Dear all,

　　Welcome to the help column to the course English Through Literature.

　　As literature students ourselves, we are aware that you feel baffled by the thick book in front of you. That`s why we`ve decided to provide you with specific help as follows:

1. Unit by unit word list.

　　Yes, you need this list, if you don`t have a very good dictionary. In addition, it may help you save some time in puzzling out the meanings of such words as “poetic license”. For your convenience, the word is listed in the order they appear in the course book.

2. Review kit

　　The kit is a tool that you may wish to use as you work through the book. It contains such important terms such as symbol, imagery, setting, theme, etc,, which are applicable to analysis of poems, novels and dramas.

3. Supplementary reading

　　There is no need to say that knowledge about the authors can help us greatly in understanding the author`s works. So we`ll provide you with some background knowledge of the authors as covered in each unit, we’ll also provide you with brief summaries of the plots of novels in order that you can understand the excerpts better.

　　Some extra readings are essential, as is pointed out by the course writers. That`s why we`ve decided to select some extra short stories, poems for you to read when you feel like it. Through reading these pieces, we do hope you can realize that simply scanning and skimming a piece of literary work will lead you nowhere. As experts put it, “skimming over a work a literature is like listening to music with wax plugs in your ears—it makes no sense. Just as line and color are the soul of paintings, so are the word, the sentence, the poetic line the heart of literary art.” So you do need to read, think, reflect and do a lot of rereading. The more you read a text, the better you know it, and the more likely you are to grasp its subtleties. It is precisely this—the grasp and appreciation of language.

　　Did you know that comprehension of literary work comes in stages? The first reading gives us the general feel. We assess the tone, the general progress of the narrative (or, if it is a lyric poem, the sequence of the images), and we get a sense of the thematic direction. We read through once to know where we should linger to focus; we leave mental markers at places that may be confusing or that we suspect may hold special significance. The second time through we hold a picture of the whole in mind and we determine the relative importance of the parts. Two readings may be sufficient for comprehension. But if we plan to write about a work, to answer questions, we will probably zero in again, this time perhaps armed with a pencil or marker.

　　A literary text is a complex structure which can support many different interpretations. Read attentively, respond openly, and explore possible interpretations independently, this is what we expect you to do.

　　Let us start reading. Let`s plunge into the literary world, get to know more characters, listen to the music of poems, experience the conflicts of dramas. Who knows? Your English will be much better after you become a serious reader of literary works.

4. Video Scripts

　　A series of 4 videos are in the making, designed to help you work through the book. Since you have to wait for quite a while to watch the programme, why don`t you read the scripts first?

Word List

Unit 1

genre 文学作品的体裁， 种类

poetic license 诗的破格， 指诗歌不按一般语言规则行文的自由

setting （小说、戏剧等的）背景

relevance 重大关系， 意义

subject matter 主要题材， 内容

metaphorically 用比喻地

spontaneous overflow 自然流露

quaint 小巧别致的

shroud 隐藏

demographic 人口的

not in session （议会）休会

deviate 偏离

symmetry 对称性

resonate 回荡

aesthetic 美学的

frantically 发狂地

gumption 精明， 老练

affinity 亲和， 相像

delineate 勾画出

Unit 2

spry 敏捷的， 充满活力的

prig 自命不凡者

stanza 诗节

heroic couplet 互相押韵的含有五个抑扬音步的两行诗

blank verse 无韵诗

sonnet 十四行诗

ballad 叙事诗

chorus 叠句

rhyming scheme 押韵格式

annihilate 毁灭

idyll 田园诗

haggle 争论不休

rapture 着迷

2． Review Kit

Alliteration

　　Repeated consonant sound occurring at the beginnings of words and within words as well. Alliteration is used to create melody, establish mood, call attention to important words, and point out similarities and contrast.

