Note: This is intended as a guide, but it may not cover everything. Material not listed here might appear on the exam. The notes you took in class should be your best guide.
I. Format. Exam I will consist of three parts: one section of short answer or multiple-choice questions; one section of either identification questions or a short passage for close reading; and one essay question from a choice of two or three questions.
II. Works Covered (You should know title, author, main characters, and the significance of scenes and events). Items marked with an asterisk * were not discussed extensively in class, so while you can use them in writing your essays, there will not be specific questions about them on the exam.
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
- Charles Dickens, Hard Times
- *Blake, " "London" (course pack)
- Wordsworth, "The world is too much with us" (course pack)
- * Poe,"The Tell-Tale Heart" (13-17)
- Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" (course pack)
- Frederick Douglass, from Narrative (course pack)
- * John Rollin Ridge (Yellow Bird), from Joaquin Murieta (course pack)
- Wordsworth, "Resolution and Independence" (course pack)
- Carroll, "The Aged, Aged Man" (course pack)
- Wordsworth, from Preface to Lyrical Ballads (course pack)
- Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey" (course pack)
- *Coleridge, from Biographia Literaria (course pack)
- Emerson, from Nature (course pack)
- Emerson, "Each and All" (course pack)
- Coleridge, "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" (course pack)
- Crane, "The Monster"
- Information from background lectures
- Sonnet (Petrarchan/Italian and Shakespearean/English versions)
- Three-decker novel
- Serial publication
- Chiasmus (antimetabole) (go to Poetry Terms)
- Round and flat characters
- The sublime, the beautiful, and the picturesque as concepts (including as applied to the Hudson River School of American art)
- Gothic conventions
- Romanticism
- Romantic hero and variants (Byronic hero, Noble Outlaw)
- Other material from lectures and discussions and reports, including the library visit to the MASC
IV. Potential Essay Questions. Your class notes and the discussion questions will be your best guides to potential essay questions.
1. Essay questions may ask you
- To compare and contrast
- A specific aspect or character of the two works
- Two characters in the same work:
- Themes or ideas in the works
- Technique or style
- To analyze a passage through close reading as it relates to the work as a whole
- To address a larger theme or idea as it relates to the work
- To analyze a particular pattern of imagery or symbolism in a work
- To respond to a critic’s statement about the work
- To apply a concept to a specific work
2. Sample essay questions. Note: These are samples; there is no guarantee that any of them will be on the exam.
- We have seen a number of monsters created so far this semester, both actual monsters (Frankenstein) and monsters caused by ideas or education ("The Fall of the House of Usher," Hard Times). Is it possible to argue that a new emphasis on individualism created monsters?
- Some works we've read demonstrate that race plays a role in what the dominant white culture sees as a monster, often because of oppression perpetrated by the dominant culture (Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, "The Monster"). How do these authors (Ridge, Douglass, Crane) create sympathy for the "monsters" created in this way?
- Romanticism brought with it a new interest in the rights of the individual, but it also highlighted the subject of the relationship between the individual and his or her community. What responsibilities does the individual owe to the community, and vice versa? What happens when an individual chooses to isolate himself or herself?
- What role does madness play in the works we've read so far this semester? Why is it such a significant theme? What are the causes of madness? Choose any two works and discuss this idea.
- How does the idea of the sublime inform any two works we've read this semester?
- In writing Hard Times as a serial, Dickens needed to keep his readers' interest from week to week. Identify at least two characteristics of serial fiction by which he did this and analyze the novel in light of those characteristics.
- What is the role of nature in Romantic poetry?
- How does "The Fall of the House of Usher" or "The Tell-Tale Heart" exemplify the conventions of the Gothic?
- Compare the characters of Louisa and Sissy in Hard Times. What does each character represent?
- Analyze this passage from "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" (or another work).
