heights
D. Middlemarch
3. Which of the following best describes the nature of Hardy's later novels?
A. Sentimentalism. B. Surrealism.
C. Comic sense. D. Tragic sense.
4. ________ is the most representative Victorian poet whose poetry voices the doubt
and the faith, the grief and the joy of English people in an age of fast change.
A. Robert Browning
B. Alfred Tennyson
C. George G. Byron
D. Thomas Hardy
5. Which of the following statements is not a typical feature of Charles Dickens?
A. He sets out a large-scale criticism of the inhuman social institutions and the
decaying social morality.
B. His works are characterized by a mingling of humor and pathos.
C. The characters portrayed by Dickens are often larger than life.
D. He shows a human being not at moments of crisis, but in the most trivial
incidents of everyday life.
6. "As for society, he was carried every other day into the hall where the boys dined,
and there socially flogged as a public warning and example". What figure of
speech is used in the above sentence?
A. Simile. B. Metaphor.
C. Irony.
D. Overstatement.
7. "I will drink /life to the lees." In the quoted line Ulysses is saying that he _______
till the end of his life.
A. will keep traveling and exploring
B. will go on drinking and being happy
C. would like to toast to his glorious life
D. would like to drink the cup of wine
8. " She smiled, no doubt,/ Whene'er I passed her.../... This grew; I gave commands; /
Then all smiles stopped together." The quoted lines imply that she ________.
A. obeyed his order and stopped smiling at everybody, including the duke
B. obeyed his order and stopped' smiling at anybody except the duke
C. refused to obey the order and never smiled again
D. was murdered at the order of the duke
9. A contemporary of Alfred Tennyson, _________ is acknowledged by many as the
most original and experimental poet of the time.
A. Thomas Carlyle
B, Thomas B. Macaulay
C. Robert Browning
D.T.S. Eliot
10. Most of Hardy's novels are set in ________, the fictional primitive and crude rural
region that is really the home place he both loves and hates.
A. Yorkshire
B. Wessex
C. London
D. Manchester
11. "The floating pollen seemed to be his notes made visible, and the dampness of the
garden the weeping of the garden's sensibility." The quoted sentence is
suggestive of __________.
A. the richness of the music in the garden
B. the beauty of the scenery in the garden
C. the great power of the music in affecting the environment
D. the harmony and oneness of the music, the garden and the heroine Tess
12. In the statement "--oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?"
the term "soul" apparently refers to _________.
A. Heathcliff himself
B. Catherine C. one's spiritual life D. one's ghost
13. "I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in--with an
original, a vigorous, an expanded mind." Here in the quoted passage, Jane is
really saying that she has talked face to face with __________.
A. God who appears in her dreams
B. the reverent priest
C. Mr. Rochester
D. Miss Ingrain
14. In the clause "As Mr. Gamfield did happen to labor under the slight imputation of
having bruised three or four boys to death already... ", the word "slight" is used
as a(n) _______________.
A. simile B. metaphor
C. irony
D. overstatement
15. Dickens takes the French Revolution as the background of the novel ______ .
A. Great Expectations
B. A Tale of Two Cities
C. Bleak House
D. Oliver Twist
16. The Victorian Age was largely an age of ___________, eminently represented by
Dickens and Thackeray.
A. poetry
B. drama
C. prose
D. epic prose
17. The title of Alfred Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" reminds the reader of the following
except ____________.
A. the Trojan War
B. Homer C. quest
D. Christ
18. The character Rochester in Jane Eyre can be well termed as a _________.
A. conventional hero
B. Byronic hero
C. chivalrous aristocrat
D. Homeric hero
19. Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield and Sam Well in Pickwick Paper are perhaps
the best _________ characters created by Charles Dickens.
A. comical
B. tragic
C. round
D. sophisticated
20. The typical feature of Robert Browning's poetry is the _________.
A. bitter satire
B. larger-than-life caricature
C. Latinized diction
D. dramatic monologue
21. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy resolutely makes a seduced girl his
heroine, which dearly demonstrates the author's _________ of the Victorian
moral standards.
A. blind fondness
B. total acceptance
C. deep understanding
D. mounting defiance
22. In Hardy's Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the heroine's tragic ending is due to ______.
A. her weak character
B. her ambition
C. Angel Clare's selfishness
D. a hostile society
23. "The dehumanizing workhouse system and the dark, criminal underworld life" are
the right words to sum up the main theme of ________.
