2023年12月30日发(作者：小米手机5g)

LITERATURE英国文学

Part 1. Early and Medieval English Literature (5th c—1485)

Beowulf: An English Epic

Three major poets in 14th century England

Geoffrey Chaucer: the father of English poetry;

The Canterbury Tales William Langland (c.1332-c.1440) and

his poem

The Vision of Piers Plowman (c.1362)

The Gawain-Poet: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Part English Renaissance (late15th c— early 17th c)

Christopher Marlowe and Doctor Faustus(1604)(p74)

William Shakespeare, his four greatest tragedies—

Hamlet (1601) Othello (1604) King Lea r (1605)

Macbeth (1605) and some sonnets

Edmund Spenser and his famous poem

The Faerie Queene (1590; 1596)

Part 3 Seventeenth Century English Literature

John Donne (1572—1631)

John Milton (1608—1674)

John Bunyan (1628—1688)

Part 4. The Eighteenth Century English Literature

(1) Enlightenment

a. Neo-classicism

Alexander Pope(1688-1744)

Jonathan Addison ( 1672-1719)

Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729)

Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731) and The Life and

Adventurers of Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) and his

novel: Gulliver’s Travels (1726) p133

prose work: A Modest Proposal

b: Sentimentalism (1740‘s-1750‘s )

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) and his novel Pamela or

Virtues Rewarded (1740)

Henry Fielding (1707-1754) : The History of Tom Jones (1749)

c. Pre-romanticists (the last decade of the 18th century )

William Blake (1757-1827) :

Songs of Innocence (1789) ―The Lamb‖

Songs of Experience(1794) ―The Tiger‖Robert Burns (1759-1796:

A Red Red Rose

Auld Lang Syne

Part 5 19th century English Literature

A Romanticism in nineteenth century

a. Poetry in Romanticism

Lake Poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel

Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey George Gordon

Byron(1788-1824)

Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)

John Keats （1795-1821）

b. Novels in Romanticism

Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Jane Austen (1775-1817):

Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

B. Realism in nineteenth century

Charles Dickens:

Pickwick Papers (1836-1837)

David Copperfield (1850

Bleak House﹙1852﹚

Hard Times﹙1854﹚

Little Dorrit﹙1857﹚

A Tale of Two Cities﹙1859﹚

Great Expectation﹙1861﹚

B. Realism in nineteenth century

2. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)

V anity Fair (1847-1848)

tte Bronte (1816-1855)

Jane Eyre (1847) p211-212

4 Emily Bronte (1818-1848)

Wuthering Heights (1847)p213-214

5 George Eliot (1819-1880)

Adam Bede (1859)

The Mill on the Floss (1860)

B. Realism in nineteenth century

6. George Meridith (1828-1909)

The Egoist (1879)

Hardy 1840-1928

Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)

Jude the Obscure (1895)

8. Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Erewhon ( 1872)

C. Poetry in nineteenth century

Alfred T ennyson (1809-1892)

Break, Break, Break (1842)

Ulysses (1842 )

In Memoriam (1850 )

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

My Last Duchess

D. Prose in nineteenth century

Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)

William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

E. Drama in nineteenth century

Oscar Wilde:

Comedies:

Lady Windermere’s Fan (1893),

A Woman of No Importance (1894),

An Ideal Husband (1895)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) Tragedy: ― Salome‖

(1894).

Part 6. The Twentieth Century English Literature Modernism

1. Henry James (1843-1916)

The Portrait of a Lady (1881)

2. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Heart of Darkness (1902)

3. D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

Sons and Lovers (1913)

The Rainbow (1915)

Women in Love (1920)

Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928 )

Part One Early and Medieval English Literature

Chapter One The making of England:

1. the early inhabitants: Britons, a tribe of Celts

2. the repetition of invasions by foreign forces:

the Roman Conquest:

