第一篇：英美文學基礎作業

Comment on Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18”

According the history records,the English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th and early 16th centuries to the early 17th century.During this special period, lots of literature forms grew prosperous.Sonnet was a kind of short lyrics which origined from Italy.During the early period of English Renaissance, it became famous all through the Europe.William Shakespeare, as the most great playwright and poet in England, showed lots of interests on it.As a result, his collection of sonnets were born.Besides, they aroused a big repercussion of the public, sonnet 18 as a typical example.As we all know, Shakespeare`s sonnet is well-constructed.It is divided into two parts, one part concluding twelve lines, the other two.From sonnet 18, we can clearly identify that there are 10 syllables in every line.From the whole poem, it`s easy for us to find its rhyme is “abab, cdcd, efef, gg”.Such regular rhyme makes the whole sonnet 18 easy to read and possessed the sense of rhythm.Because of the thyme, the whole atmosphere is cheerful and lighted-hearted.We reader can easily find the poet is good at analogy.Firstly, Shakespeare described his friend as summer`s day on the purpose of making the comparison between the person and the nature.Secondly, the poet compared his friend as the buds of May.But the poet wrote immediately in the following line that “Summer`s lease hath all too short a date”.This sentence formed anther comparison.Thirdly, Shakespeare used the sun to show his friend.It`s obviously that Shakespeare regard his friend as summer`s day, May, the bud and the sun.The poet uses all these positive ,beautiful things to show his fondness of his friend.However, Shakespeare holds the opinion that his friend is more lovely and more t temperate.All these analogies makes the readers understand poet`s goal vividly.Prising is evidently viewed between the lines.No matter how wonderful the things are the poet doesn`t think they can compare with his friend.From generations to generations, as a result, his friend can be engraved on people`s mind.Shakespeare`s purpose of writing sonnet 18 can be seen in the last line.Sonnet 18 as the most successful example of the sonnet creation, it has much value for us to study deeply.It can be used as the material of studying the development of Renaissance.What`s more, we can see more from the sonnet 18 about the style of the works in the late 15th and early 16th centuries to the early 17th century.

第二篇：英美文學

A summery of first two lessons

From the previous classes, we＇ve essentially get an brief idea of some basic knowledge about the United Kingdom.The main knowledge points can be concluded as follows:

The full name of the complicated country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Britain is no longer an imperial country, though its past has huge effects.The two main effects respectively lie in Britain＇international relationships and the make-up of the British population.UK, as a multiracial society, has the remarkable class regional and economic differences.London, the capital and the largest city, is dominant in the UK in all fields.England, the largest in geography and population of the four nations, dominant in culture and economy.A British invasions history which experiences from stages.Scotland, the most confident of its own identity, has spent a history as a unified state independent of the UK.Scotland joined the Union by agreement of the English and Scottish parliament.A brief introduction to Wales.Northern Ireland has an active cultural life but has its problems because of the conflicts and the influence of UK.Irish desires for an indepent Irish state all the time, therefore issues accurred in frequent succession.The Home Rule Bill, the East Rising of 1916 and the Sinn Fein Party made Irish independent.There exists religious conflicts between the Irish and the British because of the ethnical distinction.British government organised a partition of Ireland as a compromise.More violent campaign, IRA＇s violence and Bloody Sunday.In order to halt the terrible conflicts, Ireland and Great Britain aim to cooperate with each other and arrive at a resolution.Finally, the Good Friday Agreement was emerged.Learning first two lessons has laid a good foundation for our further study on the following lessons.I＇m looking forward to comprehend more knowledge about British politics, economy, culture and foreign relations and so on.

第三篇：英美文學

severalfamous sonnets – a powerful expose of social evils

of the poet’s age,– on steadfast love

Artistic achievement profound in their moral depth and more complex in their expressed feelings.University witsa group of talented youngdramatists

Christopher Marlowe(1564-1593)

?One of the “University wits”

?The greatest tragedy playwright before William Shakespeare

?His masterwork: Doctor Faustus(1604)(P75-76)

Doctor Faustus(1604)

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 ofMacedonia)and it appears;Doctor Faustus(1604)

---having succeeded in having Helen, the beauty of ancient Troy, as his wife.Finally, Doctor Faustus is sent to hell because of the deadly sin has damned both his body and his soul.Doctor Faustus(1604)

?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

He is the author of 37 plays, but we are not certain of his life story until now.Drama: his career may be dividedinto four periods.(P78)

