English Study Guide

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English Study Guide

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British Romantics

Located: English Romantic Poetry

Blake:

• Introduction pg. 2
• Holy Thursday pg. 2
• The Lamb pg. 4
• The Chimney Sweeper pg. 6
• The Tyger pg. 7
• London pg. 9
• I Saw a Chapel All of Gold pg. 10

Wordsworth:

• Tintern Abbey pg.25
• Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known pg 30
• She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways pg. 31
• A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal pg. 32
• Composed Upon Westminster Bridge pg. 39
• In London, September 1802 pg. 41
• London, 1802 pg. 41
• I wondered Lonely as a Cloud pg. 43
• Mutability pg. 57

Coleridge:

• Kubla Khan pg. 105

Byron:

• When We Two Parted pg. 112
• So We’ll Go No More A Rowing pg. 131
• She Walks in Beauty pg. 114
• Darkness pg. 127

Shelley:

• Ozymandias pg. 147
• England in 1819 pg. 150
• Song of the Men of England pg. 149
• The Waning Moon pg. 162
• To Night pg. 163
• A Dirge pg. 188

Keats:

• Chapman’s Homer pg. 189
• When I have Fears pg. 228

American Romantics

Located: Norton

Bryant:

• Thanatopsis pg 470

Emerson:

• Self Reliance pg. 539
• Nature pg. 485
• Experience pg 556

Hawthorne:

• Minister’s Black Veil pg. 626

Thoreau:

• Resistance to Civil Government pg. 837

Walden:

• Excerpts: pg. 853-858, 897-905

Lincoln:

• Second Inaugural Address pg. 759

Douglass:

• Narrative of the Life Chapter X pg. 954

Melville:

• Bartleby pg. 1096-1111

Poe:

• The Cask of Amontillado pg. 743
• The Raven pg. 697
• Annabel Lee pg. 703

Transcendentalism

· Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul.

· The physical facts of the natural world are a doorway to the spiritual; or ideal world.

· People can use their intuition to behold God’s spirit revealed in nature or their own souls.

· Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition.

· Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality.

Huck Finn

Author: Mark Twain

Character List

Adolphus – fake name given to Huck by the Dauphin.

Levi Bell – the Lawyer

Rev. Elaxendar Blodgett – false name the King uses when addressing Tim Collins.

Boggs – Drunken man who Colonel Sherburn shoots.

Tim Collins – young man bound for Orleans who tells the King everything about the Wilks family.

The Dauphin – Con Artist who Huck and Jim meet.

The Duke – Con Artist who Huck and Jim meet.

Bob Grangerford – a son of Col. Grangerford.

Buck Grangerford – friend of Huck. Killed in shootout.

Miss Charlotte Grangerford – a daughter of Col. Grangerford.

Col. Grangerford – father of the Grangerford home.

Emmeline Grangerford – wrote poems about dead people until she died herself.

Miss Sophia Grangerford – runs off with Harvey Shepherdson.

Tom Grangerford – eldest son of the Grangerford family.

Buck Harness – man who starts rallying a mob to kill Colonel Sherburn after Sherburn shoots and kills Boggs.

Joe Harper – member of Tom’s robber band.

George Jaxon – fake name taken by Huck during his stay with the Grangerfords.

Jim – a slave who runs away from Miss Watson and befriends Huck.

Miss Watson – Jim’s owner and sister of Widow Douglass.

Widow Douglass – takes care of Huck and is the sister of Miss Watson.

Mrs. Judith Loftus – Lady who Huck talks to while dress as a girl.

Sally Phelps – sister of Aunt Polly who catches Jim and locks him up.

Silas Phelps – Tom Sawyer’s uncle; farmer who purchases Jim from the King.

Aunt Polly – sister of Sally Phelps and takes care of Tom and Sid Sawyer.

Doctor Robinson – family friend of the Wilks. Accuses the Duke and the Dauphin of being frauds.

Ben Rogers – member of Tom’s robber band.

Sid Sawyer – Tom Sawyer’s younger brother.

Tom Sawyer – Huck’s best friend.

Harvey Shepherdson – runs off with Miss Sophia Grangerford.