A. David Copperfield
B. A Tale of Two Cities
C. Oliver Twist
D. Bleak House
24. "For a week after the commission of the impious and profane offence of asking for
more, Oliver remained a close prisoner in the dark and solitary room to which he
had been consigned by the wisdom and mercy of the board. "
In the above passage quoted from Oliver Twist, Dickens uses the words
"wisdom" and "mercy" ________.
A. ironically
B. carelessly
C. nonchalantly
D. impartially
25. "... and then how they met I hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he
caught her, and they were locked in an embrace ..." In the quoted passage,
Emily Bronte tells the story in __________ point of view.
A. first person
B. second person
C. third person limited
D. third person omniscient
B. Blank-filling:
(Complete each of the following statements with proper words or phrases
according to the textbook.)
1. Dickens' best-depicted characters are those innocent, virtuous, helpless
________ characters, those horrible and grotesque characters and those
broadly humorous or ________ ones. child comical
2. Charlotte Bronte's works are famous for the depiction of the life of the
middle-class working women, particularly ________. governess
3. Wuthering Heights is the ________ novel written by Emily Bronte. only
4. A contemporary of Alfred Tennyson, ________ is acknowledged by many as
the most original and experimental poet of the time. Robert Browning
5. ________, Tennyson's greatest work, is presumably an elegy on the death of a
dear friend. In Memoriam
6. In her study of human life, George Eliot paid particular attention to the
relationship between the individual personality and the ______.
social environment
7. Thomas Hardy is often regarded as a ________ writer, in whose works we see
the influence from both the past and the present, both the traditional and the
modern. transitional
8. The major novelists of the Victorian period made bitter and strong _______ of
the inhuman social institutions and the decaying social morality. criticism
9. The Victorian Age in English literature was largely an age of prose, especially
of the ________. novel
10. The typical feature of Robert Browning's poetry is the _______.
dramatic monologue
C. T-F statements:
(Decide whether the following statements are true or false and write your
answers in the brackets.)
( ) 1. All of Dickens' later works present a criticism of the fundamental social
institutions and morals of the Victorian England. F
( ) 2. Browning's greatest contribution to English poetry is his invention and
development of dramatic monologue. F
( ) 3. The short poem, "Crossing the Bar" is an expression of the poet's desire
to go and seek new knowledge until the end of his life. F
( ) 4. The most representative works of Hardy as both a naturalistic and
critical realist novelist are those "novels of character arid environment".
T
( ) 5. The important part of George Eliot's determinism is that an individual's
destiny is determined by some mysterious supernatural force, which is
very powerful, half-blind, and uncaring to the individual's will, hope,
passion or suffering. F
( ) 6. Charlotte Bronte is a writer of realism combined with romanticism. T
( ) 7. The greatest and most distinctive achievement of the Victorian literature
is drama. F
(
) 8. William Thackeray felt most at home when he portrayed the
lower-middle class people and the poor people. F
( ) 9. Like Charles Dickens, George Eliot writes both for entertainment and
for the discussions of serious social problems. F
( ) 10. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte presents a vivid narration with
some of her subtle comments here and there. T
( ) 11. Much of Dickens' humor is due to his larger-than-life caricatures. T
( ) 12. Drama and poetry were the most common literary genres used by the
Victorian writers. F
( ) 13. Bleak House by Charles Dickens presents a criticism of the legal
system and practices that aim at devouring every penny of the clients.
T
( ) 14. The major novelists of the Victorian period made bitter and strong
criticism of the inhuman social institutions and the decaying social
morality. T
( ) 15. The reality and spirit of the Victorian Age are truthfully represented in
the form of drama. F
D. Work-author pairing-up:
( C ) 1. The Return of the Native
A. Charles Dickens
( A ) 2. A Tale of Two Cities
B. Charlotte Bronte
( B ) 3. Jane Eyre
C. Thomas Hardy
( E ) 4. The Mill on the Floss
D. Emily Bronte
( A ) 5. Great Expectations
E. George Eliot
( D ) 6. Wuthering Heights
F. William Thackeray
( G ) 7. The Ring and the Book
G. Robert Browning
( H ) 8. Idylls of the King
H. Alfred Tennyson
( F ) 9. Vanity Fair
( C ) 10. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
E. Define the literary terms listed below:
1. George Eliot's determinism
2. Chartist Movement
3. Dramatic Monologue
4. Naturalism
F. Reading comprehension:
(For each of the quotations listed below please give the name of the author and
the title of the literary work from which it is taken and then briefly interpret
it.)
1. "Let it not be supposed by the enemies of 'the system', that during the period
of his solitary incarceration, Oliver was denied the benefit of exercise, the
pleasure of society, or the advantages of religious consolation."