---Comedies in the four periods

---Tragedies in the four periods

Plot of Four Great Tragedies(P86-P87)Othello:

---Othello: a capable general in Venice

---Desdemonon: a strong-minded, beautiful girl

---Iago: one of the officers under Othello

Reasons for the tragedy:

jealousy

Plot of Four Great Tragedies(P86-P87)Macbeth:

---Macbeth: to commit murder in order to become king knowing he will be the king of Scotland from the witch

---lady Macbeth: to encourage her husband

---Duncan: king of Scotand who was murdered by Macbeth

Reasons for the tragedy :ambition, lust for power

Plot of Four Great Tragedies(P86-P87)King Lear:

---King Lear: a wish to divide his kingdom and give it to his daughters

---Goneril and Regan: his two elder daughters who flatter him

---Cordelia: his youngest daughter who speaks her true mind but loves her father most

Reasons for the tragedy: Misjudgment

Hamlet

Leading characters:

?Hamlet : the Prince of Denmark

?King Hamlet: Father of the Prince, wecan 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

Hamlet

Act 1:

Old Hamlet’sghost told Hamlet a tale of

horror.There has been murder andadultery;and the Ghost demands revenge for his wrongs.Hamlet makes a promise to revenge for his father’s death before the Ghostleaves.Act 2:

To dull his uncle’s vigilance, Hamlet pretends to go mad.However, his madness is taken by Polonius, an old courtier who is loyal to Claudius , to an emotionaldisturbance due to his passion for Ophelia, daughter of Polonius.At this moment, a company of playersvisits the castle, and Hamlet will have a play acted, which resembles the late king’s murder.Act 3:

The guilty Claudius starts up in fear before the play ends, and goes out.Gertrude sends Hamlet to her chamber, where he reveals Claudius’s baseness and expresses his indignation at her hasty marriage with Claudius, which renders the queen heart-broken.Then Hamlet becomes aware that he is being overheard in the conversation.Thinking it is Claudius that is in hiding, he runs his sword through the arras but finds the eavesdropper thus killed to be Polonius.Before he parts from his mother, Hamlet refers to the King’s decision to send him to England.Act4:

The king now determines to kill Hamlet.He sends Hamlet to England, intending to have him killed there.But pirates capture Hamlet and send him back to Denmark again.Heart-broken at the death of her father, Ophelia goes mad and then is drowned in a stream.Hamlet returns just at the time of her funeral.In the grave-yard he has a quarrel with Laertes, Ophelia’s brother.Laertes vows to avenge the death of his father and sister.Act 5:

With Laertes, Claudius conspires to do away with Hamlet.The kings arranges that Laertes is to challenge Hamlet to a friendly duel andkill him with a poisoned rapier.In the duel, Laertes wounds Hamlet but is himself struck with the same poisoned weapon.Before death, Laertes reveals the plot.The queen, at this moment, has drunk from a poisoned cup intended for Hamlet.Hamlet, in a passion, stabs the King, and then dies through his poisoned wound, giving the election to the crown to young Fortinbras, the prince of Norway.

第四篇：英美文學。

一、殖民主義時期The Literature of Colonial America

1．船長約翰?史密斯Captain John Smith

《自殖民地第一次在弗吉尼亞墾荒以來發生的各種事件的真實介紹》

“A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia Since the First Planting of That Colony”

《弗吉尼亞地圖，附：一個鄉村的描述》

“A Map of Virginia: with a Description of the Country”

《弗吉尼亞通史》“General History of Virginia”

2．威廉?布拉德福德William Bradford and John Winthrop

《普利茅斯開發歷史》“The History of Plymouth Plantation”

3．約翰?溫思羅普John Winthrop

《新英格蘭歷史》“The History of New England”

4．羅杰?威廉姆斯Roger Williams

《開啟美國語言的鑰匙》”A Key into the Language of America”

或叫《美洲新英格蘭部分土著居民語言指南》

Or “ A Help to the Language of the Natives in That Part of America Called New England ”

5．安妮?布萊德斯特Anne Bradstreet

《在美洲誕生的第十個謬斯》

”The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

二、理性和革命時期文學 The Literature of Reason and Revolution

1。本杰明?富蘭克林Benjamin Franklin

※《自傳》“ The Autobiography ”

《窮人理查德的年鑒》“Poor Richard’s Almanac”

2。托馬斯?佩因Thomas Paine

※《美國危機》“The American Crisis”

