Some Personal Reading Options, Part 2

Below is a list of British authors whose works would be options for the Personal Reading Option.  I've put an asterisk (*) next to ones that I particularly recommend and added title of specific works that I think would be suitable for this class.  This is by no means an exhaustive list.

The Middle Ages

Beowulf  (11^th century)

Chaucer:  The Canterbury Tales  (1343 – 1400)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight  (14^th century)

Piers Plowman  (1360 – 1387)

Everyman

Sir Thomas Malory:  Morte D’arthur (1405 – 1471)

16^th Century

Edmund Spencer:  The Faerie Queene  (1552 – 1599)

*William Shakespeare:  plays and sonnets  (1564 – 1616) [The Tempest, Hamlet, MacBeth, Twelfth Night]

Sir Walter Raleigh:  (1554 – 1618) 

King James Bible (1604 – 1611)

17^th Century

John Donne  (1572 – 1631)

Ben Jonson  (1572 – 1637)

George Herbert  (1593 – 1633)

Andrew Marvell

John Milton

Francis Bacon

John Locke

Samuel Pepys

Sir Isaac Newton

*Jane Austen [Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility]

Restoration and 18^th Century

John Bunyan

*Daniel Defoe [Robinson Crusoe]

*Jonathon Swift [Gulliver's Travels]

Alexander Pope

Samuel Johnson

*Oliver Goldsmith [She Stoops to Conquer]

Romantic Period (1798 – 1832)

William Blake

Robert  Burns

William Wordsworth

Samuel Coleridge

Charles Lamb

Lord Byron

Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Keats

*Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [Frankenstein]

*Sir Walter Scott [Ivanhoe, Rob Roy]

*Robert Louis Stevenson [Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]

Victorian Age (1832 – 1901)

Thomas Carlyle

John Henry Cardinal Newman

 Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Lord Alfred Tennyson

Robert Browning

Edward Fitzgerald

*Emily Bronte [Wuthering Heights]

*Charlotte Bronte [Jane Eyre, Villette]

*Anne Bronte [Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]

John Ruskin

Arthur Hugh Clough

Matthew Arnold

Dante Rossetti

Christina Rossetti

Algernon Swinburne

Edward Lear

*Lewis Carroll [Alice in Wonderland]

Charles Darwin

*Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [ The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]

*Oscar Wilde [Importance of Being Earnest]

*Rudyard Kipling [Kim, The Jungle Book]

*G. K. Chesterton [The Man Who was Thursday, The Innocence of Father Brown]

*George Eliot [Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede]

*Charles Dickens [Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield]

*Wilkie Collins [The Woman in White, The Moonstone] 

*Elizabeth Gaskell [Mary Barton, Cranford]

*Dorothy Sayers [The Nine Tailors, Murder Must Advertise, Busman's Holiday]

20^th Century

Thomas Hardy

*Gerard Manly Hopkins

*George Bernard Shaw [Arms and the Man, Androcles and the Lion]

William Butler Yeats

E. M. Forster [Howards End]

Virginia Woolf

James Joyce

D. H. Lawrence

Edwin Muir

*T. S. Eliot [The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Murder in the Cathedral]

*George Orwell [Animal Farm, 1984]

Samuel Beckett

W. H. Auden

Doris Lessing

Harold Pinter

Some Personal Reading Options, Part 1

Below is the original list of options for the personal reading assignment.

Choose 1:  (to be borrowed, checked out or purchased by the tutor)

• Beowulf  (11^th century, anon.)
• Pride and Prejudice  (1813, Jane Austen)
• Frankenstein  (1818, Mary Shelley)
• Jane Eyre  (1847, Charlotte Bronte)
• Wuthering Heights  (1847, Emily Bronte)
• The Moonstone  (1868, Wilkie Collins)
• Three Men in a Boat  (1889, Jerome K. Jerome)
• Kim  (1901, Rudyard Kipling)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much  (1922, G. K. Chesterton)
• 1984  (1949, George Orwell)
• The Nine Tailors  (1934, Dorothy Sayers)
• Murder in the Cathedral  (1935, T. S. Eliot)

Take Home Essay Exam: Great Expectations

Students are to answer any 4 questions in an essay form.

Some Questions to Use in Analyzing Novels


Questions relating to the analysis of PLOT
1. Who is the protagonist of this novel? Identify him/her quickly by name, age, era, locale, social class, family, and occupation.
2. Summarize as briefly as possible the single change which occurs to the protagonist during the course of this novel, taking care to specify whether this change is mainly one of fortune, moral character, or knowledge.

