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Emerson
Hawthorne
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
100
Discuss this passage by Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosphers and divines."
This line comes from "Self-Reliance." Emerson goes on to argue that a "great soul" has little to do with consistency and that our shadow on the wall is as insignificant as consistency should be in our lives. We need to open up our mouths and speak. We should say what we believe today and be as willing tomorrow to say something entirely different--with the same conviction (as long as that is what we believe). Emerson says "to be great is to be misunderstood." (all of this comes from the bottom of 537 to the top of page 538).
100
Who is Chillingworth?
He is Hester Prynne's husband--who takes on this new name, hiding his real identity. He really becomes a sort of grotesque--a monster, as he is destroyed by his desire for revenge against Dimmesdale. He is suspect because of his dealings with the Native Americans, his knowledge of the occult (both with the Native Americans and his studies in Europe, and his connections to some shady events in England). And he never should have imagined that he was an appropriate husband for Hester.
100
Who wrote the poem "Icabod" and what is it about?
Who is John Greenleaf Whittier. It is an anti-slavery poem.
100
Wrote "The Jewish Cemetary at Newport"
Who is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem tells of the cemetary filled with the graves of Jewish settlers in Newport, Rhode Island. Jews would have gravitated toward Rhode Island because it was always more religiously tolerant than Massachusetts and the Puritan settlements. Part of the poem's significance is that it tells of the ethnic discord: "How came they here? What burst of Christian hate;/what persecution, merciless, and blind,/Drove o'er the seas,--that desert, desolate--These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind?"
100
The Romantic period spans the years 1828 to 1865 (the year the Civil War ended). The unity of this nation was severely tests during this period. What is dividing the nation and how do we see this in the literature?
What is the issue of slavery (which also has implications in the westward expansion--because determining whether those western areas would include slavery was an issue). Many of the writers in this period wrote about slavery, including Emerson, Longfellow, and Whittier.
200
In "Self-Reliance" (page 541), Emerson talks about the "rose under my window." What is his point about this rose?
This is really getting to his notion that society is too focused on the past. (Remember--he say, in the opening lines of "Nature" that "our age is retrospective.") Emerson is suggesting that we are "mendicant and sycophantic." We are too interested in the past. The roses under his window don't care about the past. They make "no reference to former roses or to better ones." They simply are themselves and live in this moment. This doesn't mean not to remember the past. What it means is not to live in the past.
200
Explain the significance of the three scaffold scenes in the novel.
The three scenes function as an organizational tool. These are also moments when the four main characters (Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth) come together.
200
According to Edgar Allan Poe, what is the primary role of poetry?
What is aesthetics (or beauty). He writes about this in his essay "The Poetic Principle." Poe would be willing to argue that poetry is NOT about ideas.
200
Who wrote "Thantatopsis" and what is it about?
Who is William Cullen Bryant. Thanatopsis literally means a "meditation on death." One thing the poem suggests is that death is a great equalizer: Yet not to thy eternal resting place Shalt thou retire alone--nor couldst thou wish Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs of the infant world--with kings The powerful of the earth--the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past, All in one might sepulchre.
200
Name two of the three "Fireside Poets" we read and explain why they were called that.
Who are William Cullen Bryan, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Greenleaf Whitter (Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell were two others--but we didn't discuss those). They were call this for two reasons. These poets frequently used the hearth (the fireplace) symbolically in their poetry (think "Snow-Bound") as a play of comfort and unity. The second reason is because they there were widely read about the firesides of 19th century American families.
300
In "Nature," Emerson says the following: 3. “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life,--no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,--all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.” What does he mean by this?
This passage is essential in understanding Emerson's notion of Transcendentalism. Emerson is suggesting that when he is alone in the woods, he feels connected to the Universal Being. He connects this Universal Being with God--and many readers identify this as transcendtalism. Every object in nature (including human beings) gets to participate in this life force. Through this life force, all objects in nature are linked. The paradox in this is the "I am nothing. I see all." Finding oneself by losing oneself is essential to Emerson's transcendental thinking. We have to read much of Emerson symbolically to get at the idea of his message.
300
Discuss this passage: “It is singular, nevertheless, that certain persons, who were spectators of the whole scene, and professed never once to have removed their eyes from the Reverend Mr. Dimmsdale, denied that there was any mark whatever on his breast, more than on a new-born infant’s.”
This is an example of the ambiguity of the novel. It seems clear that Dimmesdale is Pearl's father--yet some people refuse to accept that. More specifically here, it's not clear whether or not there is actually a mark on his chest.
300
Poe would not write a novel. Why?
Because he would argue that a work, in order to maintain excitement, enthusiasm, interest, focus, has to be read in one sitting. If you have to put it away, even for a day, the world intervenes and the excitement is gone. He writes about this in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition."