2. "Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and
heartless? --You think wrong! --I have as much soul as you--and full as much
heart... I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom,
conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh:--it is my spirit that addresses your
spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet,
equal--as we are!"
3. "He flung himself into the nearest seat, and on my approaching hurriedly to
ascertain if she had fainted, he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog,
and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. I did not feel as if I were in the
company of a creature of my own species..."
4. "Tho'/We are not now that strength which in old days/Moved earth and heaven;
that which we are, we are;/One equal temper of heroic hearts, /Made weak by
time and fate, but strong in will/To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
5. "Marriage, which was to bring guidance into worthy and imperative
occupation, had not yet freed her from the gentlewoman's oppressive liberty;
it had not even filled her leisure with the ruminant joy of unchecked
tenderness."
6. "I repeat, /The Count your master's known munificence/Is ample warrant that
no just pretense/Of mine for dowry will be disallowed; /Though his fair
daughter's self, as I avowed/As starting, is my object."
G. Questions:
(For each of the following questions you are asked to give a brief answer,
explaining what you know about it. You should use no more than 100 words
for each answer, and, therefore, concentrate on those essential points.)
1. Why are Dickens' later works generally regarded as more mature than his
earlier ones?
2. What're the major features of Browning's work?
3. How do you explain Thomas Hardy's being "intellectually advanced and
emotionally traditional"?
4. What are the major artistic features of Charles Dickens?
5. Tennyson is a real artist. What are the major artistic features of his poetry?
6. What's the moral of George Eliot's novel, Silas Marner?
H. Essay questions :
(In this part you are asked to write a short essay on each of the given topics. You
should write no more than 150 words on each one. Therefore, you should concentrate
on those most important points, try your best to be logical in your essay, and keep
your writing clear and tidy.)
1. Comment on the superb description of the extraordinary passion between
Catherine and Heathcliff in the selected reading.
2. Read the poem "Break, Break, Break" and comment on Tennyson's poetic art.
3. Comment the theme(s) of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
4. Comment on the psychoanalysis of Dorothea in the selected reading.
5. Comment on the use of dramatic monologue in "My Last Duchess".
V. Key to the exercises
A. Multiple-choice questions:
1--25 CADBD
CADCB
DBCCB
CDBAD
DDCAC
B. Blank-filling:
1. child, comical 2. governess 3. only/sole/single
4. Robert Browning
5. In Memoriam 6. social environment
7. transitional8. criticism
9. novel
10. dramatic monologue
C. T-F statements:
1--15 FFFTF TFFFT TFTTF
D. Work-author pairing-up:
1. C
2. A3. B
4. E
5. A
6. D
7. G
8. H
9. F
10. C
E. Define the literary terms listed below:
F. Reading comprehension:
1. The sentence is taken from Charles Dickens' early novel, Oliver Twist. It is a
typical example of irony. The words "benefit", "pleasure", and "advantages" actually
mean the opposite. For the "benefit" of exercise, Oliver was whipped every morning
in a stone yard; for the "pleasure" of society, he was carried every other clay into the
dining hall and flogged as a public warning and example to the boys; and as for the
"advantages" of religious consolation, he was kicked into the same apartment every
evening at prayer time and listened to the boys' prayer to be guarded against his sins
and vices. The ironic statement is, in fact, a bitter denunciation and fierce attack at the
brutal, inhuman treatment of the poor orphan by the workhouse authority.
2. The statement is taken from Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece, Jane Eyre. In this
famous declaration, Jane proves herself a new, unconventional woman, a woman who
believes in the basic human rights, in the independence and equality of people of all
social classes. She is courageous enough to defy the social conventions that
discriminate against the poor and the unfortunate and deprive them of their right to
equality. It is not just a personal protest and declaration a governess makes to her
master, but a declaration made on behalf of all the unfortunate middleclass working
women, and of all the poor people in the world.
3. The sentences are taken from Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. It is a
description of the mad, desperate love between Catherine and Heathcliff in her death
scene. Heathcliff, seeing his love on the verge of death, was heart-broken. Though
they two tortured each other with many a false charge, they were eager to cling to
each other at this last moment. Heathcliff, in his eagerness to have her all to himself,
now behaved like an animal greedily and jealously guarding his dear one or treasured
prey.
The terms "gnashed" and "foamed", simple action words, vividly presents the
image of a man desperate in his desire to take possession of his beloved and in his
anxiety that someone would come and take her away from him.