Time: 55 B.C. –the beginning of 4th century

Invaders: Julius Caesar and his grandson Claudius

language: (main) Celtic & Latin

Fall: 410

A: the Germanic tribes:

the Angles, Saxons, and the Jutes

Kingdom: the Anglo-Saxons

Time: By 550

Ruler: King Arthur

language: Anglo-Saxon, or Old English

B: the Viking Danish invasion

Alfred the Great defeated the Danes in W essex

Religion:

pagan: believe in old mythology of Northern Europe

the days of the week in English are named after

the Northern gods, e.g. Odin, Tiu, Thor and so on. Christianity:

6th century

597: Pope Gregory the Great

Augustine

the Jutes in Kent

The influence of the Norman Conquest on the English

language: the ruling class: Normans: French

the lowest class: Saxons: Old English

the scholars: Latin

the end of 14th century: English: dominant speech

Literary works—lyrics

The two works in Exeter Book—one of the four important

Collections of the surviving poetry of the Anglo-Saxon

period.

The Seafarer : monologue, describing an old sailor who is

torn between the attractions of the sea and the perils it

might bring.

Analysis of The Seafarer : a dialogue between an old sailor

and a young boy, expressing the troubles and joys of life

at sea.

The Wanderer: monologue by a man telling the joyful days

of comradeship in the hall of his lord and his sorrow over

the harshness of the world in which he lives after the

death of his dear ―good friend‖

Chapter 2 Beowulf (p4)

Beowulf: age: around A.D. 700 the national epic of the English

people; a folk legend

Plot overview:

characters: Grendel-- a giant monster of human shape,

Grendel‘s mother, dragon

Analysis of major character:

Beowulf: the product of a primitive, tribal society on the

continent, faithful to his people, forgetting himself in face of

death, a courageous warrior, wise ruler, a brave fighter Features:

alliteration, the use of ―word pictures‖Alliteration: is the

repetition of two or more initial consonant sounds in words

within a line.

e.g. He claps the crag with crooked hands.

Word pictures:

e.g. shadow-walker: dragon

the mingling of the waves: the ocean

wave-rider: swan‘s road

Themes:

1. more than a fairy story of heroes combating monsters

recollection of the values, beliefs and longings of the

Anglo-Saxon people before they came to England. (Beowulf

is the incarnation of the brave and pagan

Anglo-Saxons)

Human beings vs evil forces in a hostile environment heroic

spirit: take whatever bad fate with dignity

the sustaining power of human existence

Symbols:

Monsters: super-natural forces--- natural disasters sea

waves or big floods

evil forces in reality:

Chapter Three Three Major Poets in 14th-century England

1. Geoffrey Chaucer— the founder of English

poetry (c. 1340 or 1343?—1400)

The background of his poetry: the Middle Ages and

the Renaissance, the Norman invasion in 1066, the slow

rise of common man, the middle class of merchants, and

craftsman.

Geoffrey Chaucer(ca.1343- 1400) was an English author,

philosopher, diplomat, and poet, and is best known and

remembered as the author of The Canterbury Tales.

In the history of English literature, he is considered the

introducer of continental accentual-syllabic metre as an

alternative to the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre. He also helped

to standardise the southern accent (London area) of the Middle

English language.

Chaucer died on October 25, 1400. He is buried at

Westminster Abbey in London, and was the first tenant of the

Poets' Corner.

Three Stages

Early Works (influenced by French literature) The Book of the

Duchess(1369) ---an elegy( A poem or song composed especially

as a lament for a deceased person)

Italian Period （1372～1386）Troilus and Criseyde (《特罗伊

勒斯和克莱西德》)

The Canterbury Tales (1386～1400)The Father of English

Poetry

Troilus and Criseyde (1385): an adaptation of Boccaccio‘s

Filostrato,a love story between Troilus and Criseyde,

the depiction of the subtle and complex character of

Criseyde in particular makes the poem an in-depth study

of human psychology.

Analysis of Criseyde: a fickle woman without depth of

feeling and her love is not the kind that is proof against

every storm.

author shows sympathy for her, hinting that her fault

springs from weakness rather than baseness of characters.