300
"Rip Van Winkle"
What is a short story by Washington Irving. This is the story of the title character--a lazy, do-nothing--who falls asleep for 20 years and reenters the world after the Revolutionary War. Rip is really the Benjamin Franklin anti-hero. His is neither a self-made man (as Franklin presents himself) or self-reliant (as Emerson argues Americans need to be).
300
Name the best known of the "Fireside Poets."
Who is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Many argue (including Hawthorne) that Longfellow brought American poetry out of the shadow of British poetry. His poetry helped create a national historical myth. We didn't read "The Song of Hiawatha" but this poem gets its theme from Native American folklore. this is typical of the Fireside poets. They tend to look into the past in order to create the present.
400
"Nature" is broken up into many sections. One of the sections is about language. Briefly describe Emerson's view of language.
For Emerson, language is metaphorical; it is highly symbolic. (Linguists would disagree with much of what Emerson says, but I don't think that would matter to Emerson.) Emerson says that "words are signs of natural facts." Particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts, and Nature is the symbol of spirit" (500). What he means by this is that language (like paper money) is only valuable when iit is back up by something tangible. so, says Emerson, "Parts of speech are metaphors because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind."
400
"Moonlight in a familiar room" --explain
This is from the "Custom House"--in which Hawthorne explains defines the difference between a Romance and a novel. Most simply put, the Romance can enter the world of imagination, but the novel is based on reality. (see page 29 of "The Custom House")
400
Wrote "Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl"
John Greenleaf Whittier. This long narrative (and retrospective) poem, tells the tale of his family and friends when they were snowbound by a major storm. He retells the story of them all sitting around the fire, telling stories. The poem was probably written in response to the grief he felt at the death of his younger sister, Elizabeth.
400
Define Transcendentalism.
Transcendentalism was an idealistic philosophical and literary movement that arose in New England. Transcendentalist maintained that each person is innately divine, with the intuitive ability to discover higher truth. They rejected dogmatic religious doctrines, praised self-reliance, and gloried the natural goodness of the individual. General beliefs: - each human being is innately divine - that God’s essence lies within all individuals - that there are transcendental categories of knowledge (that is categories that govern our experience and understanding, such as time and causality)—and they added more (like moral truth) (They did this by contending that individuals have the ability to discover higher truths intuitively or mystically, without recourse to the senses or logic.) Transcendentalists suggested that reliance on sensory experience and rational thought may actually impede the acquisition of transcendent truths. People can discover their moral truths in nature with the guidance of their own conscience rather than dogmatic religious doctrine.
400
He was the first American writer to support himself soley through his writing, andhe was the first writer of the nineteenth century to achieve an international reputation.
Who is Washington Irving.
500
Explain what Emerson means (generally) by self-reliance.
Mostly, this idea is summed up in the following passage: "ther is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his potion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till" (533). He means (and says so in a variety of ways throughout the essay) that it is essential to think for oneself, to come in conflict with the masses (with society), to be willing to change one's mind and speak boldly about having done so. To be self-reliant is to avoid being timid or apologetic. To be self-reliant means not looking to the past and past thinkers for answers. He says "insist on yourself; never imitate" (547). Because if we imitate, where will our next great thinkers come from? "where is the master who could have taught shakspeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton. Every great man is an unique" (547). Remember--for Emerson--to rely too heavily on society and civilization means the loss of ingenuity: "The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet" (548).
500
16. “The author has considered it hardly worth his while, therefore, relentlessly to impale the story with its moral as with an iron rod,--or, rather as by sticking a pin through a butterfly,--thus at once depriving it of life, and causing it to stiffen in an ungainly and unnatural attitude. A high truth, indeed, fairly, finely, and skillfully wrought out, brightening at every step, and crowning the final development of a work of fiction, may ad an artistic glory, but is never any truer, and seldom any more evident, at the last page than at the first.”
This is from the "preface" to the House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne is clarifying the difference between his work and that of the popular writers of the period. It gets at the notion of ambiguity in his writing. p.s. I ran out of room on this game, but you might also want to think about the opening of the novel--with the jail and the cemetary and the rose bush, Pearl's character, and the signficance of the actual Scarlet A and how it changes over time.
500
Wrote "The Slave's Dream"
Who is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is one of his anti-slavery poems and tells of the dying slave's dream of being once again in his homeland. It ends with the overseer's whip hitting the dead man--who, because he is dead, no longer feels that or the "burning heat of day."
500
American Literary Criticism began during the Romantic period. Name an important figure in this genre.
Poe, who developed an analytical approach to literary criticism, is usually credited as being America’s first real critic. (Poe was also responsible for developing the modern mystery or detective tale through works such as “The Purloined Letter.”
500
What literary genre is emerging fully in this period?
What is the novel? We didn't read any of his works, but James Fenimore Cooper is an important novelist of the period. Certainly by the time Hawthorne is publishing The Scarlet Letter, the novel was firmly established as an American genre.