4. These lines are taken from Alfred Tennyson's "Ulysses". In this poem, the old
Ulysses is trying to persuade his old followers into setting upon further adventure
with him again. In these lines, he argues that although they are all old and weak now
and do not have the great strength they used to have in their past glorious days, they
still have the same strong will and the same heroic spirit to go on struggling and
seeking new knowledge until the end of their life. His undying heroic spirit is
admirable, indeed.
5. This is taken from the novel Middlemarch by George Eliot. Dorothea had
hoped, through marriage, to use Casaubon as her guide onto some noble cause. She
had hoped to be an aid in his so-called big research project on the essence of Greek
mythology. But her voluntary help was refused by Casaubon; she was told to amuse
herself with some womanly occupations such as playing the piano and sewing, which
she disliked. With nothing asked of her, nothing to engage her mind and energy, she
found her "freedom" oppressive. What's more, she was not even comforted, in her
leisure, by the happy memories of tender love between the newly-weds. Casaubon
was too old and too busy to be tender to her.
6. These lines are taken from Robert Browning's " My Last Duchess". The main
idea is that even though, as I said at the very beginning, my real interest in the
marriage is his beautiful daughter (It should be his niece) herself, my claim of the
money and property that must come with the bride can't be refused by your master,
the Count, because he is such a rich man. The statement reveals the Duke's
unashamed greediness for wealth. From his word, the reader can easily come to the
conclusion that his real purpose of the second marriage is not for love, but for money.
The marriage is conditioned by his demand for profit. The sacred marriage between
people has been commercialized by him.
G. Questions:
1. Why are Dickens' later works generally regarded as more mature than his
earlier ones?
Because not only are their structures better organized and the plots usually
double or multiple and more complex than those of the early ones, they are more
metaphorical and symbolical. They present a criticism of the more complicated and
yet most fundamental social institutions and morals of the Victorian England.
The youthful, light-hearted tone of the author is now replaced by a more serious,
realistic one.
2. How do you explain Thomas Hardy's being "intellectually advanced and
emotionally traditional"?
In his novels, there is an apparent nostalgic touch in his description of the simple
and beautiful though primitive rural life, which was gradually declining and
disappearing in England at the time. And with those traditional characters, he's always
sympathetic and mourns over their failure and misfortune. On the other hand, he was
greatly influenced by Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest", and other modern
philosophical thoughts, which led to the pessimistic determinism or naturalism in
fiction. The naturalistic tendency is apparent in all his later works.
3. What are the major artistic features of Charles Dickens?
(1) Dickens is a master storyteller. With his first sentence, he engages the reader's
attention and holds it to the end;
(2) What he writes is mainly the middle and lower-middle class life in London;
(3) He is a master of language with a large vocabulary and an adeptness with the
vernacular;
(4) He is a great humorist as well as a great painter of pathos. He always mingles
the two to make his fictional world realistic;
(5) His most distinguishing feature is character-portrayal. His characters are not
only true to life but also larger than life. There are both individual characters and type
characters. The best depicted are those innocent, pure, helpless child characters, those
evil, grotesque characters, and those humorous or comical characters.
4. Tennyson is a real artist. What are the major artistic features of his poetry?
(1) His poetry is rich in poetic images and melodious language. It is noted for its
lyrical beauty and metrical charm.
(2) His poetry is also famous for the perfect blending of visual pictures, musical
expressions and human feelings.
(3) His works are traditional in style. They not only the products of the creative
imagination of a poetic genius, but also those of a long, rich English heritage. They
manifest all the qualities of the past great English poets, such as the dreaminess of
Spenser, the majesty of Milton, the natural simplicity of Wordsworth, the fantasy of
Blake and Coleridge, the melody of Keats and Shelley, and the narrative vigor of
Scott and Byron.
5. What's the moral of George Eliot's novel, Silas Marner?
The moral of Silas Marner is that the true wealth in human life is love, and not
gold. As a myth of loss and redemption, the once miserly Silas Marner loses his
material riches but reclaims a greater treasure of contentment. With the loss of his
gold coins and the gain of a golden-haired baby girl, he comes to learn that happiness
is possible only for the pure and self-sacrificing souls. Because of his care and love
for the orphan girl, he is transformed, as if by magic, from a narrow, selfish, bitter
recluse into a truly human and spiritually fulfilled man.
H. Essay questions:
1. Comment on the superb description of the extraordinary passion between
Catherine and Heathcliff in the selected reading.
(Refer to the comments given in Section C (E. Bronte), Part II for answer. )
2. Read the poem "Break, Break, Break" and comment on Tennyson's poetic art.
(Refer to the comments given in Section D (A. Tennyson), Part I I for answer.)