　　Alliteration in poetry give pleasure. The repeated sounds help to create melody, which is pleasant to the ear. But a good poet seldom uses alliteration simply because he thinks his readers will enjoy the repeated sounds. Alexander Pope, a respected eighteenth-century English poet, said, “ The sound must be an echo to the sense,” and capable poets follow Pope`s rule. How sound can echo sense, or meaning, is demonstrated very clearly in these lines:

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Here the repeated M sound is an echo of the murmuring of doves and hum of bees.

Alliteration can be used to call attention to important words in a poem, it can point out contrasts:

He was haughty, she was humble,

He was loathed, she was loved.

The sounds produced by alliteration can also affect the mood of a poem:

She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,

That slid into my soul.

In these lines, the repeat S sound help create a calm effect.

Characterisation

The method an author uses to acquaint the reader with his characters. He may use any of all of four different methods of characterization:

A, He may describe the character`s physical traits and personality.

B, He may show the character`s speech and behaviour.

C, He may give the opinions and reactions of other characters toward this individual.

D, He may show the character`s thoughts and feelings.


Figurative language

　　Any language which deviates from literal language so as to furnish novel effects or fresh insights into the subject being discussed. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole.

Simile

　　A simile is a stated comparison between two things that really are very different, but share some common element. To conjure up a vivid picture, a writer points out the quality they share. Similes are introduced by the use of like or as. If you were to say “John runs like the wind and is as strong as an ox,” you would be using similes. You would be indicating comparisons between John’s speed and the speed of the wind, and John’s strength and the strength of an ox.

　　One important thing to remember is that statements that compare things that are essentially alike are not similes. Sentences such as “He looks like his father” or “He skates as well as I do” are not similes. A simile reveals a similar quality in two elements that are otherwise very different.

Metaphor

　　A metaphor, like a simile, is a comparison. But in a metaphor, the comparison is implied rather than stated. For example, “The muscles of his brawny arms are iron bands” is a metaphor. You are using metaphors when you speak of wolfing your lunch, acting in a chicken-hearted manner, monkeying around, or feelng cocky. In metaphors, as in similes, the two things being compared must be essentially different.

Personification

　　Personification is a form of metaphor in which a lifeless object, an animal, or an idea is made to act like a person. We use personification in everyday speech: Fear clutched at his throat; winter undress the trees; Night`s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain top.

Hyperbole

　　Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement used to heighten effect. When you say, “I could eat a horse,” you are deliberately exaggerating in order to let your listener know that you are extremely hungry. In the following lines, hyperbole is used to signify how deep a love the speaker has for the “ bonnie lass”.

　　So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

　　So deep in love am I,

　　And I will love thee still, my dear,

　　Till all the seas go dry.

Imagery

　　Concret details that appeal to the senses. By using specific images, an author establishes mood and arouse emotion in his readers.

　　To make his imaginary world seem real to his readers, an author often makes uses of words and phrases which appeal to the senses. These words and phrases, called images, help the reader mentally see, hear, smell, feel, and taste much of what the characters experience. In this way he becomes involved in the world of the literary selection.

Plot

　　The significant pattern of action in a short story, novel, or play. The plot usually involves one or more conflicts, which may be external or internal. In a carefully constructed plot, each detail is important. The incidents are carefully selected and so arranged in a cause-effect relationship that each is a necessary link leading to the outcome of the story.

Conflict

　　Every story, novel or play develops around a struggle or conflict. Sometimes the conflict may be obvious, as in some Westerns in which the only conflict is the struggle between the good guys and the bad guys. In a more complicated Western, besides the obvious conflict with the villain, the hero may have to struggle with a wild animal or a fierce blizzard or he may have to struggle with his conscience. In other words, he may be involved in several conflicts.

　　Conflicts in literature are of two general types: 1) external conflict, in which the character or main figure (sometimes an animal or group) struggle against another character, nature or society; and 2) internal conflict; in which the character struggles against some element of his own personality (his conscience or code of values, for example).

Point of view

　　The author’s choice of a narrative for his story. The choice determines the amount of information a reader will be given. The three major points of view are

　　Personal or first person: The narrator (I) is a character in the story who can reveal only his own thoughts and feelings and what he sees and is told by other characters.