3. Trace the progress of this change through these detailed stages:
      a. the original situation of the protagonist (include the initial possibilities of later disequilibrium)
      b. the precipitating event (or series of events) which begins to involve the protagonist in a central tension
      c. the alternative types of action which are available to the protagonist as her/his involvement intensifies
      d. the major steps that intensify the involvement.Show how each step advances the involvement, and how it changes the relative strength of the alternatives.
      e. the crisis. Show what event precipitates the crisis and how.
      f. the resolution. Show what event breaks the crisis and how.
4. What questions of probability arise in this novel? (Suggestion: select the two or three events which would be most unlikely in ordinary life; show how the likelihood of these events is established in the novel, or how their occurrence may be artistically justified.) In general, are the events of this novel made sufficiently probable to support its total design?

5. To what extent may the plot of this novel be called tight or loose? Can its loose features (if any) be artistically justified?

6. At what one or two points in this novel is tension highest? Lowest? How is that degree of tension produced, and how is it appropriate? Does this novel as a whole seem to be high-tension or low-tension? How is the degree of tension appropriate to the design of the novel as a whole?

Questions relating to the analysis of CHARACTERIZATION
1. Discuss the protagonist in this novel In terms of flatness or roundness. What purposes are served by her/his flat traits, if any? Discuss any two minor characters in similar terms. For each, justify the degree of flatness or roundness in terms of the character's contribution to this novel.
2. Evaluate the moral structure of the protagonist:
      a. To what degree is her/his moral stature defined by contrasting minor characters, by the testimony of characters who are readily acceptable as witnesses?
      b. Discuss the protagonist's inclinations to specific virtues and vices, her/his powers or handicaps with relation to those virtues and vices.
      c. Discuss one or two important actions in which her/his moral stature is apparent.

3. Describe the psychology of the protagonist:
      a. What are her/his dominant traits or desires? How did these traits or desires apparently originate? Do they support or oppose one another? Explain.
      b. Through what modes of awareness is the protagonist most responsive to life and experience: rational, instinctual, sensory, emotional, intuitive? Explain and illustrate.
      c. Discuss the way in which the protagonist takes hold of an emergency. In what terms does she/he see her/his problem? What does she/he maximize or minimize, try to prove or disprove? Do her/his reactions proceed through definite phases? If so, what are they? How may one explain the protagonist's effectiveness or inadequacy in taking hold of this emergency?

4. In view of all the matters above, what does the author apparently wish us to think and feel about what happens to the protagonist?

5. Is the personality of the protagonist worked out with probability and consistency? Why or why not?

Questions relating to the analysis of NARRATIVE MANNER

1. What is the predominant point of view in this novel, and who seems to be the focal character? Illustrate by citing a very brief passage from the novel and showing how it confirms your opinion.
2. Does this novel have any significant shift in FOCUS? What principles of focus seem to govern the novel?


Questions relevant to the analysis of IDEA or THEME

1. To what extent does this novel stress idea through the use of generalizing devices. Illustrate the more obvious uses.

2. According to this novel, what kind of behavior makes for lasting human worth or for human waste? If a heroic ideal is implied by this novel, describe it.

3. What specific social problems does the author seem to regard as unsolved? What causes seem to be mainly responsible, and why? From where is one led to believe that a solution may come? Explain.

4. Evaluate the relative importance in influencing the outcome of the novel of the following: physical nature, biological make-up, intimate personal relationships, society. Generalize, to show what the novelist seems to regard as the chief area in which human destiny is formed.

Plot, Theme & Style Analysis for Great Expectations

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

                Charles Dickens is said to have explored a new ground in his novel, Great Expectations. The theme of self-knowledge explored in the novel expresses in part Dickens’ own search for a sense of self. May readers and historians have suggested that Pip has a touch of Dickens in him, making the fictional book feel almost autobiographical.

                Structurally, the novel is a narration by a mature and retrospective Pip. It is divided into three distinct “stages,” each labeled as a specific “stage of Pip’s expectations.” In chronological fashion, these chapters trace Pip’s progress from industrious obscurity as a child through willful idleness as an adolescent and young adult, to a resigned and modest acceptance of his true place in society. This is an obvious variation on the picaresque theme and carries with it many of the significant overtones of earlier picaresque novels.