3. Comment the theme(s) of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre, Charlotte's
masterpiece, is one of the most popular and important novels of the Victorian age. It is
famous for its sharp criticism of the religious hypocrisy of charity institutions like
Lowood School, where poor, unwanted girls are trained to be humble slaves through
constant starvation and humiliation. Mr. Brocklehurst's sermon to the students about
simplicity and humbleness in life and his cutting off the natural curls of a big girl are
set in an ironic contrast with the way his wife and daughter live and dress themselves.
The incident of Jane's being made to stand on a stool and put in public shame and the
death of that intelligent, kind, patient girl, Helen Burns are evidence of the inhuman
destruction of the dignity and health of the growing children at the school. The novel
is also noted for its open denunciation of the social discrimination and false
conventions about love and marriage. This is best manifest in Jane's relation to Mr.
Rochester. Despite the social disparity between them two, she dares to love him and
tell him that she loves him. Poor, plain, and obscure as she is, she considers herself a
better being and a more suitable wife to Mr. Rochester than the rich, vain,
empty-headed Miss Ingram. The final union of the two defies the bourgeois
commercialized attitude towards marriage. Meanwhile, the novel can also be regarded
as a moral fable. The author's faithfulness to the harsh reality and strong belief in hard
work, honesty and moral strength allows no rosy colors in her narration. In her
opinion, there is no easy attainment or complete happiness in real life. People have
to go through all kinds of physical or moral tests to obtain their final happiness. In the
novel, Jane has to suffer from maltreatment, loneliness, humiliation, cold and
starvation, social discrimination, and separation from the man she loves to achieve her
personal happiness. And it is only by her intelligence, diligence, courage, and moral
uprightness that she succeeds. The same is true of Mr. Rochester. He too has to
undergo a series of frustrations and obstacles to clean up his past shameful record and
turn a new page. The final bliss he has is got through a long time of suffering and,
symbolically, disability of his body.
4. Comment on the psychoanalysis of Dorothea in the selected reading. In her
study of the human life from a deterministic point of view, George Eliot often pays
great attention to the mutual effect between the inner world of the character and the
outer world of the environment. In Chapter XXVIII of Middlemarch, she gives a
detailed description of Dorothea's disappointment with her married life. It took place
the next morning after they had returned from their unhappy honeymoon in Rome.
When Dorothea got up, Mr. Casaubon was in the library with his curate. Looking
through the windows of her room at the white landscape and the cloudy sky, Dorothea
felt a dullness and lifelessness as if the whole landscape had shrunk. The furniture, the
books, and almost everything in the house too looked lifeless and shrunk to her. The
gloomy environment, which made her glowing youth and pulsing heart seem out of
place, found ready response from her inner heart. She had wanted to escape the
common meaningless life of the gentle ladies and to enter some noble cause by
marrying Casaubon. She had wished to work as an aid to his great project on Greek
Mythology and give him her wifely love and help. But all her voluntary help was
refused, her companionship and tenderness avoided and ignored by her husband, and
she was forced into the idle, easy life from which she had always wanted to escape.
She was very unhappy. Her great disappointment with her marriage was here joined
together with the outer dreary and lifeless environment to make up a pathetic picture.
5. Comment on the use of dramatic monologue in " My Last Duchess". "My Last
Duchess" is one of the most famous poems by Robert Browning. It is often held as the
best example of successful use of dramatic monologue. The poem is made up of the
monologue of a Duke whose wife has just mysteriously died and who is now trying to
arrange a second marriage with-the niece of a Count. Now the Duke is showing the
agent of the Count the picture of his last Duchess. From his monologue, the reader
learns that the Duke is a man with a perfect artistic taste and graceful language and
polite manners, but he is a vain, arrogant, cruel and tyrannical man. Fie appreciates
the beauty of the Duchess but doesn't like her friendliness and kindness to the
common people and her easy satisfaction with any simple beauty in life. Fie is too
proud even to tell her of his displeasure. Instead, he has her brutally murdered. The
cold-blooded brutality of the Duke is also highlighted by the line that immediately
follows his allusion to the murder: "There she stands/As if alive." He takes her beauty
as his proud possession, but throws away her life. After that, he calmly goes on to
bargain for a big dowry from the second marriage. The wickedness of the Duke,
shocking as it is, is true because it is out of his own mouth. And the complexity of his
character is fascinating. As his monologue rolls on, his true character is revealed
gradually and finally laid bare in front of us.