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E335: Literature of Victorian England Thomas Carlyle Study Questions 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? "Signs of the Times" (1829) 3. To what extent do you find Carlyle's style in this essay journalistic? In what ways does his style differ from that of journalism? 4. What is "the mechanical" according to Carlyle? Why are those who seek reforms in a "mechanical" way unable to solve Britain's problems? 5. How does the "dynamical" power (169) oppose the mechanical? How does Carlyle describe this force? What is the proper relationship between the mechanical and the dynamical power? 6. How does Carlyle, who lost his Scottish Calvinist faith by early adulthood, nonetheless preserve the rhetorical structures and value system of Christianity? For example, what is the value of "mystery" to human beings? 7. Where should Carlyle's readers look for relief or sustenance, if not to existing governmental structures or political debates between utilitarian Benthamites and aristocratic conservatives? What does he say about the present state of institutional religion and literature (most particularly romantic poetry)? 8. Does Carlyle closely define the most important of his terms, such as Nature, the Dynamical, Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Inward Perfection, Mystery, and the Infinite? Why might he not want to define such terms -- does linguistic vagueness help him achieve his rhetorical purpose? If so, how? 9. Some critics have said that Carlyle insists upon belief in moral absolutes even though he no longer believes in the Christian faith from which those absolutes derive. If you find that "Signs" fits that description, is the essay a convincing response to the "crisis of authority"? Or do you consider Carlyle a reactionary who wants to return his countrymen to some modern approximation of feudal, conservative values rather than to accept the need for systemic (i.e. scientific and wide-reaching) social and political reforms? from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (1840) "The Hero as Divinity" 10. How is history "the biography of Great Men?" In what sense is Carlyle's promotion of the Great Man theory of history a substitute for traditional religious faith? How, for example, does Carlyle define "worship" and "hero-worship"? 11. How does Carlyle, in offering his thoughts on the significance of early Scandinavian myth, (most specifically the god Odin), also make an argument about the relationship between language and nature? What did Odin do that was so significant as to cause his deification? 12. What keeps modern humans from discerning the "mystery" or "divinity" in their surroundings and in themselves, and how might they recover that power or some modern approximation of or equivalent for it? What role in this recovery might the prophet or poet play? from Past and Present (1843) "Midas" 13. What does Carlyle appear to mean by "enchantment"? Who is enchanted, and why? 14. What is Carlyle's attitude towards the "Poor Law" 1834, which provided relief only to the disabled and required others to enter "workhouses"? 15. What rhetorical value does Carlyle derive from the grotesque or ridiculous anecdotes and historical references he sometimes includes? See, for instance, his reference to the "Ugolino Hunger Cellar" or the Stockport Cellar" case as well as the "Midas" legend that gave this chapter its name. "Sphinx" 16. What was the Sphinx's riddle in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex? What is it in Carlyle's chapter? 17. What wrong answer to the Sphinx Riddle has been given by Carlyle's contemporaries, and what are the consequences of their failure? 18. What kinds of rhetorical oppositions does Carlyle employ to convince us that there is such a thing as Justice in the universe, even if we don't see it working? Does he ever define what he means by "justice"? As in the question about "Signs of the Times," how does linguistic vagueness help him achieve his rhetorical purpose? "Gospel of Mammonism" 19. Can you expound upon the Gospel of Mammonism? Give us a brief sermon from this gospel, and explain who, according to Carlyle, most loudly preaches it. 20. What effect has Britain’s practice of this gospel’s precepts had upon all human bonds, all sense of belonging and identity? 21. Why is it "impossible" to help the poor Irish widow who dies and infects seventeen others with typhus? "Happy" 22. How does Carlyle define "happiness"? In what does happiness consist? Whose idea of happiness is he opposing in this chapter? Edition: Mermin, Dorothy and Herbert Tucker. Victorian Literature: 1830-1900. Heinle & Heinle / Harcourt, 2001-02. ISBN: 0155071777.
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