Istoria literaturii si civilizatiei engleze Examen 1.

Speak about the evolution of the English language: the various influence s. The origins of the English language can be traced back to the settlement of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Britain in the fifth century AD. The languages spoke n by these Germanic tribes were mutually intelligible and very quickly fused tog heter to form Old English. English was formed over a territory known today as th e British Isles.The first people in England about whose culture and language we have definite and valid knowledge are the Celts. Celtic Britain was invaded by the Romans in 55BC and extensively occupied and colonized under the reign of Cla udius; Britain became a Roman province. Latin was introduce in Britain, but it d id not replace Celtic as it did in Gaul. It was the language of civil administr ation, the army, trade, the Christian religion. After de Roman invasion England faces a new threat coming from Scandinavia, the Vikings. They eventually blende d in with the Anglo-Saxons and made important contributions to the English langu age : nouns like skirt and sky and pronouns like them and they. The power of the Anglo-Saxons was broken in AD 1066 by the Normands. The Normans came originally from Denmark but after settling on the French coast they adopted French customs and a dialect of the French language. English language was the result of a mixt ure of several Germanic dialects, brought over by the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. 2. Which are the three main periods in the history of the English language? The evolution of English in the 1500 years of its existence in England has been an unbroken one.The Middle English period was marked by great changes in the Eng lish language, both in its grammar but especially in its vocabulary. Those in th e grammar reduced English from a highly inflected language, to an analytical one . Those in the vocabulary involved the loss of a large part of the Old Englis wo rd stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin. Within th is development, however , it is possible to recognize three main periods, each o f them having certain broad characteristics : -OLD ENGLISH (450-1150), the period of full endings or full inflexions -MIDDLE ENGLISH (1150-1500), the period of leveled inflections -MODERN ENGLISH (1500-present day), the period of lost endings or lost inflectio ns. The evolution of the inflectional system in English entitles us to say that Old English was a synthetical language(one in which the relations between words are expressed by inflections), wheres Modern English is an analytical language (one in which such relations are expressed by form words and word order). 3. Which were the languages that had the strongest impact on what was to be come the English language ? English belongs to the Germanic languages, which in turn belong to the large Ind o- European family of languages. The Indo-European family is composed of the fol lowing main branches of languages : Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, I talic, Hellenic, Albanic, Armenian, Hittie. The languages which had the stronges t impact on what was to became English language are Latin, Celtic, French, Germa nic and Spanish. 4. Wherein lies the importance of the epic poem Beowulf ? Beowulf was written in Anglo- Saxon, the language which, through the centuries, has developed into the English language known today. It is the longest and oldes t heroic-poem composed in a Germanic language; it is the oldest existing work of literature of English language. The original poem was oral, and what we have to day is the result of the effort of, most probably, a monk, who changed it by add ing Christian elements. Thus Beowulf is a mixture of legend and history, pagan a nd Christian beliefs, fact and fiction, viewed traditionally as the English natio nal epic . Beowulf is a typically heroic poem, in which man is presented in clear

opposition both with nature, which appears as a malevolent force, a source of da nger and death. The main narrative is linear and simple, easy to summarize in a few words, though the style is prolix, sometimes even verbose. Beowulf gives us an image of a heroic world, much different from our own, with a different scale of values and code of honour. 5. Comment on the concept of courtly love. One of the most interesting literary phenomena in the literature of that period is that of courtly love. It had its beginnings in the love lyrics of Provence an d soon became one of the most far-reaching and revolutionary fashion in the cult ure of Europe and, above all , in the history of European sensibility. The pheno menon of courtly love was a typical development of high feudalism which gave ris e to an extraordinary flourishing of poetry, written and sung by troubadours all throughout Europe. This love was far from being simply spiritual and moral, it included on the contrary, a large area of human desires and passions; love irrad iates, has a kind of halo, it is perceived as a dynamic and ennobling force. All in all, there are four main characteristic marks of the poetry centered around courtly love : humility, courtesy, adultery and honour. 6. Which were Chaucer s three periods of creation? Chaucher was a magnificent storyteller, one of the greatest storytellers of Engl ish literature. Chaucer is the very first great name in the history of English l iterature, a treasure house where the most significant values of a whole epoch can be found, a writer who could work the most. It is customary to divide Chaucer s l iterary creation into three periods : -The French Period (up to 1372) -The Italian period (1372-1384) -The English period( 1384-1400). 7. Speak about The Canterbury Tales, an important verse chronicle of Mediev al England The Canterbury Tales, the picture of the English scene as it had never been pres ented before- observations of life as it was really lived, pictures of people wh o were real, not just abstractions from books, and a view for a life which in it s tolerance, humour, skepticism, passion and love for humanity, we can only call modern. He contemplated human nature ironically, sympathetically, with amusemen t and used the intellectual and imaginative resources of the age to bring alive the psychological and social world of his times. He was above all concerned with human character and behavior, with bringing to light all the little vanities, f ollies, absurdities, pretensions, exuberances, virtues and vices of humankind. H e had both the natural genius and the right circumstances to become the most tec hnically accomplished and universally appealing off all medieval English writers ; yet in his deeply sympathetic though realistic view of human life, lie transce nded the bounds of his time and anticipated in many ways the Renaissance spirit. In The Canterbury Tales a group of pilgrims is on its way to visit one of Engla nd s most famous cathedrals in the southern city of Canterbury a good cross-sectio n of English society of the day. 8. Chaucer created the literary language and poetic tradition: He found Engl ish brick and left it marble . Develop. Chaucer s achievements are many. For first time in the history of English letters, he gave a universally and aesthetically valid form to the specificity of an ent ire age. Linguistically, he confined himself to using the East Midlan dialect of English that was spoken in London, a dialect which he found not at all rich in words and almost completely lacking distinctive literary qualities. So we could al most say he had to create the English language we know today and to set a viable literary standard for the centuries to come, a standard which will become the c ore model of the entire English literature, and it is perhaps not an exaggeratio n to say that he found English brick and left it marble .