                The first stage introduces all the major characters and sets the plot in motion. Pip’s situation is developed fully, including the first seeds of his desire to be “uncommon.” It leads to the revelation by Mr. Jaggers, the lawyer, that Pip is to inherit a huge fortune and become a gentleman. It is something Pip considers as miraculous, though mysterious, as his patron’s identity is not to be revealed for the time being. Mr. Jaggers only imparts to him that his benefactor has great expectations from him and so with the support of his anonymous provider, Pip’s expectations of himself also rise, and the action shifts to London.

                The second stage of Pip’s expectations, therefore, has a change of setting. In this section, Pip’s development into a “gentleman” is explored. It describes the spendthrift and idle way Pip squanders wealth and what kind of person he has become. On the surface of things, Pip believes that he is living up to his great expectations. He also expects to have Estella’s hand in marriage. But this stage of his expectations is brutally shattered when Magwitch discloses his identity to Pip.

                The third stage of Pip’s expectations explores the complete collapse of Pip’s great expectations, which are replaced by a more mature sense of life and respectability. This section primarily constitutes his transformation, which has been at the heart of the novel. Such a pattern of growth, development and re-education reflects the Bildungsroman tradition of Great Expectations.

                The novel, though divided into these three stages, is further divided into episodic chapters due to the publication of the novel serially. Each chapter must necessarily have a complete movement as well as some sort of trigger that will induce the reader to buy the magazine the following week in order to see what will happen next.

THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

                Pip’s great expectations are a dramatized exploration of human growth and the pressures that distort the potential of an ordinary individual, especially in the process of growing up. Pip is a simple blacksmith’s boy who aspires to cross social boundaries when he realizes his own upbringing is common; however, he has no means to change. Mysteriously, he is given the means, but wealth only brings with it idleness. He learns that happiness in life can be achieved only by hard work and that great expectations not grounded in reality can only lead to tragedy and heartache.

                Part of this theme is an exploration of the dignity of labor. Pip initially feels ashamed to associate himself with Joe but later realizes that hard work brings honor to a man. As for honor, Pip realizes the importance of traits like loyalty and kindness, and eventually understands that no amount of money can make up for the lack of those traits. Supplementary to this theme is the sharp juxtaposition of appearance and reality, as well as the traditional notion that pride comes before a fall. Pip learns valuable lessons from his misguided assumptions. And his pride causes him to do things he is later ashamed of. A final thematic consideration is the belief that goodness is always able to supplant evil, even in characters like Miss Havisham. Mrs. Joe, Magwitch, Estella, and Pip are further examples of characters whose inherent goodness is apparent despite their wrongdoings.

                Essentially, it is a novel about contentment and humility, as well as honor. The thematic notion of great expectations touches on every aspect of common emotions like pride, ambition, envy, greed, and arrogance. The lesson Pip learns is that one should never presume he is better than another. As Joe tells him, it is far better to be uncommon on the inside than the outside. A person’s possessions do not matter as much as a person’s actions.

AUTHOR'S STYLE

                Dickens has shaped Great Expectations on the lines of the Bildungsroman genre, which closely follows the inner growth of a protagonist from his childhood to middle age. In many respects, it contains themes and emotions directly related to the author’s experience. However, the fictional nature of the story allows Pip to relate incidents and events that are similar to sensitive spots in Dickens’ own life without becoming too deeply involved in the narration himself. For instance, the description of Pip’s childhood has some affinity with Dickens own life. Also, Estella seems directly inspired from Maria Beadwell, a lady whom Dickens loved; Beadwell snubbed him coldly because of his low social status.

                Great Expectations boasts a carefully designed structure in three emergent stages. The simplicity of childhood memories in stage one is reflected in the generally direct narrative style. In contrast, the texture of stage three is much more complex, because as the action accelerates, substantial information about the histories of Magwitch, Compeyson, Miss Havisham and Estella are revealed.

                Great Expectations is a rich text illustrative of Dickens’ gift for realistic and dramatic speech. The author carefully studied the mannerisms of people and reported them in the depictions of his characters. Joe is a good example. The speech patterns he uses characterize him well and endear him to the reader much more than mere incidents or descriptions that describe him to be soft hearted.

