|
E211: British Literature to 1760 Samuel Johnson Study Questions Alfred J. Drake. Office: Hum. 520 | W 3-4 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com "On Idleness" (Idler #31) 1. Everyone is familiar with the ordinary definition of idleness. But how does Johnson broaden or further refine the term to capture something fundamental about many of the activities people pursue? How can we be idle even while feverishly doing something? (2713) From Rasselas 2. Johnson describes the young prince Rasselas' childhood environment with much care. What state of mind does this setting allude to? What is the relationship between Rasselas and the world around him at the outset of the story? (2679-80) 3. What causes Rasselas to become discontented with the way he lives? Why aren't his paradisal surroundings enough for him? (2681-83) 4. What might the episode about the mechanic's attempt to fly suggest to Rasselas and to us aboutthe proper relationship between imagination and experience? (2683-85) 5. What fills Imlac with wonder about the most ancient poets? What sorts of differences, according to him, are "commonly observed" between earlier and later writers? And why isn't any poet great solely by imitation? (2685) 6. Why shouldn't we paint a flower in all its eccentric individuality--what would be lost if we were to "number the streaks of the tulip," according to Imlac? (2686) 7. What does Imlac apparently mean when he says that the poet must write "as a being superior to time and place"? What is Imlac saying about human nature and about the function of art here? (2686) 8. What contrast does Imlac make between the east and the west? What does he seem to think about the impact of science and its favored "instrumental rationality"? (2687-88) 9. Why is Cairo an appropriate starting point for the intellectual and spiritual journey Rasselas has insisted upon undertaking? What is the first thing Rasselas learns while in the city? (2689-91) 10. Rasselas consorts with the young and carefree, meets a wise philosopher, and then comes upon rustic shepherds while on the way to visit a hermit. What do these encounters teach Rasselas? For example, what does the philosopher's experience suggest about the relationship between philosophy and ordinary life? (2691-94) 11. Rasselas and his companions finally meet the hermit. How does the hermit explain his choice of lifestyle, and what does he believe he has accomplished by it? How does Rasselas' encounter with the hermit prepare him to assess the claims of the sage philosopher he hears soon thereafter? (2695-97) 12. Rasselas and his sister Nekayah discuss the institution of marriage. What is the nature of their disagreement, especially with regard to the provenance of reason as a guide in marriage? Why isn't the family the ideal social unit that it ought to be, according to some? (2698-2701) 13. Rasselas and his companions, except the frightened servant Pekuah, visit the pyramids. What lesson does Imlac draw from this experience? Why did the pharaohs build the pyramids, according to him? (2702-03) 14. Next, the Prince decides to devote himself to learning. But how does his friendship with the Astronomer lead to disillusionment about the benefits of deep learning? According to Imlac, what error or tendency has led the Astronomer into madness, and why is that tendency due to more than just his own peculiarity? (2703-08) 15. Rasselas and the others meet an old man to see what they can learn from him. What in fact does the Prince take away from that experience? What does Imlac understand that Rasselas does not? (2708-09) 16. What reasoning leads Imlac to conclude in favor of the soul's existence? (2709-10) 17. What paths do Rasselas, Princess Nekayah, Imlac and the Astronomer end up pursuing by the end of the story? Why is it appropriate that the conclusion should be so inconclusive, given the nature of what Rasselas has been seeking all along? (2711-12) "On Fiction" (Rambler #4) 18. What does the "task of . . . present writers" require, according to Johnson? Why are the new kinds of fiction "in danger from every common reader"? (2713) 19. Why do "familiar histories"--what we might call realistic novels--have "greater use than the solemnities of professed morality"? Useful for what? How? What sort of "care ought to be taken"? (2714) 20. What is the "chief advantage" such modern fictions "have over real life"? Why shouldn't the world be "promiscuously described"? How is Johnson's notion of imitation qualified? (2714) 21. Johnson observes that the "most perfect idea of virtue" should be "exhibited" in narratives. Most perfect in what qualified ways? For what moral purpose? Why is it inadvisable to present audiences with a character of mixed qualities? (2715) 22. What model of an audience or reading public do you infer from Johnson's tract? Do you think that modern audiences have changed a great deal? Why or why not? (general question) "Biography" (Rambler #60) [Not assigned] 23. According to Johnson, what makes biography one of the "most worthy" kinds of writing? What pleasure and instruction are we able to draw from biography that we might not be able to derive from grand histories? (2716) 24. What kinds of things should a biographer concentrate on? What should a biographer not mention or not deal with at length? What problems seem to be inherent in the enterprise of biography-writing? (2717-8) "Preface" to A Dictionary of the English Language 25. What are the main causes of alteration in a given language over time? Which one is most important, and why? What forces resist change in a language, and why? 26. What seems to be Johnson's attitude towards the changes that all languages in time undergo? What does he suggest as his purpose and hopes for the dictionary he has compiled with so much labor? 27. How do you think of dictionary definitions? Do you take them as final and complete? Or do you think of them as somewhat less authoritative? Explain your reasons for thinking as you do on this point. "Preface to Shakespeare" 28. What test ought to be applied to literary works "of which the excellence is not absolute and definite"? How does Johnson reason in support of this test? (2726) 29. What alone, according to Johnson, "can please many, and please long"? Does Shakespeare therefore please? Why? (2727) 30. What is wrong with overemphasizing love as the main cause for human action? How does Shakespeare move beyond this tendency, and what benefit does this success confer? How might it provide a defense against those who say it is wrong to mix comedy and tragedy? (2728) 31. What, according to Johnson, is Shakespeare's "first defect"? Why cannot this fault be extenuated by "the barbarity of his age"? (2729) What are some of the other faults Johnson details? (2729-30) 32. How does Johnson reply to those critics who claim that dramatic illusion requires the "unities of time and place"? What indeed are these unities? How does he refute this insistence on the unities? (2731-32) 33. What is the exact nature of dramatic illusion, according to Johnson? How exactly is a drama "credited, whenever it moves"? From what does the "delight of a tragedy" proceed? (2732-33) Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vols. 1A, 1B, 1C. 7th. edition. New York: Norton, 2000. ISBN #'s: 1A = 0393975657, 1B = 0393975665, 1C = 0393975673.
|