9. Sum up Chaucer s most important contributions to the development of the En glish literary language. If we are to sum up his great importance in the history of English literature, t here are certainly three fundamental elements to be pointed out : -he is one of the greatest narrative poets in world literature (story-teller). -he is the most accomplished chronicler of the English society of his time, givi ng us in Prologue to The Canterbury Tales a vast picture in a realistic spirit o f the late medieval English society, from courtly life to the yeomen and the ris ing bourgeoisie. -his vision of human affairs, we find in Chaucer a vitality, a strength and a un iversally in portraying his characters which transcends the quasi allegorical vi ew of most medieval literature. Thus, Chaucer proves to be ahead of his times, so that it would not be mistaken to say that was, in many aspects, the first accomplished English Renaissance wri ter. 10. The Canterbury Tales is a narrative poem about a pilgrimage. To what an extent is the poem a religious one ? What are its main merits? He uses the tales and the descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, and particularly of the Church . The Tales reflect diverse views of the Church in Chaucer's England. After the Black Death, many Europeans began to question the authority of the established C hurch. Some turned to lollardy, while others chose less extreme paths, starting new monastic orders or smaller movements exposing church corruption in the behav ior of the clergy, false church relics or abuse of indulgences.[ Several charact ers in the Tales are religious figures, and the very setting of the pilgrimage t o Canterbury is religious (although the prologue comments ironically on its mere ly seasonal attractions), making religion a significant theme of the work. 11. The development of drama in the Middle Ages. (mystery plays, miracle pla ys, morality plays) The five hundread years of the Middle Ages did not produce as much literature o f interest to the reader of today as any later single century has. English drama has its origins in the fusion of two theatrical traditions which were popular i n the Middle Ages : street performances and religious dramatisations. The Mystery plays were based on stories from the Bible. Each Mystery play was a single episode such as the Fall of Lucifer, Noah s Flood or the Crucifixion and Re surrection. Together they formed The Mystery Cycle, which told the story of Chri stianity from Creation to the Last Judgement.Miracle plays were dramatization of the lives of the saints, and were performed to celebrate the great Christian ev ents of the Nativity and the Resurrection during the festivals of Christamas and Easter.As liturgical drama become more popular, the churches grew more crowded and eventually religious performances had to move outside. With time the Miracle and Mystery plays became more elaborate and incorporated elements of street the atre such as humour and parody. During the fourteenth century another type of play, the Morality play, became ex tremely popular. Morality plays were not religious : their main purpose was to t each a moral lesson. They were allegorical tales in which the characters were pe rsonifications of abstract concepts such as greed, laziness and kindness. 12. Describe the general background from earliest times to 1666 For how long the windswept islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe were uninhabited remains a mystery. When and why the first human beings set foo t on British and Irish soil must also remain a matter for speculation. What is k nown is that those first adventurers were followed by various identifiable group s of migrants who settled into their new home. In ancient times Britain was inhabited by Iberians. Little is known of these peo

ple who left behind them the barrows (large mound graves made of earth and stone ) that can still be seen in the south of Britain and at Stonehenge, a mysterious circle of stones. Britain had been Christian under the Romans, but the pagan Anglo-Saxons pushed C hristianity westward and northward, where it survived in Pope Gregory I sent a m onk, Augustine, to bring Christianity back to England. Augustine established a C hristian community in Canterbury and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Churches were built all over the country and monks, whose simple monastic lives appealed to the common people, played a major role in the conversion of the Angl o-Saxons. With Christianity came Latin learning and the converted Anglo-Saxons produced ac ademic and scientific works of remarkable quality for the period. The Venerable Bede, a scholar and historian, wrote, in Latin, the first history of England. Ho wever, nearly all the treasures of this golden cultural age were destroyed along with many monasteries by Britain s next invaders. 13. Define the term renaissance . The original meaning of the concept of renaissance for those who actually took part in it was the rebirth of classical Greek and Latin literature. The re-awakeni ng of interest in classical Greece affected all aspects of culture. 14. How did Renaissance begin in England ? In England Renaissance began in the early 16th century, though the peak of its d evelopment will be reached during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Despite the political instability and the military failures, the economic development of England advanced rapidly, strengthening the importance of the classes that were to be the main backers of monarchy. 15. Define Humanism; compare the Renaissance paradigm to the medieval one; is th ere a sense of continuity or change? Perhaps the most important development in the sixteenth century was the revival of interest in classical culture known as Humanism. In 1453 Constantinople feel to the Turks. The Greek refugees who fled to Italy b rought with them masterpieces of Greek literature, science, physics, mathematics , astronomy and medicine. From Italy, Humanism spread to other countries, where it was embraced by great men of learning such as the Dutchman Erasmus, the Frenc hman Montaigne and the Englishman Thomas More. Humanism was a radical departure from the principles the governed medieval art a nd literature. The focus of attention was no longer God but Man. Love of this wo rld was underlined rather than preparations for the next. For the first time man was explored as an individual, and the idea that a man could shape his own dest iny was widely accepted. The re-awakening of interest in classical Greece affect ed all aspects of culture, and took place during the period called The Renaissan ce. Compared to other European countries such as Italy, the renaissance came rel atively late to England. Its first great exponent was Thomas More. 16. How did the tradition of the sonnet begin in England? What makes Renaissance truly outstanding in literary history is the range and th e vitality of language, nowhere more exquisitely illustrated than in the poetry of four great figures of the English verse after Chaucer : Wyatt, Surrey, Sydney and Spenser. The lyric form they favoured was the sonnet, whose originis are to be found in Italy and the ordinary form of which consists of fourteen lines, us ually in iambic pentameters with considerable variations in the rhyme scheme. It s original form was the Petrarchan sonnet. The original and commonest form was l ater transformed by both Surrey and Spenser, and given perfection by Shakeaspear e.

