published in her lifetime. Her first volume of 115 poems, Poems by Emily Dickinson, appeared in 1890. Dickinson is well known for her poetic meditations on ___dying and death. P132
15. In 1850, Hawthorne?s masterpiece _____The Scarlet Letter___________ was published. It was a literary sensation. The background of this novel is set in the _17th century Boston______.
16. In addition to his greatest novel __ The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne wrote three other novels: ____________ The House of the Seven Gables, ______ the Blithedale Romance, and ____ The Marble Faun.
17. In 1846, ___Herman Melville_____________ published Typee, an exiting adventure story, autobiographical of a young man who leaves the whaling ship he works on, and finds himself living with the natives on the South Sea island.
18. Moby Dick uses the pattern of ___ an adventure story of the sea _______________, but its much more, it probes much deeper into ___ the truth of human life __________________. In the story, Moby Dick is a symbol to represent ________ cruel, brutal, malicious powers of nature p113_________________________ .
19. Edgar Allan Poe is a critic, poet and short story writer, and he is important in all three aspects p117
20. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?s first collection of poems entitled Voices of the Night appeared in 1838. 21. The most scholarly of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?s writings is his translation of Dante?s Divine Comedy.
22. Published in 1823, The Pioneers was the first of the Leather-stocking Tales, in their order of publication time, and probably the first true romance of the frontier in American literature.
23. Harriet Beecher Stowe?s masterpiece is _Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
II. Make multiple choices.
1. Transcendentalists took their ideas from __________. A. the romantic literature in Europe B. neo-Platonism C. German idealistic philosophy D. the revelations of oriental mysticism 2. As a philosophical and literary movement, __________ flourished in New England from the 1830s to the Civil War. A. modernism B. rationalism C. sentimentalism D. transcendentalism 3. Transcendentalist doctrines found their greatest literary advocates in _________ and Henry David Thoreau. A. Thomas Jefferson B. Ralph Waldo Emerson C. Philip Freneau D. Thomas Paine
4. Transcendentalists recognized _________ as the “highest power of the soul.” A. intuition B. logic C. data of the senses D. thinking
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5. In the 19th century America, Romantics often shared certain general characteristics. Choose such characteristics from the following: A. moral enthusiasm B. faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception C. adoration for the natural world D. presumption about the corrosive effect of human society 6. From the following, choose the poems written by Edgar Allan Poe. A. To Helen B. The Raven C. Annabel Lee D. The Bells 7. Edgar Allan Poe?s first collection of short stories is __________. A. Tales of a Traveler B. Leather-stocking Tales C. Canterbury Tales
D. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
8. From Henry David Thoreau?s jail experience, came his famous essay, _________, which states Thoreau?s belief that no man should violate his conscience at the command of a government. A. Walden B. Nature C. Civil Disobedience D. Common Sense
9. The finest example of Nathaniel Hawthorne?s symbolism is the recreation of Puritan Boston in ________. A. The Scarlet Letter B. Young Goodman Brown C. The Marble Faun D. The Ambitious Guest 10. Choose the characters which appear in the novel The Scarlet Letter. A. Hester Prynne B. Arthur Dimmesdale C. Roger Chillingworth D. Pearl 11. __________ was a romanticized account of Herman Melville?s stay among the Polynesians. The success of the book soon made Melville well known as the “man who lived among cannibals”. A. Moby Dick B. Typee C. Omoo C. Billy Budd
12. With the appearance of __________ in 1855, which is about American
Indians, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?s poetical reputation was established.