                A novel with a vast range of subject and incident like that in Great Expectations has to be written carefully, paying great attention to unity and detail. Of all Dickens’ works, this one is generally thought to be the best. The fine tapestry of the novel is woven with vivid scenes of London as well as misty recollections of the marshlands. The haunted stagnancy of Satis House is an ever-present character in and of itself. In the midst of all this graphic description and palpable action, there is also an internal transformation taking place, one in which Pip learns to appreciate his true self and position in society. The varied texture of the novel in all these aspects sustains and maintains the interest of the reader, highlighting the completely balanced style of Dickens as a master craftsman.

British Literature Class Notes -- February 21

Greetings!

We began class with a Quick Write.  I had put on the white board 3 quotes by well-known writers which I wanted the students to respond to.  As we think about good literature, it's also important to take a step back and look more generally at the art of writing.  In an earlier class that day we discussed how interconnected good writing and good reading are.

I had for the students a short handout that contained an analysis of the plot, themes, and style of Great Expectations.  We read through this and took time to respond to the comments made by someone else who had read the book.  In our discussion we compared and contrasted some of the characters.  We also talked about the development of the plot in relationship to the development of the characters.

We don't have class next week due to City Hill's "Reach Out Celebration."  The students are to finish reading the book and to complete a take home essay exam.  They were given a page of critical thinking questions related to the book.  They are to select 4 questions to answer in essay form.  These can be hand-written (if legible) or typed.

When we meet again on March 6, I will have some poetry for them to read.  Following 2 weeks of poetry discussion, each student will read a book they have chosen and then share that book with the rest of the class.  They should have either their personal choice for the next reading or some options.  One student asked me for some ideas.  I'll have posted on the blog some ideas.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

British Literature Class Notes -- February 14

Greetings!

We had a wonderfully thoughtful discussion yesterday.  As I explained to the students, not only are we reading specific British pieces of literature, we're developing tools for being able to dig deeper into other novels, poetry, drama, etc. Most of our conversation this week centered on Characters and Character Development.  I've written a blog entry about some ways to look at the characters in a piece of fiction.  As we applied some of these ideas to our specific novel, Great Expectations, the students had some great insights.  In fact, some fresh, insightful ideas enlivened our discussion.

Assignment for Next Week:
-- Read Part 2, up to Chapter 39 (p. 254) of Great Expectations.
-- Choose 4 characters and write 1 to 2 paragraphs for each that address the following concerns:
          -- list some traits of the characters along with specific references from the book;
          -- explain how the Dickens reveals information about the character;
          -- describe your response to this character and why.

Have fun reading!  Find a nice quiet place to curl up and get caught up on the reading. 

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Character Development for Fiction

In fiction, writers represent and develop characters for the sake of their stories.  Sometimes a piece of literature is all about the characters; sometimes the characters are fairly dispensable because the story is more about the plot.  Before the 1600's, writers had their characters doing a lot, but didn't reveal much of the character's inner life.  Much of our oldest heroic poetry and stories are about great exploits of strong men.

In real life, how do we know about another person?  How can we tell what they think or what motivates them?  In addition to what a person actually says, we look at facial expressions and other non-verbal cues. We expect that his actions will show us what's going on in his mind.  How do we get inside a character's mind?

In critical analysis, characters are either flat (simple), round (complex), static (stay the same) or dynamic (changing).  We learn about characters either directly (from specific information given from the narrator) or indirectly (through what he/she or the other characters say or do).  It takes a bit of perspective on the part of the reader to step back and remember that the character is an intentional creation of the author.

Below are some questions to ask as you're "unpacking" a character and the way in which the author develops that character:

-- Physical appearance:  How does he/she look?  How much description does the author give? What does the level of description tell you about the character?

-- Speech:  How does the character speak?  How do others respond to the speech of the character?  What level of education, intelligence, or training does the speech reveal?  Does the speech match the surroundings?  Is it plausible?

-- Thoughts:  How does the character think?  How deep into the consciousness does the narrator dive?  Do the thoughts match the actions?

-- Are the characters representations of a type?  A caricature or symbol?

-- Do they have traits that contradict"  Is this intentional and therefore causing internal conflict?  Is it bad writing or part of the author?

-- What changes does the character go through?  What are the step of this change?  Is this process realistic?

-- What problems does the character have?  How does he solve them?  What does this tell you about the character?

-- What is his/her general mood?  Does it change?  Do you have any background information to explain it?  Is it realistic and does it fit the situation?

-- Does the character experience an epiphany or turning point?  What do these reveal?