17.Tell the story of Doctor Faust by Christopher Marlowe. Focus on the main aspe cts on the play Faustus, having studied and been disappointed by all the sciences, decides to ex plore the world of magic. Through magic he calls up Mephistopheles, a devil, and makes an agreement with him: he will give his soul to Lucifer in return for twe nty-four years of his life. During this time, Mephistopheles will be his servant and do anything he asks him to do. For the rest of his life, Faustus indulges i n every imaginable earthly pleasure and thanks to the magical intervention of Me phistopheles, meets famous people from the past like Helen of Troy. 18. Define blank verse ; where was it first used? Blank verse consists of unrhymed iambic pentameters-ten-syllable lines in which unstressed syllabes are followed by streddes syllabes. Blank verse is the verse from that most closely resembles the natural rythms of English speech and it is the most frequently used verse form in English literatu re. It was first used in drama by Christopher Marlowe and became the standard me tre for plays in the Elizabethan period. Doctor Faustus is written primarily in blank verse. However Marlowe did not always strictly adhere to its rules. 19. Speak about the chronology of Shakeaspeare s Sonnets. Exemplify Shakespeare s work is usually divided into periods, but they seem to be self-evide nt and so irrelevant; however, for reasons of accuracy and pedagogical simplific ation, it would be helpful to chart the evolution of his writing along certain i mportant dividing years: 1. The first (early) period (1589-1600) dominated by romantic comedies, chr onicle plays and a few romantic tragedies; it is also the period of the epic poe ms and of the sonnets. It was also a period of learning and experimentation; Sha kespeare wrote different types of plays: chronicle plays dealing with the histor y of England, such as Henry VI and Richard III which include A Midsummer Night s D ream and The Taming of the Shrew; the tragedies Titus Andronicus and Romeo and J uliet. The period is also marked by youth dreams and exuberant spirits. 2. The second period (1601-1608) dominated by the great, somber tragedies a nd a few dark comedies. It is the period of the great chronicles and romantic come dies. The fat Falstaff rolls through the plays of King Henry IV and recurs in Th e Merry Wives of Windsor, said to have been written at the queen s request to see Falstaff in love; by this time Shakespeare had a proprietary interest in the Glo be theater for which he wrote three great comedies: Much Ado about nothing, As Y ou Like It and Twelfth Night. They have certain elements in common, such as the plot turning on concealed identity, the witty, self-reliant heroines and the ind ividualized comic characters. In spite of their farcical elements all three of t hese comedies partake of the idyll and are imbued with the most delicate romance . 3. The third period (1608-1613) dominated by a set of plays that show a cle arly changed vision, usually called romance . It is marked by depression and traged y; among several plays laid in Ancient Greece and Rome, the best known is Julius Caesar, analyzing man s relation to the state. Even greater are four tragedies wh ich touch the depths of human experience in various stages of life. The young pr ince in Hamlet shows a sensitive and subtle intellect struggling to cope with th e adverse circumstances of life. Othello is a powerful study of love in middle l ife slain by overmastering jealousy and suspicion. Macbeth analyzes the soul of the mature, grasping ruler who sacrifices everyone to gratify his inordinate per sonal ambition. King Lear gives a picture of an aged, childish king driven mad b y the ingratitude of his daughters. 4. The fourth period. With the fourth period the storm and stress of Shakes peare s inner spirit seems to have passed away. A Winter s Tale and The Tempest are plays of warmth and reconciliation; old wrongs are righted and forgiven in the e nd. He returns to the spirited fantasy and tender romance of the earlier comedie s. Another way of looking at Shakespeare s work and trying to classify, it is to d ivide his literary creation into genres. Thus we would have: epic poetry, lyric poetry, dramatic poetry. Shakespeare portrayed a gallery of characters, such as

Hamlet, a complex and sensitive idealist who is paralyzed by indecision; king Le ar, a proud misguided father who loses his mind when he understands his daughter s true nature; Othello, a victim of his enemy s envy and treachery; Macbeth, a soli der who is transformed into murderer by ambition; lady Macbeth, an ambitious wif e who realizes, too late, the horror of what she has done. 20. Shakespeare s life and work. The beginnings Little is William s Shakepseare s life. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, probably on April 23rd. His father, a glover by trade, was a prominent local fi gure who held important positions in the government of the town. His mother came from a prosperous local family. William Shakespeare probably attended Sratford grammar school, but he did not go on to study at university. When he was eighteen he married Anne Hathaway, who w as eight years his senior, and six months later his first child Susanna was born , followed three years later by twins Hamnet and Judith. It is commonly believed that Shakespeare left Stratford to avoid being arrested for poaching. Career he went to London where he did a series of jobs, including holding theatr e-goers horses outside playhouses. He eventually became an actor, and by 1592 he was sufficiently well-known as a dramatist to be the subject of an attack by the playwright Robert Greene. He wrote a pamphlet in which he complained that unedu cated dramatists were becoming more popular than university men like himself. In it he called Shakespeare an upstart Crow, beautifiled with our feathers. Success and prosperity in 1595 Shakespeare joined an important company of actors called The Lord Chamberlain s Man and performed at court. His success as a dramat ist grew. He mixed in high social circles and the Earl of Southampton, to whom h e dedicated his sonnets, became his patron and friend. His improved financial st anding allowed him to invest in the building of the Globe Theatre and in 1597 he bought New Place, the finest house in Stratford. Retirement and death he retire s to his hometown in 1611, where he died on April 23rd 1616. 