Good evening everyone! These are the assignments that are due and payable on the first day of school which is about two weeks away. They are: Finish reading FRANKENSTEIN and CRIME and PUNISHMENT. Finish the short forms for each novel. Read the assignments in the ENGLAND in LITERATURE textbook and answer in complete sentences in clear, legible handwriting or on computer, on clean, crisp sheets of paper the following questions: Please read Andrew Marvell's bio and his poem "To His Coy Mistress" (pages 288 - 290). Please answer the questions on page 291 and answer question #1 under "Understanding; questions # 2 and #3 under "Analyzing" and question #4 under "Extending". Please read John Donne"s bio on page 278 and read the following: "Song", page 279 "The Bait", page 280 "A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning", pages 280-181 "Reader's Note", page 281 "Meditation 17", pages 283-284 Please answer...
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Hello all! Take a look at this poem by Ben Jonson entitled "On My First Daughter". It was not unusual for a child to die before reaching its second birthday. A common cold or case of measles or any other childhood illness today could prove deadly 400 years ago - with that period's lack of antibiotics, penicillin, lack of hygiene and good nutrition. ON MY DAUGHTER Here lies, to each her parents' ruth*, Mary, the daughter of their youth; Yet all heaven's gifts being heaven's due, It makes the father less to rue.* At six months' end she parted hence With safety of her innocence; Whose soul heaven's queen, whose name she bears, In comfort of her mother's tears, Hath placed amongst her virgin-train: Where, while that severed doth remain, This grave partakes the fleshly birth; Which cover lightly, gentle earth! *ruth means grief *rue means remorse 1. What meter is this written in? 2. What is the rhyme scheme? 1. What realization helps the father deal be...
Greetings scholars and artists! I hope you are enjoying your vacation. I know I am. Remember that big, fat purple and yellow book I checked out to you? ENGLAND IN LITERATURE? Yeah, that one. I would like for you to open it up, turn to page 265 and read about the fascinating life of Marlowe, who was stabbed in the eye during a quarrel over a bar bill. Marlowe was also a spy and lived a cloak and daggar kind of life. Then read pages 266 and 267; Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” and Sir Walter Raleigh’s “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.” Be familiar with pastoral poetry. Which of the two poems would be classified as pastoral? Why? Compare the attitude expressed by Marlowe in his poem with that expressed by Raleigh in his. Which one is the more realistic? And of course, continue working on FRANKENSTEIN and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. If you have any questions please feel free to write me at jkatbridge@aol.com. Enjoy reading and sleeping
Hello all! Mr. Benainous and I are back from Europe. Please remember that you are to read both FRANKENSTEIN, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and selected poems and biographical details from the literary anthology. At the beginning of school your work will be due. This includes your short form for both FRANKENSTEIN and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and your responses to the questions in the anthology. An interesting factoid for you to consider is that SOME scholars believe that Marlowe was not actually killed in that fight over his bar tab, but rather faked his own death (he was a spy, remember?) and went into hiding where HE and NOT Shakespeare wrote all those wonderful plays, HAMLET, ROMEO AND JULIET, MACBETH, etc. and the sonnets. Marlowe merely used Shakespeare as a "cover." The reasoning is that the time line fits, and that only someone with Marlowe's education and of his social class could produce such masterpieces - not someone from Shakespeare's very modest background. Hmm...
Please click this link before reading Crime and Punishment: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT QUESTIONS Part 1 Chapter 1 Some questions to get you thinking: 1. What is the emotional state of the young man in the beginning of the story? 2. How do the physical surroundings reflect the emotional and spiritual state of the young man? 3. What do you think Raskolnikov is contemplating regarding the pawnbroker? 4. Where does Raskolnikov go after his visit with Alyona Ivanovna? Why do you think Dostoevsky has Raskolnikov go there? Chapter 2 1. What insights regarding Russian society during that time does Marmeladov provide us? 2. What was Sonia, Marmeladov’s daughter, forced to do? What does the “yellow ticket” or passport represent? 3. What does Marmeladov mean when he says that science has forbidden compassion and that England now has a political economy? Chapter 3 1. What is Praskovya Pavlovna planning to do against Raskolnikov? 2. What important information is contained in a letter to Raskolni...
Please keep these questions in mind as you read Crime and Punishment. 1. What concepts of law are prominent in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? What new legal techniques and psychological methods does Porfiry employ? 2. What concepts of Christianity are prominent in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Why does Raskonikov ask Sonya to read the story of Lazarus to him? 3. Discuss the theories by which Raskolnikov considers himself to be an extraordinary man? Why, ultimately, is he not an extraordinary man? 4. What are the Hegelian theory, the Utilitarian theory, and the "Ubermensch" theory and how do these theories figure in the story of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Give at least two examples in which these theories are discussed or used in the plot. 5. How might Raskolnikov answer the objection that his theory is only an attempt to justify unrestrained self-will? 6. How is Svidrigaylov shown to represent one aspect of Raskolnikov's character? What repulses Raskolnikov the most about the man? ...