-- How do the characters relate to one another?  Are they believable?

-- How do we learn about their inner lives?  What do we know about their ideas, ambitions, fears, etc.

British Literature Class Notes -- February 7

Greetings!

When you combine a busy schedule with being under the weather, sometimes you don't get things done as soon as you'd like.  I aim to get the Class Notes done ASAP after the class.  I hope the fact that they are a little later doesn't mess up anyone's schedule.

We finished our discussion about Much Ado About Nothing this week.  We discussed some of the dynamics of the plot and read aloud the last scene of the play.  We also walked through some sample essay questions that might be found on an exam.  My kids had given me the Kenneth Brannagh movie version of the play.  We watched a few of the scenes.  In his plays, Shakespeare give little in the way of stage directions.  Actors and actresses get their cues for their portrayal of their characters through the text.  We enjoyed the way these characters interpreted the parts, from their facial expressions to the smallest movements.

I'm afraid I made a mistake with the syllabus.  I've been so excited about reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens as a class, that I "jumped the gun" a little bit.  Therefore, instead of reading Romantic, Mystic, and Victorian poets, we'll start right into the Dickens novel.  I gave to the students an introductory set of worksheets to read for the book.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the handout about Dickens
-- Read Chapters 1 - 15 of Great Expectations

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard

British Lit Class Notes -- January 31

Greetings!

We had another good class this week.  The students were bright, alert, and engaged.  The Quick Write was titled "For the Cause."  I asked the students to think about a cause about which they were passionate (or to make up one) and to write what they would do to further that cause.  (Our family had just watched The Help and was touched by the message of the movie.)

We started our discussion of Much Ado About Nothing.  This is one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies.  We began by discussing the differences between a novel (one type of fiction) and a play (another type of fiction).  While each type uses many of the same literary tools, they use them differently.  Characterization, setting, and plot are employed differently primarily because one type is meant to be played out in front of an audience.

Next week we'll discuss some of the themes in the play:  1) The Ideal of Social Grace; 2) Deception as a Means to and End; 3) The Importance of Honor; 4) Love; 5) Villainy; 6) Friendship; 7) Parent-child Relationships.

Next week I'll also have the students write a response to 1 essay question that might be found on an essay exam. On the blog site is the list of options.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Finish reading Much Ado (Acts III - V)

-- Writing:  List the details that happened outside of the play (but mentioned in the dialogue)

-- Re-read the "Themes" worksheet.

--- (I think I had another writing assignment, but I didn't write it down.  Does someone have it?)

Have fun reading.  I'm looking forward to our discussions next week.

Mrs. Prichard

This week's blog

Essay Exam Questions

Below are examples of questions that might appear on a final exam for Much Ado About Nothing:

1.  Much Ado is not like reading a traditional comedy; instead it has the potential to turn into tragedy.  Comedy is made up of complications, but in this play the complications could be dangerous.  Give examples of places in the play which are light and humorous and which show a darker side and a potential for disaster.

2.  Compare the two sets of brothers:  Don Pedro/ Don John and Leonato/ Antonio.  How does Shakespeare contrast them and what parallel actions exist?

3. What kind of expectations does Shakespeare establish in the opening scene?  What do you expect to happen?  How do you expect relationships to occur?

4.  The main themes of the play grow out of the "game of love."  What sub-themes come from this greater theme?

5. What purpose does Dogberry and Verges serve?  Why are they important to the play as a whole?


6.   Who would you rather be-Beatrice or Hero; Claudio or Benedick? Compare and contrast the two female or male characters. Why do you think Shakespeare created the pairs of characters?


7.  Select one character and write a letter describing the events in Leonato's house from that character's point of view.


8.  Choose a passage in the play which best represents one of the themes. Explain what the passage means and what it reveals about the theme.


9.  A lot of the humor involving Dogberry and Verges arises from their fractured sense of word meanings. Examine several of their speeches and write some of your own malapropisms.

10.   What do Shakespeare and his cast of characters accomplish by metaphorically turning words into weapons?  Find examples of speech and words representing wounds and battles in the play.

11.  Shakespeare interweaves two love stories in Much Ado About Nothing:  the Claudio-Hero plot and the Benedick-Beatrice plot.  Write an analytical essay on the ways in which they parallel or counterpoint each other in characterization, in dialogue, and in plot structure.

12.  Explain how deception is a means to an end.  Give examples from the text.