21.Shakespeare s epic poems Venus and Adonis, the exuberant erotic poem was Shakespeare s most popular publish ed literary work in his time, running through at least ten editions between its first appearance in 1593 and its author s death in 1616. In remains one of the few major works in world literature to depict the passionate pursuit of a male obje ct by a female subject. Shakespeare s dedication of Venus and Adonis to Henry Wrio theskey, Earl of Southampton, calls it the first heir of my invention , contrasting this legitimate venture into verse on a classical subject with Shakespeare s earl ier work for the stage. The subject of the poem is taken from Greek, mythology and Ovid s Metamorphoses ac counts for it in part. Venus the goddess falls in love with a mortal, the handso me Adonis, who rejects her love and is consequently punished. The central theme revolves around the idea revolves around the idea of physical passion, and in sp ite of this passion comes through with intensity in a good many lines of the poe m. The exquisite presentation of nature, despite the conventional theme and past oral setting, and the refinement of language make it into a delightful, through hardly mature, poem. The Rape of Lucrece-the plot is borrowed from Ovid, and has at its centre the la st king of Rome, whose son Tarquin falls in love with a beautiful Roman matron, Lucrece, the wife of one of the most important noblemen in Rome, and while every body in Rome is away at war. Tarquin returns at night secretly and, blinded by l ust, forces his love upon Lucrece, raping her. She cannot accept dishonor and li ve with the shame, so she commits suicide. Potentially, this is a great theme an d Shakespeare treats a very similar once in a Titus Andronicus, but for some rea son, The Rape of Lucrece, though with gorgeous passages, suffers from rhetoric: it is too long, too tiresome, the language is artificial and forced-and somehow obscures the sense of genuine tragical grandeur. It is quite clear in both epic poems that Shakespeare s genius lay in a quite dif ferent direction, and once these two poems reached their aim, and made him into a household name in upper-class Elizabethan houses, he turned his attention to l

yrical poetry and drama. 22. Speak about Shakespeare s Sonnets. Exemplify. Shakespeare s sonnets-154 in all-were first published in 1609 without the knowledg e or consent of their author. Though there is very little direct evidence which might point to a specific date of composition, on stylistic grounds it is believ ed that they were written at an earlier date. The sonnets have been conventional ly divided into two groupings: Sonnets 1-126 are addressed to or concern an unnamed fair youth , probably Shakespe are s friend and patron the Eral of Southampton. Are about a woman who is conventionally referred to as the dark lady , presumably S hakespeare s mistress. The poet speaks about his troubled love for the woman and d escribes a painful relationship in which they are both unfaithful to each other. Themes The range of emotions explored in the sonnets is extraordinary: confident declarations of unselfish love, sad parting words, expressions of joy at reunio n or bitter disappointment at mutual infidelity. Styles The range of styles is greatly varied. In many sonnets the style is compl ex and rich while in others the vocabulary, syntax and form are disarmingly simp le. The best of the sonnets are widely considered to be the finest love poems in English literature. 23.What is the Sonnets main theme? Is that the traditional Petrarchan theme? The Sonnets have been regarded as Shakespeare s most important and distinctive con tributions to lyric poetry, as well as the most enigmatic works in the cannon Sh akespeare s sonnets, 154 in all.Although there is little direct evidence which mig ht point to a particular date of composition, on stylistic grounds it is believe d that they were written at an earlier date. In contrast to the Petrarchan sonne t, made up of fourteen lines rhyming abba abba cd cd cd; or abba abba cdd cdd, t he form that Shakespeare uses and which is sometimes called the Shakespearean so nnet has three quatrains and a couplet rhyming abab cdcd gg. It is a simple form , but very effective, for it allows for a fairly lengthy exposition with the fma l couplet providing either an answer or a surprising twist in the end which laun ches the whole poem into unexpected metaphysical regions.Shakespeare wrote the s onnets within a well established convention of sonneteering, yet hee left out mu ch of it: love is no longer personified as a god, the military metaphors of cour tly love tradition vanish with Shakespeare. 24.What are the main merits of the Sonnets? Refer to stylistic aspects and forma l innovations. The standard episode of the kiss is missing, there is no pastoralism, no address to a river, no catalogue of delights and cosmological, astrological or heraldic elements. One the contrary, we are often astonished at the extraordinarily dire ct intensity of Shakespeare s language, its raw power, energy and freshness, despi te the rhetorical and stylistic flourishes. 25. Define comedy and humor (its three categories). Exemplify with Shakespeare s p lay A Midsummer Night s Dream. Comedy is a major form of drama. In it the characters amuse and entertain us rat her than engage our profound concern. We are confident that great disasters will not occur and we know that the action will usually turn out happily for the chi ef characters. Humor is the main ingredient of a comedy. It can be divided into three broad categories: Verbal humor, when what the characters say it is funny; Behavioural humour, when what the characters do is funny; Situational humor; when the situation the characters find themselves in is funny . In the case of most comedy the humour is a mixture of all three categories. 26. Does Shakespeare conform to the classical principles of tragedies? Wherein l ies the merit of his tragedies? Tragedy is defined in Aristotle s Poetics in terms of a number of characteristics: -it is the dramatic story of a noble character who through a tragic fault meets

with a downfall which arouses the pity and awe of the audience, resulting in cat harsis -the unities of tragedy, of time, of space and of action -hubris (pride, the most frequent tragic flaw through which all the characters a ttract upon themselves the anger of the Gods) After Aristotle, all the definitions had to go back to this Aristotelian model. Turning to Shakespeare s tragedies a notice similarities but also areas where Sha kespeare does not follow the Aristotelian lines. One such example is the way the letter mingles tragic and comic aspects; it is quite clear from the patterns Sh akespeare uses comedy in a highly sophisticated way, on the one hand to introduc e comic relief, on the other, to face us with the challenge of totality (the vis ion is total: heaven and earth, paradise and hell, love and hate). Here, the com ic elements, the satirical and farcical elements play more than a satirical role , they are central to an aspect of the wholeness of being, life is everything. 