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E211: British Literature to 1760 Christopher Marlowe Study Questions Alfred J. Drake | 423 UH | TW 12:45-1:45 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com "Hero and Leander" 1. How does the narrator establish distance from the story told? What results from this distance for you as a reader? 2. What is the relationship between the gods' amorous affairs and the affair of Hero and Leander? Consider both the set-piece references to the gods and their actual interaction with the two lovers in the poem. 3. What view of love emerges from this poem? Is the focus on idealism, eroticism, both? Explain. 4. Compare this poem's handling of sexual love with Spenser's treatment of sexuality in the "Epithalamion." Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and Sir Walter Ralegh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" 5. Judge for yourself: whose argument wins? Why? 6. Try writing your own reply to Marlowe's poem, or a counter-reply to Ralegh's rebuttal. Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vols. 1A, 1B, 1C. 7th. edition.
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