A. Evangeline B. The Courtship of Miles Standish C. Song of Hiawatha C. Michael Angelo
13. Choose the authors who belong to the romantic group in American literature.
A. Ralph Waldo Emerson B. Henry David Thoreau C. Nathaniel Hawthorne D. Herman Melville E. Walt Whitman 14. Washington Irving was best known for his famous short stories such as
_____ and ___________.
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A. Rip Van Winkle B. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow C. Life of Goldsmith D. Life of Washington
15. “ he universe is composed of Nature and the soul…Spirit is present everywhere”. This is the voice of the book Nature written by Emerson, which pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England _____________. A. Romanticism B. Transcendentalism C. Mysticism D. Symbolism
16. There is a good reason to state that New England Transcendentalism was actually ________ on the Puritan soil. A. Romanticism B. Puritanism C. Mysticism D. Unitarianism
17. Which is generally regarded as the Bible of New England Transcendentalism? A. Nature B. Walden C. On Beauty D. Self-Reliance
18. Which is regarded as the “Declaration of Intellectual Independence”? A. The American Scholar B. English Traits C. The Conduct of Life D. Representative Men
19. ________ is an appalling fictional version of Nathaniel Hawthorne?s belief that “the wrong doing of one generation lives into the successive ones” and that evil will come out of evil though it may take many generations to happen.
A. The Marble Faun B. The House of Seven Gables C. The Blithedale Romance D. Young Goodman Brown
20. Herman Melville?s ________ is an encyclopedia of everything: history, philosophy, religion, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry.
A. The Old Man the Sea B. Moby Dick C. White Jacket D. Billy Budd
21. The importance of the frontier and the wilderness in American literature is for the first time well illustrated in the following works____________________.
A. Benjamin Franklin' s The Autobiography B. Washington Irving' s The Sketch Book
C. James Fenimore Cooper' s The Leather-stocking Tales D. Ralph Waldo Emerson' s Nature
22. There is the famous ___________, in which there is the memorable event
of an apparently headless horseman throwing his head at his rival in love, and the memorable character of Ichabod Crane with his mixture of shrewdness, credulity, self-assertiveness, and cowardice.
A. Rip Van Winkle B. The Legend of Sleep Hollow*
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C. The Pioneers D. The American Scholar
23. Edgar Allan Poe' s __________ was an ingenious detective story and became the ancestor of the genre, influencing, among others, Conan Doyle. A. The Fall of the House of Usher B. The Gold Bug
C. The Murders in the Rue Morgue * D. The Purloined Letter
24. The publication of ______________established Ralph Waldo Emerson as the most
eloquent spokesman of New England Transcendentalism. A. Nature*
B. Self-Reliance
C. The American Scholar
D. The Divinity School Address
25. The giant Moby Dick may symbolize all EXCEPT _____________. A. mystery of the universe
B. sin of the whale*
C. power of the Great Nature D. evil of the world
III. Define the following terms: 1.Transcendentalism 2. Individualism
IV. Find the relevant match from column B for each item in column A. A B ( d )1. Herman Melville a. The Raven ( e )2. Nathaniel Hawthorne b. Nature ( f )3. Washington Irving c. Walden ( h)4. Walt Whitman d. Moby Dick ( b )5. Ralph Waldo Emerson e. The Scarlet Letter ( c )6. Henry David Thoreau f. The Sleepy Hollow ( g )7. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow g. Song of Hiawatha ( i )8. James Fenimore Cooper h. Leaves of Grass ( j )9. William Bryant i. Leather stocking Tales ( a )10. Edgar Ellan Poe j. Thanatopsis ( k )11. Emily Dickinson k. I heard a fly buzz - when I died
V. Answer the following questions:
1. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.'
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Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Nameless here for evermore. Questions:
1) Who is the writer of these lines?
2) What is the title of this poem from which the selection is selected? 3) Recognize the sound devices in the following lines. L1 alliteration, internal rhyme L4 onomatopoeia
L7 assonance, internal rhyme L10 assonance
4) Make a brief comment on this poem.
2．Hester Prynne?s term of confinement was now at an end. Her prison-door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast. Perhps there was a more real torture in her first unattended footsteps from the threshold of the prison. Than even in the procession and spectacle that have been described, where she was made the common infamu, at which all mankind was summoned to point its finger. Then, she was supported by an unnatural tensiono f the nerves, and by all the combative energy of her character, which enabled her to convert the scene into a kind of lurid triumph. Questions:
1) Which novel is this selection taken from? 2) What is the name the novelist?
3) What are the symbolic meanings of the scarlet letter on Hester?s breast?
4) Analyze this novel.
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