Good evening scholars! I have some information that may make a few things clearer about CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. English Philosopher JEREMY BENTHAM (1748 - 1832) is the founder of utilitarianism, a philosophy that held that what is best for society (the common good) is that which is best for the majority. Bentham believed that he could scientifically analyze morality and concluded that the common good is the mathematical sum of individual happiness. Therefore, the greatest good is achieved when the greatest number of people enjoy happiness. An unfortunate tenet of this philosophy is that the rule of the majority is the only rule that matters and that the rights or happiness of the individual does not matter. (FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY; Baldwin; page 92.) John Stuart Mill (English philosopher, 1806 - 1983) further developed the theories of utilitarianism by expanding the consideration of the rights of the unrecognized minority, which lead to advances in human rights and proportional representati...
Good evening! After reading the link, "Prototypes of Nietzsche's Ubermensch in Dostoevksy", please think about whether Raskolnikov fits into the mold of a "superman". A "superman" is one who stands above, isolated and removed from the herdlike crowd of other men. He is not bound by the same rules that bind and control others. He is Napoleon. He is Galileo. It is through his will that he makes things - revolutions, coups d'etat, etc. - happen. The "superman" does not wait for things to happen - he makes, forces things to happen through his will. Remember that Raskolnikov (page 54) was"....superstitiously impressed by one circumstance..[that] always seemed to him... [to be] the predestined turning point of his life." The chance meeting between Lizaveta and the hucksters occurs at the very moment in his life that would have the most profound effect on his destiny...as if "it had been lying in wait for him on purpose." Do...
Part Five, Chapter Five: The preceding scene is interrupted by the appearance of Lebezyatnikov who gives Sonia the dreadful news that Katerina has gone insane; she has taken her children into the streets and is trying to teach them to sing and dance like street performers. Chapter Six is a heartbreaking scene where we see the desperate straits that katerina and her children are in, and where we also see the total disintegration of Katerina's mind. Katerina is in a manic state which apparently is one of the symptoms of end stage consumption. (Just before they die, consumptives are believed to be filled with manic energy before they collapse, which is a common motif found in 19th century literature and music - i.e; CAMILLE and LA TRAVIATA). Katerina falls in the street hemorrhaging from the throat; she is then carried back to Sonia's flat where she agonizingly dies. Svidrigaylov shows up at Katerina's death scene and offers to pay for her burial and to make provisions for the...
The final wrapping up of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: Part Six, Chapters 3 & 4: Porfiry and Sonia act as a sort of chorus urging Raskolnikov to confess to his sins. After his meeting with Porfiry, Raskolnikov is filled with a sort of moral exhaustion. He runs into Svidrigaylov with whom he has a strange and disturbing connection. Despite all of Svidrigaylov's debauchery he is still a vital man, relatively unfazed by the horrors of his actions. This disparity of energy between Svidrigaylov and Raskolnikov points out once again that Raskolnikov is not an extraordinary man for he is emotionally and physically dissipated by guilt whereas Svidrigaylov is still robust. Raskolnikov must live within the confines of man's law, while Svidrigaylov lives his life above the laws, untouched by other people's opinions. At the end of the meeting Svidrigaylov bids Raskolnikov adieu and tells him that they share a connection but have different paths to redemption - one path leads to redemption ...
Questions over “The Age of Reason” Readings Here, for your perusal, are questions over your readings in the textbook, ENGLAND IN LITERATURE. I have also thoughtfully written down the page numbers for your convenience. These questions will be due on the first day of class. There will be more questions forthcoming over your other reading assigments in the same book. (I may also assign a few more readings to the list.) Enjoy! 1. What is Jonathan Swift’s “modest proposal?” (page 377) 2. What are the advantages of this proposal as advanced by Swift? 3. Swift refers to a child just dropped from its dam; what effect is he trying to achieve by this statement? To what is he comparing a human mother and her child? 4. What social change is Swift hoping to effect by his satire? 5. At what point do you realize Jonathan Swift is being scathingly satirical? 6. Rationalism is a philosophy that accepts reason as authority in matters of opinion, belief or...
Aristotle, the Four Causes, and Frankenstein
A little additional information about Shelley's Frankenstein. Victor, as a young student in university, is concerned with the line, "...not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary (third) grades were utterly unknown to him...." Now you may have skipped over that part or maybe briefly wondered - if at all - what that was about; however, you will probably come across that concept of the "four causes" in your future readings, so perhaps we should go over it now. We touched on this a bit last semester when we read some excerpts on Aristotle . Aristotle, as a philosopher, was concerned with the nature of reality and being, and with the classification and categorization of all things, including humans. Plato, who was Aristotle's teacher, believed that in a realm outside of time and space, the perfect ideal forms of everything (dogs, cats, chairs, trees, people, etc) reside, and that the pale, decaying copies of these ideal forms can be...