The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales The Decameron(1350) 十日谈

(last 15 years) By by Giovanni

Geoffrey Chaucer Boccaccio

(ca.1343-1400) (1313 –1375)

The Canterbury Tales (1380s): 24 tales and a framing

prologue that sets up the fiction of pilgrims meeting at a

tavern as they begin their pilgrimage to the shrine of St.

Thomas Becket (One of the 12 Apostles. According to

the New Testament, he doubted that Jesus had risen from

the dead until he saw the wounds.) in Canterbury.

Each agrees to tell a tale. The tales are linked by prologues.

The narrator begins the prologue by describing the fine April

day and each of the Pilgrims in his encourage.

Comments: influenced by Boccaccio‘s Decameron

well-structured; one story severing as an initiator of the next

story (each tells an offensive story to hurt the other‘s

feelings

Examples on Page 14: the Miller‘s tale); the General

Prologue at the begi nning of the poem being to provide a

framework for the diverse stories, informing the audience of the

characters of the pilgrims.

Allegory—a story, painting etc in which the events and

characters represent ideas or teach a moral lesson

寓言、讽喻

Parody– a piece of writing or music that copies a particular

well-known style in an amusing way（文章或音

乐）诙谐性（滑稽）的模仿作品

Fable—a traditional short story teaches a moral lesson,

especially a story about animals 寓言故事

----Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

William Langland (c.1332—c.1400) (uncertain)

The Vision of Piers Plowman (c.1362):

Three visions, A, B and C:

Text A: 2,567 lines; Text B, a revision and extension of Text A,

the best form; Text C, substantial revision of Text B, the same

length.

Form: a dream vision interrupted with occasional wake-ups

Plot review: p18

Characters: Truth, Lady Meed, Reason, the Christ

Symbols:

Tower: Heaven; Dungeon: Hell;

a field full of folk: the human world

Lady Meed: falsehood, a sharp criticism on the corrupt

morals of the court

The Gawain- poet

Sir Green and the Gawain knight(1325-1400)

Sources: Celtic legend of King Arthur and his knights of

the Round Table, a topic of eternal charm in English

literature.

Plot review: p21

Analysis of Sir Gawain:

the most fearless knight, treasure life dearly;

The authors other works p24

Comments:

theme:

rich and realistic representation of the unhappiness side

of the life in feudal England at the second half of the

14th century: social injustice, the corruption of the

church, the meaningless power struggle in the court, and

the sufferings of the poor peasants. Written for the

common people.

allegorical and satirical

Piers Plowman: incarnation of Jesus Christ, who seeks

to help those people who are led astray by worldly

concerns and to guide them along the correct path to

heaven.

Medieval Times: The Middle Ages (adjectival form: medieval)

is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th

century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman

Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era.

Part Two

Renaissance Literature (1485-1660)

Christopher Marlowe and Doctor Faustus(1604)

William Shakespeare and Hamlet (1601)

Edmund Spenser and The Faerie Queene (1590;1596)

Renaissance : The reintroduction of Greek and Roman

cultural

heritage; it is the rebirth of humanism. The period of this

revival, beginning in Italy, roughly the 14th through the 16th

century, marks the transition from medieval to modern times.

Representatives:

Dante Alighieri－Divine Comedy

Leonardo de Vinci－Mona Lisa

Raphael－Sixtinische Madonna《西斯廷圣母》、

Michelangelo－－Pieta（圣母哀子像）

Humanism: praises the human being and pursues human

potential

University wits‖

University wits: a group of Oxford and Cambridge graduates

came to London with the ambition to become professional

writers. They were eager to put what they have learned at

universities before the pubic . They worked as poets, prose-

writers and playwrights.

Robert Greene(c.1560-1592)

John Lyly (1554-1606)

Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)

Thomas Lodge(c.1558-1625)

Thomas Kyd (c.1558-1594)

George Peele (c.1556-1597)

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593): the greatest tragedy

writer before William Shakespeare; masterwork:

Doctor Faustus

Plot review:

Doctor Faustus‘s contract with Lucifer, a devil. His twenty

four year long life in an exchange for some magic power: playing

tricks upon the Pope (The bishop of Rome and head of the

Roman Catholic Church on earth.); calling for the spirit of

Alexander the Great (the emperor of Macedonia) and it appears;

having succeeded in having Helen, the beauty of ancient Troy, as

his wife.