《收稅官的案子》“The Case of the Officers of the Excise”

《常識》“Common Sense”

《人權》“Rights of Man”

《理性的時代》“The Age of Reason”

《土地公平》“Agrarian Justice”

3。托馬斯?杰弗遜Thomas Jefferson

※《獨立宣言》

4。菲利浦?弗瑞諾Philip Freneau

※《野忍冬花》“The Wild Honey Suckle”

※《印第安人的墳地》“The Indian Burying Ground”

※《致凱提?迪德》“To a Caty-Did”

《想象的力量》“The Power of Fancy”

《夜屋》“The House of Night”

《英國囚船》“The British Prison Ship”

《戰爭后期弗瑞諾主要詩歌集》

“The Poems of Philip Freneau Written Chiefly During the Late War”

《札記》“Miscellaneous Works”

第五篇：英美文學

SIR THOMAS MALORY

(1405-1471)

The OutlineI.SIR THOMAS MALORY

II.Morte d' Arthur《亞瑟王之死》

III.Questions for Discussion

.SIR THOMAS MALORY(1405-1471)

Life: He was very rich because he inherited a

considerable estate in Warwickshire(a county in west

central England)upon his father's death in 1433 and he

seems to have quickly become drawn into the turmoil of

local politics.In 1445, he became a Member of

Parliament for his county: a rather unstable area during

this time because the usually powerful Earl of Warwick,was only in his mid-teens.A lot of political affairs in Warwickshire led Sir

Thomas into his numerous clashes with the law.From

1444 onwards, he was caught up in raids(襲擊)on the

attacks on the Duke of Buckingham and Combe Abbey

大修道院,大寺院 , as well as a number of thefts in the county

of Essex.Keen to blacken his name, Sir Thomas'

enemies branded(給某人加上污名)him “a rapist, church-

robber, extortioner(勒索者，敲詐者)and would-be

murderer".Unlucky or incompetent,Sir Thomas was certainly in prison almost

continuously throughout the 1450s, though he did

escape several times.His pardon came to him in

October 1462, followed by military service in

Northumbria.From then on he kept his head down,but may have become embroiled(使卷入)in Cook's

Conspiracy(陰謀活動)of 1468, for which he was

imprisoned.There, he turned to writing and earned

eternal fame.Sir Thomas died on 12th March 1471,probably in Newgate Prison(London).He was buried in the nearby Friary Church of St.Francis.II.Morte d' Arthur

《亞瑟王之死》

Malory's tale begins with the mysterious birth of Arthur and ends with his equally mysterious death.The central concern is with the adventures of Arthur and his famous Knights of the Round Table.The knights fight many battles and win glory, all of which is a credit to the name of King Arthur.Near the end of the story, however, the tide of good fortune turns.Launcelot, one of Arthur's knights, falls in love with Arfhur's queen, Guinever, and the lady

returns his love.One by one the other knight become discontented(使不滿), selfish, or

disillusioned(使醒悟;使不再抱幻想;使...的理想破滅).Thus weakened, the kingdom is attacked by force under Sir Mordred, Arthur's treacherous(背叛的;不忠的)nephew, and ultimately it goes down in defeat.Arthur is borne away(被...所驅使)on a barge(大型平底船)by three mysterious ladies of the Lake.Morte d‘Arthur was written in a time of transition.The feudal order was dying.By the time Malory began writing his story, soldiers were fighting with gunpowder, a middle class of

tradesmen was arising;and the practices of chivalry were being replaced(代替,取代)by a new aristocratic code.Malory, in a desire to escape the disorder and uneasiness of his day,tried to recapture lost ideals of the romantic past as recounted(敘述,講述)in his tale of noble kings, adventurous knights, and damsels(少女;閨女)in distress(悲痛;苦惱;憂傷;貧困,窮苦;危難;不幸;引起痛苦或悲痛的事物).This book is very important in English literature.Its Arthurian materials have a strong influence on literature of later centuries.III.Questions for Discussion

1.What are the features of Popular Ballads?

2.What is the story of Morte d‘Arthur ?

3.Why is Sir Thomas Malory an important writer the 15th century?

1.What are the features of Popular Ballads?

See the last paragraph on Page 50 to the fifth paragraph on Page 51.of our text book.What is the story of Morte d‘Arthur ?See Page 6 –9 of our PPt..Why is Sir Thomas Malory an important writer the 15th century?

See the first paragraph on Page 52 of our text book.