summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever.
41．“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:” Questions:
A．Identify the poet and the poem from which the quoted lines are taken. B．Name the figure of speech employed in the poem. C．What is the theme of the poem? 41. A. William Shakespeare; Sonnet 18 B. Personification
C. A nice summer’s day is usually transient, but the beauty in poetry can last for ever.
41. “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?” Questions:
A. Who is the writer of this work? What’s the title of the work?
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B. What does the phrase “to take arms against a sea of troubles ” mean? C. How do you understand the quotation “To be, or not to be -that is the question”?
41. A. William Shakespeare; Hamlet
B. “to take arms against a sea of troubles ” means to take up arms against troubles that sweep upon us like a sea.
C. Whether to live on in this world or to die is a question. It reflects Hamlet’s dilemma and has become the eternal question of human action.
III. Questions and Answers (24 points in all, 6 for each)
45．William Shakespeare is one of the most remarkable playwrights the
world has ever known. (1)Name his four greatest tragedies.
(2)What are the characteristics of the four tragedies in common? (3)Briefly summarize each hero’s weakness of nature.
45. A. Shakespeare’s four greatest tragedies are: Hamlet, Othello, King
Lear, and Macbeth.
B. They some characteristics in common. Each portrays some noble hero, who faces the injustice of human life and is caught in a difficult situation and whose fate is closely connected with the fate
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of the whole nation.
C. Each hero has his weakness of nature: Hamlet, the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind; Othello’s inner weakness is made use of by the outside evil force; the old king Lear who is unwilling to totally give up his power makes himself suffer from treachery and infidelity; and Macbeth’s lust for power stirs up his ambition and leads him to incessant crimes.
45. Working through the tradition of a Christian humanism, Milton wrote Paradise Lost, intending to expose the ways of Satan and to “justify the ways of God to men.” What is Milton’s fundamental concern in Paradise Lost?
45. A. At the center of the conflict between human love and spiritual duty
lies Milton’s fundamental concern with freedom and choice; B. The freedom to submit to God’s prohibition on eating the apple C. and the choice of disobedience made for love.
IV. Topic Discussion(20 points in all, 10 for each)
49. Briefly discuss William Shakespeare's artistic achievements in characterization, plot construction and language.
49. A. Shakespeare’s major characters are neither merely individual ones
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nor type ones; they represent certain types; they are individuals representing certain types. By employing a psycho-analytical approach, Shakespeare succeeds in exploring the characters’ inner world. Shakespeare also portrays his characters in pairs. Contrasts are frequently used to bring vividness to his characters.
B. Shakespeare seldom invents his own plot; instead, he borrows them from old plays or story-books, from ancient Greek or Roman sources. In order to make the play more lively and compact, he would shorten the time and intensify the story. There are usually several clues running through the play, thus providing the story with suspense and apprehension.
C. Shakespeare can write skillfully in different poetic forms, such as the sonnet, the blank verse and the rhymed couplet. He has an amazing wealth of vocabulary and idiom. His coinage of new words and distortion of the meaning of the old works also creates
striking effects on the reader. 1. Please state Shakespeare's views on the Renaissance literature. A. is against religious persecution and racial discrimination, against social inequality and the corrupting influence of gold and money. B. holds that literature should be a combination of beauty, kindness and truth, and should reflect nature and reality.
C. gives faithful reflection of the social realities of his time through his
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works.
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