Doctor Faustus is sent to hell because of the deadly sin has

damned both his body and his soul.

Analysis of the hero: Doctor Faustus

Knowledgeable, but having blind faith in human intellect;

Ambitious and proud: A passionate seeker for power, which

comes from forbidden knowledge.

Doctor Faustus’s Biblical source: The fall of Adam and Eve

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The greatest of all Elizabethan dramatists.

The author of 37 plays

His four greatest tragedies:

Hamlet (1601) Othello (1604)King Lear (1605)Macbeth (1605)

Hamlet

King Hamlet: Father of the Prince, the late king. we can only

see his ghost

Claudius: Hamlet’s uncle, now the King

Gertrude: Hamlet’s mother, and the Queen of Denmark.

Polonius: Ophelia’s father, the King’s trusted courtier

Laertes: Ophelia’s brother, Polonius’s son

Comments:

Complicated plots:

Three revenge stories being mingled together

Hamlet vs Claudius

Laertes vs Hamlet

Fortinbras of Norway vs Denmark

Act 3 Scene 1

To be, or not to be; that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And, by opposing, end them.

slings and arrows: metaphor, refers to the sufferings in reality

Outrageous: willful; grossly offensive

By opposing, end them: put an end to one‘s troubles by

fighting against themTo die, to sleep - No more, and by a sleep

to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to - 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished.

Notes:

no more: that is all

Flesh is heir to: something that cannot be avoided, or

shunned

consummation: the final ending

devoutly: piously

To die, to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there‘s the rub:

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause—there‘s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

Notes:

Perchance: perhaps; possibly.

Rub: in the game of bowls, the ―rub‖ is anything that hinders

the course of the bowl Shuffled off: got free from mortal coil: the

whole business of earthly living

Give us a pause: make up stop to think

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of disprized love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?

Time: this (temporal) world Contumely: arrogance

Pangs: pains disprized: unvalued insolence: insult

Spurn: rejection merit: the worthy one

His quietus make: settle his final bill

Bodkin: a short dagger

Who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveler returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action. (Hamlet,3.1.58-92)

Notes:

Fardels: burdens dread: fear Undiscovered country: final

destination Bourn: frontier native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er

with the pale cast of thought: the natural color of courage grows

pale because of too much thinking

生存或毁灭, 这是个必答之问题:

是否应默默的忍受坎苛命运之无情打击,

还是应与深如大海之无涯苦难奋然为敌,

并将其克服。

此二抉择, 就竟是哪个较崇高?

死即睡眠, 它不过如此!

倘若一眠能了结心灵之苦楚与肉体之百患,

那么, 此结局是可盼的!

死去, 睡去... 但在睡眠中可能有梦, 啊, 这就是个

阻碍:

当我们摆脱了此垂死之皮囊,

在死之长眠中会有何梦来临?

它令我们踌躇,

使我们心甘情愿的承受长年之灾,

否则谁肯容忍人间之百般折磨, 如暴君之政、

骄者之傲、失恋之痛、法章之慢、贪官之侮、

或庸民之辱, 假如他能简单的一刃了之?

还有谁会肯去做牛做马, 终生疲於操劳,

默默的忍受其苦其难, 而不远走高飞,

飘於渺茫之境,

倘若他不是因恐惧身後之事而使他犹豫不前?

此境乃无人知晓之邦, 自古无返者。

所以,「理智」能使我们成为懦夫,

而「顾虑」能使我们本来辉煌之心志变得黯然无光

像个病夫。

再之, 这些更能坏大事, 乱大谋, 使它们失去魄力。

Othello (1604)

Character list:

Othello:A Christian Moor and general of the armies of V

enice, Othello is an eloquent and physically powerful figure,

respected by all those around him. In spite of his elevated status,

he is nevertheless easy prey to insecurities because of his age, his

life as a soldier, and his race. He possesses a ―free and open

nature,‖ which his ensign Iago uses to twist his love for his wife,

Desdemona, into a powerful and destructive jealousy (.381).