27. Define setting. Exemplify with A Midsummer Night s Dream. A Midsummer Night s Dream takes place in the daytime world of Athens, a state of d isciplined order and down-to-earth reality, and the night-time world of the ench anted wood, a realm of disorder and fantasy. These two distinct settings must be created by stage scenery, properties (props) and lighting. Settings for a play may vary from extravagant to expensive sets to essential or abstract staging, de pending on the budget that is available and the personal preferences of the dire ctor. Whatever the case may be, the stage settings should not be a distraction b ut should enhance the audience s understanding of the play. 28. Why did Shakespeare write romances towards the end of his career? Is there a connection between his motives and the structure of the romances? The last period of Shakespeare s creation is dominated by an effort to give artist ic form to a new symbolic conception that unites all the p lays written in this period into a common vision of reconciliation, rebirth and redemption, a newly f ound happiness, balance and equilibrium. At the heart of each of these plays the re is an organic relationship between breakdown and reconstruction, between the division created in the most intimate of human bonds by the action of time and p assion and the final healing and reconciliation. 29. Speak about dramatic tension and dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet. One of the greatest tasks facing a playwright is capturing and maintaining the a udience s attention. This is often done through dramatic tension or suspense. Susp ense or tension is created when the audience is uncertain about what is going to happen. In the case of the scene you have read there are two sources of suspens e: At the beginning of the scene Juliet does not know that Romeo is in the orchard listening to what she is saying. The audience is, however, aware of Romeo s presen ce. This is an example of dramatic irony. The audience knows something that one or more of the characters on stage do not know. Dramatic irony is often used to add humour are suspense to a scene. In this case, as Juliet speaks there is a da nger that she may say something which Romeo will misinterpret. Overhead conversa tions are often the source of misunderstanding in drama. The audience is kept in suspense until Romeo reveals himself in line 18. The fact that Romeo may be discovered by Juliet s family also creates suspense. Th e tender atmosphere which the lovers create may at any moment be violated by the hatred and violence of Juliet s family. The presence of danger heightens the tens ion and makes the scene even more romantic. 30. What is the impact of the Italian influence in the development of Renaissanc e? The mental stirring of the whole of Europe through the fourteenth, fifteenth, an d sixteenth century is called the Renaissance, or rebirth; it began in Italy; be

cause currents then moved slowly, as compared with today, England was not swept into the tide until the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, although C haucer s travels brought him under the influence of Petrarch and Bocaccio. Petrarc h s spirit had to wait almost two hounded years for its fulfillment in the Elizabe than poets. In Italy the development of art was a marked aspect of Renaissance. 31. Define the term tragedy ; exemplify with Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. This is a form of drama in which the chief charac ter, the tragic hero, undergoes a series of misfortunes which eventually lead to his downfall. The hero passes a state of happiness to a state of despair becaus e of some weakness tragic flaw- in himself. The tragic hero is an important man o f high social standing. He is not evil-he is a mixture of good and bed. The audi ence understands his weakness but feels pity for him because his misfortunes are greater than he deserves. He is usually doomed from the beginning and there are often premonitions of his downfall in what he says. It is often fate or superna tural elements that control his destiny, and death is generally the only escape he can find from pain and suffering. Romeo is a good example of a tragic hero. H e belongs to an important family. A series of unfortunate events lead to his dow nfall: he falls in love with Juliet-daughter of his enemies the Capulets-, he ki lls Tybalt in a street fight, he does not receive Friar Lawrence s message . Romeo s tragic flaw is his impulsiveness and his passionate nature. He becomes totally engrossed in his love for Juliet and he does not consider the consequences of wh at he is doing. 32. Chaucer s Canterbury Tales. The General Prologue This unfinished poem of about 17.000 lines was written mostly after 1387 and is widely considered to be one of the most brilliant works of all literature. The p oem introduces a group of pilgrims who are journeying from London to the shrine of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. They meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, Lond on, where the host, Harry Bailly, proposes that they have a storytelling competi tion. The best storyteller will be given a free supper on his or her return to L ondon. Chaucer originally planned that the work should contain 120 tales, four f or each pilgrim, but at the time of his death he had only written twenty-four an d some of them were not completed. The prologue The pilgrims are described in the General Prologue; together, they represent a w ide cross-section of fourteenth-century English life, although the nobility and the poor are missing as they would not have taken part in this type of group pil grimage. The tales The tales are structured as a series of interlinked stories. Each tale is preced ed by a prologue in which the storyteller speaks about himself. The themes of th e tales are vary from the spiritual to earthy and humorous. The pilgrims are oft en illmannered and quarrelsome and frequently interrupt and criticize each other . The Miller, for example, tells a story about an ageing carpenter whose young w ife is unfaithful to him. The Reeve, who is a trained carpenter, retaliates, wit h a tale about a miller who is also betrayed by his wife. Many of the tales coun terbalance or give another point of view to the ideas presented in the preceding tale. The tales permit open dialogue between people from different levels of so ciety. The pilgrims tales include a variety of medieval genres that range from hu morous beast fables* to the serious homily or sermon. Why it is a masterpiece The Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece for numerous reason: It is written in English in a period when it was a forgone conclusion that all s erious writing had to be done in Latin or French. Chaucer himself was fluent in both these languages as well as in Italian; It is a valuable social document as it gives us an insight into a cross-section of fourteenth-century English society; It includes experimentation with rhyme and rhythm patterns that greatly affected