　　Third person objective: The narrator is an outsider who can report only what he sees and hears. He tell us what is happening, but he does not tell us the thoughts of any of the characters. He is like newspaper reporter who can give only the facts as they occur; he cannot enter into the characters’ minds; he must be objective.

　　Omniscient: The narrator is an all-knowing outsider who can enter the minds of one or all of the characters and record the thoughts of the characters. Like a superhuman being, he is omniscient (all-knowing).

Rhyme

　　The repetition of syllable sound. End words that share a particular sound are called end rhymes. Rhyming words within a line of poetry are called internal rhymes.

　　When used in a poem, end rhymes set up a definite pattern of sounds, a rhyme scheme. You can chart a rhyme scheme with letters of alphabet by using the same letter for end words that rhyme.

Setting

　　The time and place in which the events of a narrative occur. The place may be a region, a city or town, or even a house or room. The time may be a period in history, a particular time of year, or perhaps, a certain time of day. The setting may be specific and detailed, and introduced at the very beginning of the story, or it may be merely suggested through the use of details scattered throughout the story. An author can suggest the setting by references to articles of clothing, famous historical figures, well-known landmarks, or through the dialect and speech patterns of the characters which he created. Not all stories have a setting in which both the time and place are identifiable. In some stories, the setting is vital to the narrative; it may have an effect on the events of the plot, or reveal character, or create a certain atmosphere. In other stories, the setting is relatively unimportant; the story could have happened almost anywhere or at any time.

Symbol

　　A person, place, event, or object which has a meaning in itself but suggests other meanings as well. While some symbols suggest the same thing to most people (the heart is a universal symbol of love), others have different meanings for different people.

Theme

　　The underlying meaning of a literary work, a general truth about life and mankind. A theme may be stated or implied.

Tone

　　The stated or implied attitude of an author toward his subject in a particular literary work. The author reveals his attitude, whether it is one of anger, sadness, amusement, joy, defiance, or some other emotion or may be a combination of several different emotions , such as anger and pity, through his choice of words and details. Sometimes an author will state directly how he feels about a character, a situation or an idea.

Supplementary reading

　　The Secret Heart

Across the years he could recall

His father one way best of all.

In the stillest hour of night

The boy awakened to a light.

Half in dreams, he saw his sire

With his great hands full of fire.

The man had struck a match to see

If his son slept peacefully.

He held his palms each side the spark

His love had kindled in the dark.

His two hands were curved apart

In the semblance of a heart.

He wore, it seemed to his small son,

A bare heart on his hidden one.

A heart that gave out such a glow

No son awake could bear to know.

It showed a look upon a face

Too tender for the day to trace.

One instant, it lit all about,

And then the secret heart went out.

But it shone long enough for one

To know that hands held up the sun.

Discussion questions

A, Review the section on Poetic Forms (Task 4, Activity 2, Unit 2. ) Does this poem belong to sonnet, blank verse, ballad or couplet?

B. Look at the title. Whose secret heart is the poet writing about?

C. What do the father`s hands look like to the boy? What does this shape represent?

D. What does the father`s night visit mean to the boy?


More on Hamlet

　　“Hamlet” is considered the summit of Shakespeare`s art. The story comes from an old Danish Legend. Before Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd had written a play on the same subject. It was a tragedy of “blood and thunder”. But under Shakespeare’s pen, the medieval story assumed new meaning and became permeated with the spirit of Shakespeare’s own time.

The story

　　The action of the play is laid in Denmark. Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, widowed by the sudden death of the King, within two months marries the late king`s brother Claudius who thun becomes the new King.

　　Prince Hamlet, son of the lake king, returns home from the University of Wittenberg. He suspects foul play on the part of Claudius, his uncle. Then his father’s ghost appears to him at the castle of Elsinor, and confirms Hamlet’s suspicion. He undertakes to avenge the murder. To dull Claudius`s vigilance, Hamlet pretends to have gone mad. However, his madness is taken by Polonius, an old courtier, to be an emotional disturbance due to his passion for Ophilia, daughter of Polonius.