Col. Sherburn – kills Boggs.

Judge Thatcher – holds on to Huck’s money.

Jim Turner – captured man on the Sir Walter Scott (wrecked ferry).

Harvey Wilks – Brother of Peter Wilks.

Joanna Wilks – youngest Wilks daughter a.k.a. harelip.

Mary Jane Wilks – eldest Wilks daughter.

Peter Wilks – dead father of Joanna, Susan, and Mary Jane.

Susan Wilks – middle Wilks daughter.

William Wilks – deaf brother of Harvy.

George Wilks – other dead Wilks brother (not really important).

Quotes:

“Now we’ll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer’s Gang. Everybody who wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood.”

- Tom Sawyer

“Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a cat-fish that was as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds.”

- Huck

“Yes, my friend, it is too true – your eyes is lookin’ at this very moment on the pore disappeared Dauphin, Looy the Seventeen, son of Looy the Sixteen and Mary Antonette.”

- The Dauphin

“All right, then, I’ll go to Hell.”

- Huck

“I should a reckoned the difference in rank would a sejested to you that a corn-shuck bed warn’t just fitten for me to sleep on. Your Grace’ll take the shuck bed yourself.”

- The Duke

Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

Character List

Elizabeth Bennet – main character; marries Darcy; second oldest Bennet daughter.

Mr. Darcy – marries Elizabeth; owns Pemperly; nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Jane Bennet – oldest Bennet girl; marries Bingley.

Charles Bingley – marries Jane; friend of Darcy; owner of Netherfield.

Mr. Wickham – runs off with Lydia; is deceitful.

Mrs. Bennet – noisy and foolish mother of five daughters whose only goal in life is to get them married off.

Mr. Bennet – father of five unmarried daughters.

Lydia Bennet – youngest Bennet girl who runs off with Wickham.

Catherine (Kitty) Bennet – fourth Bennet daughter.

Mary Bennet – middle Bennet daughter who is nerdy and anti-social.

Mr. Collins – clergyman who will inherit Mr. Bennet’s property and wants Elizabeth to marry him. After her refusal, he marries Charlotte Lucas.

Charlotte Lucas – friend of Elizabeth who marries Mr. Collins.

Sir William Lucas – Charlotte’s father; not very intellectual; friend of the Bennet family.

Maria Lucas – Charlotte’s younger sister.

Mrs. Gardiner – acts as a mother to Elizabeth and Jane, filling in for the inadequacy of Mrs. Bennet.

Mr. Gardiner – a merchant and a typical aristocrat.

Caroline Bingley – Mr. Bingley’s sister who wants to marry Darcy.

Mrs. Hurst – Bingley’s other sister.

Mr. Hurst – Married to Mrs. Hurst; does almost nothing but eat and entertain himself by playing cards.

Georgiana Darcy – Darcy’s younger sister.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh – Mr. Collin’s patron and Darcy’s aunt.

Miss de Bourgh – Lady Catherine’s sickly daughter.

Colonel Fitzwilliam – cousin of Mr. Darcy.

Mrs. Phillips – Mrs. Bennet’s siste.

Mrs. Forster – The wife of Colonel Forster, who is the head of the regiment stationed at Meryton.

Colonel Forster – tries to help the Bennets recover Lydia after her elopement with Wickham.

Miss Younge – was Georgiana Darcy’s governess at one point and conspired with Wickham to get Georgiana to elope with him. Darcy bribes her to tell him the whereabouts of Wickham and Lydia.

Quotes:

“Kitty has no discretion in her coughs, she times them ill.”

- Mr. Bennet

“Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility.”

- Darcy

“Oh! You are a great deal too apt you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody.”

- Elizabeth

“Oh, Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words and blots the rest.”

- Miss Bingley

“Lizzy, I insist upon your staying and hearing MR. Collins.”

- Mrs. Bennet

“I like her appearance. She looks sickly and cross-yes, she will do for him very well. She will make him a proper wife.”

- Elizabeth

“No governess! How was that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without a governess! I never heard of such a thing.”

- Lady Catherine

“In vain I have struggles. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and adore you.”