the literature that followed; It contains a cast of memorable characters that are brought to life by Chauser s s uperb powers of characterization. It is for these outstanding achievements that Chaucer is generally regarded as t he father of English poetry. The Canterbury Tales was one of the first works to be printed by William Caxton s revolutionary printing press in 1478, and it has ne ver been out of print since then. 33. Characterize the Age of Chaucer (the 14th century) Chaucer lived in an eventful age, in the 14 century. It was both for England and for Europe as a whole, the last century of the Middle Ages, a period of transit ion from a self-sufficient, autarchic view of the world to a world of possibilit ies, of openness and new horizons, which is what the Renaissance brought forth. It was a century marked by great military and demographic catastrophes: the hund red years war, the outbreak of the plague known as the Black Death, which smote the country three times during Chaucer s life, the Peasant s Revolt led by the Wat T yler(1381), all of them having had a profound impact upon people s lives and beli efs. The 14th century was by far the most interesting period thought the Middle Ages, and this is best reflected because famous controversy between the realists and the nominalists concerning the working of the universe. The most important characteristic of this world is that it was God-centred. This does not necessatily mean that it was a world dominated by religion but rather it was overwhelmingly imbued with the presence of God. God was in everything, in every public event, in warfare, culture, politics, even in the calendar. This world is nothing but a valley of tears, life is precarious, constantly thre atened by natural disasters, by famine, plague, crime and endemic wars; it is a world of corruption, made insecure by the looming presence of death; it is what the Ecclesiastics had called vanitas vanitatum 34. How is the Prioress? Did she love small animals? How were her manners at tab le? The Prioress was a Nun, a female who is connected with the world of religion. Sh e is the head nun in a convent. She love small animals because she care about th em, feed tmes with roasted flesh, or milk, or fine white bread. At the table she is full of refinement, is a meticulous person; the Prioress does not drop the t iniest particle of food or sauce and leaves no trace of grease on her glass. 35. The Wife of Bath was a religiously devout person; how could you prove this? The Wife of Bath was a religiously devout person because : -she attended mass and communion -was married in church -went in many pilgrimages 36. What kind of woman was the Wife of Bath? (independent, sociable, attractive, extrovert, vivacious, modest, successful, generous, strong-willed). Motivate. The Wife of Bath was a woman that has many defects, but also she has many qualit ies; she is sociable, attractive, successful, because she goes in a lot of pilgr images, she was married for many times. 37. The striking of the clock in Doctor Faustus is mentioned three times. What e ffect do you think the reference to the passing of time would have on an audienc e? I think that the effect of the striking of the clock in Doctor Faustus is used t o add suspense to the scene, because the audience is uncertain about what is goi ng to happen..Audience becomes more curious to see the end of Faustus. 38. What is the story of Romeo and Juliet? The Montagues and the Capulets are the two chief families of Verona, and for yea rs they have been enemies in a bitter feud. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Cap ulet, fall madly in love but they realize that their families will try to stand in their way. Everything starts to go wrong for the two lovers. In a fight, Rome

o kills Tybald and as a punishment, he is banished from Verona to Mantua. Juliet finds out that Romeo has to leave Verona and so the two lovers decide to get ma rried in secret. They are married by Friar Lawrence. Juliet is very sad and depressed when Romeo goes away. Her father insists that the best way to cheer her up is to have her marry Paris, an old friend, but Juli et refuses. In desperation she asks Friar Lawrence to help her get out of the ma rriage with Paris and reunite her with Romeo. Friar Lawrence devises an ingeniou s plan to help Juliet. He tells her to drink a magic drink potion which will mak e her lose consciousness and everyone will think she is dead. However, she will wake up after forty-two hours, and when she does, Romeo will be there to take he r to Mantua. Juliet does as Friar Lawrence sends Romeo a letter telling him abou t the plan but Romeo does not receive it. He only hears that Juliet is dead. He rushes back to Verona and, when he gets to the graveyard, he finds her seemingly lifeless body. Overcome by grief, he kills himself. When the effect of the poti on wears off, Juliet wakes up. She sees Romeo s dead body and commits suicide. The two families realize that their feud has led to the deaths of the two lovers an d promise never to fight again. 39. Romeo s love for Juliet is almost religious in its intensity. Motivate. Almost the Romeo s love for Juliet is religious in its intensity because when he s peakes to Juliet he used religious terms like baptised , dear saint . Romeo and Juliet does not make a specific moral statement about the relationships between love a nd society, religion, and family; rather, it portrays the chaos and passion of b eing in love, combining images of love, violence, death, religion, and family in an impressionistic rush leading to the play s tragic conclusion. 40. What is the story of Shakespeare s tragedy Hamlet? Hamlet is probably the best-known character from Shakespeare s plays. He is a youn g men who has to deal with the terrible trauma caused by his father s murder. What intrigues many theatergoers and literary critics is Hamlet s psychological make-u p. Is he strong or weak? Is he really mad or is he only pretending? These and ma ny more questions continue to be asked about this fascinating character. The story Claudius kills his brother Old Hamlet, marries his widow Gertrude and becomes Ki ng of Denmark. One evening Hamlet sees his father ghost who ask him to avenge his death. From that day on he starts to act strangely and seems, to many people, t o be going mad. He dearly wants to get revenge by killing Claudius but finds it hard to actually do it. He rejects Ophelia, and continues to behave very oddly. Claudius begins to suspect that he might know something about the murder and ask Polonius to spy on him. While Hamlet is talking to his mother, Polonius hides b ehind a curtain to overhear what is being sad. Hamlet realizes someone is there and stabs Polonius to death through the curtain. Claudius then decides to send Hamlet away from England with two of courtiers, wh o are under orders to kill him. Hamlet outsmarts them and returns home to learn that Ophelia has died in a state of madness and desperation. In a final attempt to get rid of Hamlet, Claudius organizes a sword fight between him and Laertes. His plan goes terribly wrong, however, and although Hamlet does die, Claudius, G ertrude and Laertes are also killed. In this very famous speech Hamlet asks why man does not lose his will to live despite the obstacles he has to overcome. 