　　At this moment, a company of players visits the castle, and Hamlet has a play acted, which resembles the late king’s murder. Claudius is deeply disturbed by the performance and leaves the hall before the play is finished. Hamlet is summoned by his mother, who tells him that he has offended the king. Hamlet reveals Claudius’s baseness and expresses his indignation at her hasty marriage. Then Hamlet becomes aware that he is being overheard in the conversation. Thinking it is Claudius that is in hiding, he runs his sword through the arras but finds the eavedropper thus killed to be Polonius.

　　To get ride of Hamlet, Claudius send him to England and sends assasins to kill him on the voyage. But Hamlet succeeds in coming out of it alive and returns to Denmark again.

　　Heart-broken at the death of her father, poor Ophelia goes mad and then is drowned in a stream. Hamlet returns just at the time of Ophelia’s funeral. In the grave-yard he has a quarrel with Laertes, Ophelia’s brother.

　　Latertes vows to avenge the death of his sister and father. With him Claudius arranges that Laertes is to challenge Hamlet to a friendly duel and kill him with a poisoned rapier. In the sword play, Laertes wounds Hamlet but is himself struck with the same poisoned rapier by Hamlet. Before death, Laertes reveals the plot to Hamlet. The Queen, at this moment, has drunk from a poisoned cup intended for Hamlet. Hamlet then, in a passion, stabs Claudius. The Queen dies, Claudius dies, Laertes dies, Hamlet dies. And Hamlet`s body is borne off with military ceremonial, by Fortinbras his successor. “The rest is silence”.

Notes on the Soliloquy

(by Professor Wu Weiren)

　　Line or not to be: to end one`s life by self-destruction. Hamlet has already spoken of suicide as a means of escape, and he dwells on it in a later part of this very speech, giving, however, a different reason for refraining. The whole drift of the speech shows his belief in a future life.

　　Practically the whole of Hamlet`s speech has become proverbial as an outpouring of utter worldweariness. Of course, much of the imagery is not peculiar to Shakespeare or any writer, e.g., the likening of death to starting on a long journey.

　　Slings: i.e. missings thrown by slings

　　Take arms against a sea of troubles: to take up arms and rush upon the waves of the sea was a custom attributed by several classical writers to the Celts. The “troubles” are pictured as advancing like some overwhelming tide.

　　No more: just that, only that, i.e. falling on “sleep”

　　Consummation: a completion of one`s life, a crowning and fitting end

　　What dreams: i.e. the thought of what dreams may come

　　Mortal coil: turmoil of mortality, confused trouble of mortal life

　　Respect: consideration= regard

　　Of so long life: so long-lived

　　Time: the times, the world, one`s contemporaries

　　Might his quietus make: might give himself his release from life`s troubles

　　Thought: anxiety

　　And lose the name of action: even as a river may lose itself in a sandy waste and so after its long course never reach the sea: wonderful symbol, indeed, of frustration and failure

　　The poetry of Burns:

　　Burns is remembered mainly for his songs written in the Scottish dialect on a variety of subjects. These songs speak straight from the heart of a plowman to express in simplest words the common feelings of millions of working people. Numerous are Burns’s songs of love and friendship, which describe the poet`s own emotions with such vividness and simplicity that they appeal directly to the reader`s heart.

A Red, Red Rose

　　This is one of Burne`s popular love lyrics and is also a good example of how the poet made use of old Scottish folk poetry and created immortal lines by revsing the old folk material. The extreme simplicity of the language and the charming rhythmic beat of the verse express better than anything else the poet’s true sentiments toward his beloved.

　　The verse is essentially in the metrical form of the ballad stanza, i.e., quatrains with alternate lines of four and three feet and with rimes falling on the second and fourth lines of each stanza.