MID-TERM ESSAY: THE VICTORIAN AGE
Select one of the topics below and write an essay in response to it; your finished paper should be at least 3-4 pages long and should contain a clear thesis which you develop and support with examples and discussion. If you refer to any sources outside of our textbook, be sure to properly document your material using MLA documentation format.
1). Explain the concept of Utilitarianism and discuss its effect on Victorian literature by looking at two or more authors’ responses to it.
2). Discuss the issue of faith in the Victorian Age. Make specific references to works that illustrate the changing attitudes toward religion that are current in this era and individuals’ own personal spiritual experiences. Try to relate this to what is happening in society at this time.
3). Explain Carlyle’s “clothes philosophy” and its relation to Sartor Resartus.
4). Analyze the spiritual journey recorded in Sartor Resartus and explain the message about faith that it offers.
5). Discuss the topic of education in Victorian thought. You should refer to Newman’s idea of the function of a university and Arnold’s philosophy regarding the value of the humanities as expressed in “Science and Literature.” Another aspect of this topic might be to discuss the picture of women’s education as portrayed in Mill’s The Subjection of Women and Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh. Why was education an important topic of the time?
6). Examine Mill’s theory of poetry and relate it to the ideas expressed in Wordsworth’s “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.”
8). Discuss the role of women in Victorian society and the way this issue is reflected in the literature of the time.
9). What similarities and differences do you see between the spiritual crises experienced by Carlyle (as evident in Sartor Resartus) and Mill (as discussed in his Autobiography)?
10). Discuss Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s two poems to George Sand. Analyze the important images, her use of the sonnet form, and the themes or ideas presented.
11). Analyze one of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues. Who is the speaker of the poem? What personality traits are revealed through the poem? What social commentary is also offered?
12). Discuss the Victorian view of masculine and feminine characteristics as evident in Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Lady of Shallot.”
13). Explicate Arnold’s “Dover Beach.” Pay particular attention to the way in which represents ideas that are both Victorian and “modern.”
14). Discuss the use of sea imagery in Arnold’s “Dover Beach,” Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar,” and–if you wish–compare it to the pantheistic views in Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” and/or “It is a Beauteous Evening.”
15). Discuss the unique stylistic characteristics of Hopkins’ poetry. In what way does it anticipate some modern characteristics of poetry? In what way does it reflect Victorian issues of faith?
16). Explicate one of Hopkins’ poems, especially the innovative use of language and imagery, and connecting this to the theme of the poem.
17). Explain Hopkins’ theory of “inscape” and “instress” and show how this manifests itself in his poetry.