41. How can you describe the tone of Hamlet s speech? (passionate, ironic, optimis tic, melancholic, philosophical, proud ). Motivate. The tone of Hamlet s speech can be describe as philosophical To be or not to be tha t is the question , ironic and melancholic because he is caught between the desire to avenge the death of their father and the desire to punish their mother. 42. What aspects of Hamlet s character emerge from his monologue? (his confusion, lack of courage, melancholy nature, weariness, strong religious convictions, des ire for revenge, hatred of his uncle, indecision ). The aspects of Hamlet s character that emerge from this monologue are : his confus ion, his melancholy nature, his desire for revenge, his hatred of his uncle and his indecision because he wants to revenge his father dead and in the same time

he wanted to punish his mother. 43. How would you describe Hamlet s attitude towards his mother in the opening lin es of the monologue? (provocative, loving, sympathetic, respectful, mocking). M otivate. Hamlet attitude towards his mother in the opening lines of the monologue is prov ocative and mocking because he wants his mother to be punished and she recognize their mistake. 44. What is the attitude of the queen towards Hamlet? The queen remember her past relationship with Hamlet that was positive, she lov es Hamlet and is afraid of what he might do in his curent state and she is conce rned about Hamlet well-being. 45. How would you describe Hamlet s character? (mad, rational, forgiving, hysteric al, confused, heartless, passionate). Motivate. The character of Hamlet is confused and mad, he is driven by a burning desire f or revenge, to punish his mother and at the same time he is confused and don t kno w what to do. 46. Tell the story of Macbeth On their return from a victorious campaign, Macbeth and Banquo meet three witche s. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will be made Thane of Cawdor, while Banquo s sons will become kings. The first prediction comes true immediately. Lady Macbet h is not content, however, because she wants her husband to be king and convince s him to kill Duncan. The king s sons are wrongly suspected of the murder and flee abroad. Macbeth is crowned king. Macbeth feels that Banquo and his son could be a threat to his throne, so he ord ers their assassination. The murderers manage to kill Banquo but Fleance escapes . Soon after the killing, Banquo s ghost appears to Macbeth and he becomes increas ingly worried about his evil actions, which he sees no way of stopping. His wife has also been shaken by events and starts showing the first signs of madness. He goes back to the witches to find out what will happen in the future. They tel l him to be wary of Macduff, who has joined Malcom in England, where they are ra ising an army to attack Macbeth and dethrone him. When Macbeth hears of their pl an he sends his soldiers to Macduff s castle where they kill Macduff s wife and chil dren. Macduff and Malcolm gather their forces and march on Scotland. Macbeth sets up h is defences in Dunsinane castle and waits for the enemy to arrive. Just before t he battle, to his great surprise, he hears that Lady Macbeth has committed suici de. He fights bravely but is killed in a fight by Macduff, while Malcom is crown ed as king of Scotland. 47. Why is it suitable that the raven sounds fanfare for Duncan s entrance into Macb eth s castle It is suitable that the raven sounds fanfare for Duncan s entrance into Macbeth s cast le to announce his arrival.The raven is the symbol of the death, it makes a low sound the fatal entrance of Duncan. 48. According to Lady Macbeth, her husband should pretend to be a flower while a ctually being the serpent beneath it. What associations do you make with the ima ge of the serpent ? The snake has long been used as a symbol of sly attitude. A serpent's presence h as been characterized by cunning disbelief dating as far back as biblical times, when the snake persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of Eden's garden. Even the phrase "snake in the grass" expresses hidden threat. Shakespeare uses this t reacherous reptile in Macbeth to convey the same evil. Images commonly associate d with serpents are usually that of sneakiness, or betrayal. 49. Macbeth s mood changes dramatically; which of the adjectives best describe his mood? (hesitant, defiant, morbid, reflective, confident, somber, nostalgic, ph ilosophical ) The adjectives that best describe the mood of Macbeth are : defiant, nostalgic because he faced a lot of difficulties, he is no more fearful and reflective bec ause he think that he can do something to save his wife s life. 50. Define the figure of speech . Exemplify with Shakespeare s Hamlet. A figure of speech is any use of language which deviates from the obvious or com

mon usage in order to achieve a special meaning or effect. We use figures of spe ech in every day conversation when we say, for example, money talks or they are lik e two peas in a pod (similie). In literature, figures of speech are used to create a stronger intellectual or e motional impact on the reader or spectator and to add a range of depth of associ ation. For example, when Hamlet describes his father and Claudius he uses striki ng figures of speech which make the description stronger and more memorable. Whe n a writer s work rich in figures of speech we describe his style as figurative. H amlet is an excellent example of highly figurative writing. 51. What is metaphor? Mention its functions The language of Shakespeare s plays is highly poetic. One of the elements that giv es his work a poetic quality is the use of metaphors. A metaphor is an implied c omparison which creates a total identification between the two things being comp ared. Words such as like or as are not used. A metaphor is made up of three elements :The tenor, i.e. the subject under discussion (for example life )The vehicle, i.e. what the subject is compared to (for example, a candle )The ground, i.e. what the p oet believes the tenor and the vehicle have in common (for example, brevity ).Metap hors have several important functions. They arouse emotions and feelings and hel p us to create mental pictures that are memorable. They often appeal to our sens es. They comprss meaning into few lines and help us to understand difficult abst ract ideas by making reference to familiar concrete items. 