- Darcy

“You go to Brighton! – I would not trust you so near it as East Bourne, for fifty pounds! No, Kitty, I have at least learnt to be cautious, and you will feel the effects of it.”

- Mr. Bennet

The Importance of Being Earnest

Author: Oscar Wilde

Character List:

Algernon – Jack’s brother.

Lady Bracknell – Algernon’s Aunt/Gwendolen’s mom.

Gwendolen – In love with Jack

Jack – marries Gwendolen; Cecily’s ward.

Cecily – marries Algernon.

Lane – Employed by Algernon.

Merriman – Employed by Jack.

Miss Prism – Cecily’s teacher.

Chasuble – in love with Miss Prism.

Mrs. Moncrieff – mother of Jack and Algernon (not really important).

Essays:

Satire in Major Works

• Pride and Prejudice
  • Marriage
    • Mrs. Bennet
      • Believed that love was not an important factor in marriage.
      • Only goal was to get her daughters married off.
    • Mr. Collins
      • Thought you should marry based on social status and wealth.
  • Modern Society
    • Mrs. Bennet
      • Scares away possible suitors with her foolishness and loudness.
    • Lady Catherine
      • Thinks that her daughter is fantastic based upon what she might have been able to achieve if she wasn’t sick.
    • Miss Bingley
      • Judges based on wealth and social status
• Huck Finn
  • Government
    • Pap’s Rant
      • Displays typical southerner’s lack of intelligence.
  • Romanticism
    • Tom Sawyer
      • Ideal Romantic
      • Most of his plans are irrelevant to the situation and displays his lack of thought.
        • Ex. Wants to use a rope to save Jim.
  • Slavery
    • Pap’s Rant
      • Typical southern view
• Importance of Being Earnest
  • Society
    • Lady Bracknell
      • Intense interview with Jack attempting to expose his flaws.
      • Judges people based upon wealth
        • Ex. Cecily
  • Love/Marriage
    • Earnest
      • Gwendolen only loves Jack for his fake name: Earnest.
    • Lady Bracknell accepts Algernon’s proposal to Cecily due to her wealth, not personality.

British and American Romantics

· Romanticism

o Artistic freedom

o Experimentation

o Creativity

o Transcendentalism

§ Everything in the world, including human beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul.

§ The physical facts of the natural world are a doorway to the spiritual; or ideal world.

§ People can use their intuition to behold God’s spirit revealed in nature or their own souls.

§ Self-reliance and individualism must outweigh external authority and blind conformity to custom and tradition.

§ Spontaneous feelings and intuition are superior to deliberate intellectualism and rationality.

o Beliefs – Similarities

§ Promotion of commerce, reason, and liberty

§ Simple Lifestyle

§ Imagination

§ Embraced Nature

§ Individualism

o Beliefs – Differences

§ American

· Gore (Poe)

· Violence (Poe)

· Man was naturally Good

· Death

§ British

· Man was neither good nor bad

· No Violence or death

· American Romantics

o Emerson

§ Self Reliance

· “Imitation is suicide”

· To believe in your own thoughts, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men – that is genius.

§ Nature

· Do what you want; individualism

o Thoreau

§ Walden, or Life in the Woods

· Walden pond – lived there two years and two months.

§ Civil Disobedience

· Opposed Mexican War

· Economy

· British Romantics

o Blake

§ Songs of Innocence

· The Lamb

o Passive Christian purity

§ Songs of Experience

· Tyger

o Wildness/Savageness

o Wordsworth

§ Composed Upon Westminster Bridge

· Silent/Beautiful London

§ London, 1802

· Corrupt/Swampy London

§ I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud

· Emphasis on Nature

Gender Roles and Relationships – Marriage

• Pride and Prejudice
  • Men
    • Picked wife based on social status
    • Worked and expected to be tended to at home by wife
  • Women
    • Typically forced to marry against their will
    • Married based on wealth, not love
    • Stayed at home and cared for family
• Huck Finn
  • Men
  • Women
• Importance of Being Earnest
  • Men
    • Marriage based on beauty and not social status
  • Women
    • Younger
      • Marriage based on Love
    • Older

Marriage based on social status