Desdemona - The daughter of the V enetian senator

Desdemona and Othello are secretly married before the play

begins. While in many ways stereotypically pure and meek,

Desdemona is also determined and self-possessed. She is equally

capable of defending her marriage, jesting bawdily with Iago, and

responding with dignity to Othello‘s incomprehensible jealousy.

Iago - Othello‘s ensign (a job also known as an ancient or

standard-bearer), and the villain of the play. Iago is twenty-eight

years old. While his ostensible reason for desiring Othello‘s

demise is that he has been passed over fo r promotion to

lieutenant, Iago‘s motivations are never very clearly expressed

and seem to originate in an obsessive, almost aesthetic delight

in manipulation and destruction.

Michael Cassio - Othello‘s lieutenant. Cassio is a young and

inexperienced so ldier, whose high position is much resented by

Iago. Truly devoted to Othello, Cassio is extremely ashamed after

being implicated in a drunken brawl on Cyprus and losing his

place as lieutenant. Iago uses

Cassio‘s youth, good looks, and friendship with Des

demona to play on Othello‘s insecurities about Desdemona‘s

fidelity.

Emilia - Iago‘s wife and Desdemona‘s attendant. A cynical,

worldly woman, she is deeply attached to her mistress and

distrustful of her husband

Roderigo - A jealous suitor of Desdemona. Y oung, rich, and

foolish, Roderigo is convinced that if he gives Iago all of his

money, Iago will help him win Desdemona‘s hand. Repeatedly

frustrated as Othello marries Desdemona and then takes her to

Cyprus, Roderigo is ultimately desperate enough to agree to help

Iago kill Cassio after Iago points out that Cassio is another

potential rival for Desdemona

Bianca - A courtesan, or prostitute, in Cyprus. Bianca‘s

favorite customer is Cassio, who teases her with promises of

marriage

Brabanzio - De sdemona‘s father, a somewhat blustering

and self-important V enetian senator. As a friend of Othello,

Brabanzio feels betrayed when the general marries his daughter

in secret

Duke of V enice - The official authority in V enice, the duke

has great respect for Othello as a public and military servant. His

primary role within the play is to reconcile Othello and

Brabanzioin Act I, scene iii, and then to send Othello to Cyprus.

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

The Faerie Queene (1590; 1596) was dedicated to the Queen

Elizabeth. A long narrative poem, an allegorical epic in six

books. Each book contains twelve cantos, (one of the principal

divisions of a long poem.)each of which contains at least 40

stanzas. Each stanza is composed of nine lines.

Book I—Holiness; Redcrosse Knight is the hero

Book II –Temperance -Sir Guyon is hero

Book III – Chastity - Britomart, the virgin, female warrior is

hero.(Another allegorical figure for Elizabeth.)

Book IV – Friendship - Cambel and Triamond are heros

Book V – Justice – Artegal is hero

Book VI – Courtesy - Calidore

Characters:

Arthur, the central hero of the poem, is "magnificence,― the

sum of all the virtues. Arthur is in search of the Faerie Queene,

whom he saw in a vision. The "real" Arthur was a king of the

Britons in the 5th or 6th century A.D.

Faerie Queene (also known as Gloriana)

Though she never appears in the poem, the Faerie Queene is

the focus of the poem; her castle is the ultimate goal or

destination of many of the poem‘s characters. She represents

Queen Elizabeth.

Part Three

Seventeenth Century English Literature

John Jonne (1572—1631)

John Milton (1608—1674)

John Bunyan (1628—1688)

John Jonne (1572—1631)

The founder of metaphysical school of poetry

How to Recognize a Donne Poem:

--dramatic, in media resource, opening

--a dramatic situation in which there is a speaker and one

spoken to, who is always silent

--fairly rough, irregular rhythm

--a conversational tone

--highly imaginative and unlikely drawing of likenesses

between things

--images drawn from all sorts of sources that seem more

worldly than the lovely images of 16th century poetry

---main theme in his poems: love, death, and

e.g.

