British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

  Julia Cameron, photo of Ellen Terry (1864) Answer TWO of the following: Q1: What does Olalla mean when she asks the narrator, “Is it me you love, friend? or the race that made me?...We speak of the soul, but the soul is in the race” (131). According to this speech, what is preventing her from accepting the narrator’s love? What does she fear he sees--or loves--instead of "her"? Q2: How does the narrator use the term “race” throughout this story, and particularly in regards to the family? Though the family is from noble stock, why does he see himself as superior to them? Does it have something to do with his English identity?   Q3: Why does the narrator fall so desperately (and foolishly?) in love with Olalla, a woman he only glimpses from a chance meeting, and has never spoken with? How might this resemble previous lovers in other stories, particularly in a sentence like this one: “Love burned in me like rage; tenderness waxed fierce; I hat...

“ If he be Mr. Hyde...I shall be Mr. Seek ” (Stevenson 14). I: In 1890, the Metropolitan Police Service of London moved to a larger location to better meet the needs of growing crimes throughout the metropolis. They called this location New Scotland Yard, and “Scotland Yard” became synonymous with police activity in London (and still is). The late 19th century is an age of unspeakable crimes from the unsolved Whitehall Mystery to the murders of “Jack the Ripper.” Only by expanding their activity and changing how they understood the nature of “evil” could Scotland Yard hope to keep one step ahead of the criminal masterminds of London. What an exciting time to join the police force…which you have, by the way! Q: Prove that Victor Frankenstein and Henry Jekyll are criminals through their “confessions” (the books) even though both have been exonerated of their crimes! Imagine that you are investigating two “cold cases,” that of Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Henry Jekyll. In b...

Answer TWO of the following: Q1: According to Dr. Jekyll, why did he have a “Mr. Hyde” inside him? Are all of us composed of good and evil selves, fighting for domination? Or is it more complicated than that? Why does he also write, “I hazard the guess that man will be ultimately known for a mere polity of multifarious, incongruous and independent denizens” (53)? Q2: Though a short novella, Stevenson offers us a wealth of narrative perspectives including a traditional third person narration, Dr. Lanyon’s Narrative, Dr. Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case, and several mini narrations, such as Mr. Enfield’s story of the door, etc. What is the effect of all these shifts in narration and multiple perspectives? How do they complicate the story or change how we understand it? Are all of them reliable? Are they meant to make us question one or the other? Q3: When he first encounters Mr. Hyde, Enfield writes that “I had taken a loathing to the gentleman at first sight” (...

For those who can't get enough of  Frankenstein, or simply like things laid out visually, here's an article from the UK's The Guardian  that shows several facts about Shelley's life and the novel itself in charts and diagrams. Might help you on future papers! Click on the link below to read... https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/jan/13/mary-shelleys-frankenstein-in-charts  

NOTE: The reading starts with the chapter, “Day after day, week after week” if you have a different edition. Answer TWO of the following: Q1: When Victor bids farewell to Elizabeth (after planning to marry her), the 1831 text says that she “acquiesced; but she was filled with disquiet at the idea of my suffering, away from her, the inroads of misery and grief...she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.” However, the original 1818 version of the novel reads: “ Elizabeth approved of the reasons of my departure, and only regretted that she had not the same opportunities of enlarging her experience, and cultivating her understanding...We all, said she, depend upon you; and if you are miserable, what must be our feelings? ” What does the original text seem to communicate about Elizabeth’s experience that the 1831 version wipes away? Q2: When Victor finds Elizabeth slain by the Creature, he “rushed toward her, and embraced her with ardour” (166). Her also spends quite some ti...

NOTE: If you don’t have our text, try to finish at or around the chapter that begins, “The being finished speaking, and fixed his looks upon me in expectation of a reply.” Answer TWO of the following: Q1: The Creature’s education is largely undertaken by reading a series of books, notably Paradise Lost , Plutarch’s Lives, and The Sorrows of Young Werther . Why these books in particular (since Shelley could have chosen any)? What does the Creature reveal about these books that adds something significant to his education and sense of himself? Additionally, how do we know that these might have been crucial for Shelley’s own inspiration in writing the book? Q2: Many find the story of the De Lacys somewhat puzzling and out of place in the narrative. Why does Shelley include it? Though it seems hopelessly unrealistic, how might it, too, become a crucial part of the Creature’s education? Q3: At what point does the Creature become a “monster”? While Victor might argue tha...

NOTE: Read pp.5-68 in the Oxford World’s Classics version: for other versions, read until the chapter that begins, “Nothing is more painful to the human mind...”   Answer TWO of the following: Q1: Most first-time readers of Frankenstein are surprised to find that the novel begins with a frame narrative: that of Walton, the arctic explorer, who is writing home to his sister, Mrs. Saville. What purpose does this frame serve, especially since it could have all been narrated from Victor’s point of view? Also, why might Walton be a very ‘Gothic’ character in his own right? Q2: According to the story of his early education that Victor gives to Walton, what set him on the path of creating new life? How did he go from an earnest, naive young man to a “modern Prometheus” who would “pour a torrent of light into our dark world” (36)? Q3: Immediately after he creates his “monster,” Victor ends up falling asleep and has a nightmare of Elizabeth , where as soon as he kis...

INTRO: In their Introduction to The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre, editors Morrison and Baldick write that, “In the frantically competitive world of the magazines in the 1820s and 1830s, imitation was not just the sincerest form of flattery but the surest route to commercial survival. It should not, then, surprise us to find some echoes of the successful Blackwood’s tradition in the productions of its monthly rivals” (xvii-xviii). While the stories in this volume were reading and responding to stories published in the first magazine of Gothic fiction, Blackwood’s, they were also responding to each other. For this reason, we find many stories that seem obsessed with the same themes and ideas (as well as plots). PROMPT: So for your first paper, I want you choose two stories that seem to respond to or imitate each other in some important way . It doesn’t have to be literal, as in the plot of the characters (though it can), so consider larger issues such as similar themes...

NOTE: You can find these poems on the last pages of your “Christabel” handout. If you don’t have them for some reason, you can easily find these poems on-line. Each one is just over a page long, so you can read them quickly. However, each one is a quite subtle, so read more than once—and if possible, read them the first time aloud. Hear the music and consider how Keats wants you to read/experience it. SECOND NOTE: These poems are “odes,” which are addresses to a specific person or object, usually in tribute to them. In the first, he is addressing his ode to a Nightingale singing in the woods, and he imagines flying along with the bird through the darkness of the imagination. In the second, he is examining a Grecian Urn in a museum, and walking around it trying to decipher the images and characters engraved upon it. In both poems, the living bird and the work of art bring to mind his own mortality, and how much more fortunate the bird and the urn are than him—though ironical...