52. Define a parody. Exemplify with Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare A parody imitates the work of another author, usually with the intention of ridi culing it. Shakespeare s Sonnet 130 is a parody of a form of poetry which was a po pular in Elizabethan England. The Petrarchan love sonnet, in which a poet compar ed his lover to natural beauties, was named after the fourteenth-century Italian poet who wrote a series of love sonnets for his beloved Laura. This form of poe try was first imitated in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt at the beginning of the si xteenth century and met with great success. Shakespeare himself often wrote this form of love sonnet. However, in Sonnet 130 he he chooses to make fun of it. 53. What is the message of Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare The message of Sonnet 130 by Wiliam Shakespeare is that the truth love does not demand physical perfection. 54. Define simile A simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison between two distinctly diff erent things is indicated by the word like or as . Like a metaphor, a simile is made up of three elements: The tenor, i.e. the subject under discussion; The vehicle, i.e. that the subject is compared to; The ground, i.e. what the poet believes the tenor and the vehicle have in common . 55. Speak about Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare.(vezi subiectul 58) 56. Which of the metaphors for life in Macbeth s monologue do you find most striki ng and why? Metaphors for life in Macbeth s monologue Life s but a walking shadow, a poor player , Life is a brief candle , by these metaphors he wants to emphasize the fragility of life and that is something passing. Life must be lived like a candle because we do not know when it goes off and we need to try to go through it in the best an d easiest way. 57. Analyse Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare. Sonnet 130 is a pleasure to read for its simplicity and frankness of expression. It is also one of the few of Shakespeare's sonnets with a distinctly humorous t one. Its message is simple: the dark lady's beauty cannot be compared to the bea uty of a goddess or to that found in nature, for she is but a mortal human being . The sonnet is generally considered a humorous parody of the typical love sonnet.

Petrarch, for example, addressed many of his most famous sonnets to an idealize d woman named Laura, whose beauty he often likened to that of a goddess. In star k contrast Shakespeare makes no attempt at deification of the dark lady; in fact he shuns it outright, as we see in lines 11-12: "I grant I never saw a goddess go; / My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground." Here the poet explicit ly states that his mistress is not a goddess. She is also not as beautiful as things found in nature, another typical source o f inspiration for the average sonneteer: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; / Coral is far more red than her lips' red." Yet the narrator loves her no netheless, and in the closing couplet says that in fact she is just as extraordi nary ("rare") as any woman described with such exaggerated or false comparisons. It is indeed this blunt but charming sincerity that has made sonnet 130 one of the most famous in the sequence. However, while the narrator's honesty in sonnet 130 may seem commendable, we mus t not forget that Shakespeare himself was a master of the compliment and frequen tly made use of the very same sorts of exaggerated comparisons satirized here. W e even find them elsewhere in the sonnets, and in great abundance, too; note tha t while his "mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," his fair lord's indeed ar e, as in sonnet 49: "And scarcely greet me with that sun, thine eye." This may lead one to wonder, is it really pure honesty that the poet is showing in sonnet 130, or is there also some ulterior sentiment, perhaps that the dark l ady is not deserving of the narrator's fine words? Or perhaps she is deserving b ut such words are not necessary, as though the narrator feels comfortable enough with the dark lady that he is able to show such honesty (which his insecurity r egarding the fair lord prevents him from doing)? There are many ways to interpre t how the poet's psychological state may have influenced stylistic choices in hi s writing, but these sonnets do not provide definitive proof. 58. Analyse Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare. The emotional state of the speaker in Sonnet 29 is one of depression: in the fir st line, he assumes himself to be "in disgrace with fortune," meaning he has bee n having bad luck. He also feels in disgrace with "men's eyes," implying that th e general public looks on him unfavorably. This could be real or imagined, but i t is enforced in line 2, when he bemoans his "outcast state." Here, "state" refe rs to a state of being, and in this case, he is cast out from society. Lines 3-4 make allusion to Job of the Old Testament in the Bible, who was cast o ut onto a dung heap and called to a God who didn't listen. The poet finds himsel f in the same situation: Heaven personified is God, and in this case he is "deaf ," making the poet's cries "bootless," or useless. The idea of cursing one's fat e also hearkens to Job, who cursed himself after falling out of God's favor. The speaker finds himself envying what others have, and in lines 5-9 he sees alm ost everyone as having something he lacks. He wishes to be like "one more rich i n hope," perhaps meaning hopeful or literally wealthy; "featured like him," refe rs to someone who is handsome, with beautiful features; and another is "with fri ends possessed," or popular, unlike the poet (as has been established in the fir st two lines). In line 7, he envies the artistic talent of one man, and the oppo rtunities afforded someone else. The simile of a lark is developed in lines 10-12, when the speaker describes the effect that a thought of his love has on his "state," or emotional well-being. The fact that the lark rises from the "sullen earth" at "break of day" implies t hat the day is much happier than the night; day break is compared to the dawning of a thought of the beloved. As the lark "sings hymns at heaven's gate," so the poet's soul is invigorated with the thought of the fair lord, and seems to sing to the sky with rejuvenated hope. The final couplet of Sonnet 29 declares that this joyfulness brought about by a thought of the fair lord is enough to convince the speaker that he is better off than royalty. Here, "state" is a pun: it carries the meaning of emotional wellbeing, as it did earlier in the poem, and suggests that the love of the fair lor d makes the speaker so happy that all the wealth of a king would not be better. But it also refers to a nation, or a kingdom.