A flea‘s body that has just bitten both lovers as a sacred

altar or a marriage bed.

Two lover‘s bodies as a co mpass with two legs and a

fulcrum point holding the two parts together

The Flea

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,

How little that which thou deniest me is ;

It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,

And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.

Thou know'st that this cannot be said

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;

Y et this enjoys before it woo,

And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;

And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,

Where we almost, yea, more than married are.

This flea is you and I, and this

Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.

Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,

And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.

Though use make you apt to kill me,

Let not to that self-murder added be,

And sacrilege, three sins in killing three

Song

Go and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are, or who cleft the Devil‘s foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids‘ singing,

Or to keep off en vy‘s stinging,

And find

What wind

Serves to advance an honest mind.

Notes:

mandrake root: a forked root supposed to resemble the

human shape.

If thou beest born to strange sights,

Things invisible to see,

Ride ten thousand days and nights,

Till age snow white hairs on thee,

Thou, when thou return‘st, wilt tell me

All strange wonders that befell thee,

And swear

No where

Lives a woman true, and fair,

If thou find‘st one, let me know,

such a pilgrimage were sweet;

Y et do not, I would not go,

Though at next door we might meet;

Though she were true when you met her,

And last till you write your letter,

Y et she

Will be

False, ere I come, to two, or three.

Rhyme: ababccddd

A V alediction: Forbidding Mourning

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go.

Whilst some of their sad friends do say The breath goes now,

and some say, No;

So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move, ?Twere profanation

of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th‘ earth brings harms and fears. Men reckon

what it did and meant;

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunar y lovers‘ love

(whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth

remove

Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined

That our selves know not what it is,

Inter-assured of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go,

endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but dot h,

if th‘ other do.

And though it in the center sit,

Y et when the other far doth roam,

It leans and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thu be to

me, who must

Like th‘ other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

John Milton (1608—1674)

9 December 1608 8 November 1674

An English poet, polemicist (善辩者), and civil servant for the

Commonwealth of England. Best known for his epic poem (史诗)

Paradise Lost

Paradise lost 1667

Historical background:

---- Queen Elizabeth: peaceful and prosperous

---- King James I and King Charles: conflict with Puritans

become open and sharp

----- 1642 the Civil War

----- 1649 the execution of King Charles

----- 1658 the death of Cromwell

Setting: the whole universe

Characters:

Satan: an image of revolutionist—his defiance of authority,

his undaunted spirit one grave sin—his excessive pride

God: an image of tyrant—cruel and unjust

Plot:

The epic opens with the description of a meeting among the

fallen angels. Led by the freedom—loving Stan, the rebellious

angels rose against God himself, but in the battle with the hosts

of angels that remained true to God they were finally defeated

Satan and his followers are banished from Heaven and driven

into hell. But even in hell, amidst flames and poisonous fumes,

Satan and his adherents are not discouraged.

Satan chooses for his battlefield the most perfect of spots

ever created by God—the Garden of Eden, where live the first

man and woman, Adam and Eve, who are allowed by God to

enjoy the supreme beauties of Paradise, provided they do not eat

the fruit that grows on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and

Evil. Satan desires to tear them away from the influence of God

and make them tools in his struggle against God‘s authority.

God learns of his intension, however, and sends the

Archangel to warn Adam and Eve of Satan‘s plan. The Archangel

reminds them of their vow of obedience and gives a detailed

narration of Satan‘s rebellion in the past. A rchangel goes to

relate God‘s Creation of the earth, heaven and all living

creatures. But on Adam‘s request for an explanation of the

Rotation of the celestial bodies, Archangel advises him not to

inquire into matters which do not concern him directly and leaves

him.

