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E212: British Literature since 1760 Thomas Carlyle Study Questions Alfred J. Drake. Office: 423 University Hall General Questions 1. Look up the dictionary meanings of the word "sage." How does Carlyle function as a sage for Victorian readers? 2. What are some characteristics of Carlyle’s prose style in any of the selections we are reading? Portraits "Coleridge" 3. How does Carlyle tie his description of Coleridge's habits and appearance to the quality and effects of his philosophy upon young visitors? What kind of comment on the relevance of romantic thought to a new era does the portrait amount to? "Wordsworth" 4. In what way might this portrait be a comment on Wordsworth's ultimate value to British life and letters? How does Carlyle characterize the progress of Wordsworth's career? 5. What effect does the final description of Wordsworth chewing raisins and hiding behind a green circle to shield his eyes have on the rest of the portrait? Sartor Resartus (The Tailor Retailored) 6. Describe the three stages of Teufelsdröckh’s “spiritual crisis” in Sartor Resartus: What is “the Everlasting No”? How does it lead to “the Center of Indifference”? What is “the Everlasting Yea”? When does Teufelsdröckh’s “baphometic fire-baptism” occur? 7. Describe the spiritual problem that Carlyle addresses in Sartor's “The Everlasting Yea.” Why can’t humans find happiness? What, then, is the solution to this spiritual quandary? 8. How is Carlyle in Sartor Resartus a "recycler" of Christian concepts -- how does he refashion the basic tenets of Christianity to suit what he considers the needs of his own day? 9. In Sartor Resartus, what message do Teufelsdröckh and Carlyle take from their admission that humans cannot know ultimate reality? Is that inability a source of weakness or strength? Why is the acceptance of "mystery" essential to human attempts to create new truths? 10. What, according to Carlyle in Sartor Resartus, is Nature? Relate this concept to his metaphor of clothing. What is the central insight of the "Philosophy of Clothes" developed by Carlyle's fictional Professor Teufelsdröckh? The French Revolution "September [1792] in Paris" 11. What does Carlyle, in his description of the imprisoned Swiss Guard and of the Princess de Lamballe, imply about the possibility of heroism in the face of mob rule? "Place de la Revolution" 12. How does Carlyle contrast King Louis XVI with the men who led him to the guillotine? What is the value in offering a fairly detailed portrait of the King in his final hours? 13. What does Carlyle imply about the forces underlying the apparent chaos of the French Revolution? Is it really chaos that rules the day? If not, what is really "behind" that great event? 14. To what extent, according to Carlyle, do those who carry out or live through great events actually understand them? from "Cause and Effect" 15. What historical perspective does Carlyle offer on what is, by 1837, a long-past event and set of political actors in that event? Why, from your knowledge of the early Victorian period, is the French Revolution still important to Carlyle's British contemporaries? Past and Present “Democracy” from Past and Present 16. What examples does Carlyle offer of proper relations among humans? How does Carlyle describe relations between humans during feudal times? (See his comments on "Gurth.") 17. How does Carlyle define "liberty"? How does his definition undermine more common ones? “Captains of Industry” from Past and Present 18. What is Carlyle’s solution to Britain’s social problems? What, that is, does Carlyle say should be done with the working classes and the unemployed, and who should do it? 19. Why does Carlyle borrow a feudal term like "aristocracy" for his new hero-class? What is the implication, that is, of such an anachronistic borrowing for Carlyle's view of historical progress and of his own day's social and political developments? Edition: Abrams, M.H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2. Seventh edition. New York: Norton, 2000.
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