No sooner is Archangel gone than Satan assumes the Shape

of a serpent and appears before Eve. He persuades her to break

God‘s command. Eve eats an apple from the forbidden tree and

plucks another one for Adam. God sees all this, and Adam and

Eve husband and wife, are both deprived of immorality, exiled

from Paradise and doomed to an earthly life full of hardship and

sufferings, to eat bread by ―sweat of the face.‖

John Bunyan (1628-1688)

The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

---a dream vision

---a religious allegory

It tells of the spiritual pilgrimage of Christian, who flies from

the City of Destruction, meets with the perils and emptations of

the Slough of Despond, V anity Fair, and Doubting Castle, faces

and overcomes the demon Appollyon, and finally comes to the

Delectable Mountains and the Celestial City. V anity Fair has all

the vices of a commercial world. At the fair, honors, titles, and all

sorts of pleasure are sold and people have no morals or

principles.

Elightenment

Time:17th-18th century

Place:Britain

18th century is called ―the age of reason‖.

Representatives:Thomas Hobbes and John locke

Three major periods of the Enlightenment:

a: 1688-end of the 1730‘s neo-classicism

Pope, Addison, Steele, Samuel Johnson, Defoe and Swift

b: 1740‘s-1750‘s sentimentalism Richardson& Fielding

c: the last decade of the 18th century:

Pre-Romanticism: William Blake & Robert Burns

Neo-classicism (1688---the end of the 1730’s)

a. A type of classicism,

b. Modeling on classical literature of ancient Greek and

Roman writers

c. It dominated English literature from 1660 to the 18th

century.

d. Founder: John Dryden (1631-1700) is the first person who

advocated it.

e. representatives:Pope, Defoe, Addison and Steel and

Richardson

f. Doctrines: artistic ideas should be orderly, logic, accurate

and restrained emotion; Poetry should be lyrical, epical, didactic,

satiric or dramatic; Prose should be precise, direct, smooth, and

flexible; Drama should be written in heroic couplet, the three

unities of time, space and action should be strictly observed.

Alexander Pope(1688-1744)

a master satirist and splendid craftsman of the heroic couplet,

which had been refined by Dryden His first important poem An

Essay on Criticism (1711) is a neat exposition of the three basic

rules of poetry in the 18th century. (P64)

His most famous poem, The Rape of the lock (1712 and 1714):

a fanciful and mock-heroic work based on a true story

Features of his works: didactic & satirical

Flaws in his works: strenuous attention to the perfection of

his writings causes the lack of spontaneity both in language and

ideas

Prose in Eighteenth Century

Journal writers:

Joseph Addison ( 1672-1719) and Sir Richard Steele(1672-1729)

Works:

The Tatler (1709-1711) 《闲话报》a triweekly journal

Spectator (1711-1712) 《旁观者报》six times a week

Content: culturally sensitive to the desires and concerns of

the English people, the Middle Class, in particular. to criticize the

follies of the society

Style: light, witty, humorous, and satirical

Samuel Johnson‘s monumental success:

A Dictionary of the English

Letter to Chesterfield Feb 7, 1755

―Is not a patrons my lord, one who looks with unconcern on

a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached

ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have

been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been

kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot

enjoy it: till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known,

and do not want it. ‖

Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731)

1 His life was the story of an adventurer.

2 Defoe‘s first and most famous novel, The Life and

Adventurers of Robinson Crusoe (1719) ,is based on the real

adventures of a seaman, Alexander Selkirk, who had been

marooned on an island off the coast of Chile.

3 The novel describes Crusoe‘s ingenious efforts to

overcome the hardships and difficulties he encountered on the

island.

4 Theme:

a story of sea adventures

b artisti

c projection of colonial expansion

c Western cultural values about dignity of labor

d back to nature

e religious devotio

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

1 writing style : simple, direct, effective, satirical, elegant

2 remark or comment: one of the most impassioned

(enthusiastic) satirists of human folly and pretension in the

English language.

3 Why he is satirical? He saw that 18th-century England was

filled with corruption, brutality, and ignorance, so he bitterly

criticized these social evils.

4 Works: Prose

a The Battle of the Books ( 1697)