Jonathan swift "gulliver's travels" Study Questions

1. Give examples of general and specific satire in all parts in Gulliver's Travels.

2. What significant and imaginative etymologies might be proved for the following names: Gulliver, Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, Houyhnhnm, Yahoo?

3. Can you discover any design in the various ways in which Gulliver reaches the country of his travel?

5. Compare the manner of escape, rescue and return home of Gulliver from his adventure.

6. Show that the figure of Gulliver presents both comic and tragic elements

7. While Gulliver's Travels is undoubtedly original, Swift drew upon several genres of writing for the composition of his book: namely, travel literature, the philosophic voyage, Utopian treatises and the fable. Illustrate.

8. No one country that Gulliver visits is considered by Swift to be an ideal Utopia, yet Utopian elements are found in each of them. What are some from country?

9. What aspect of monarchy (positive and negative) does Swift attempt to portray in each book?

10. " The chief function of reason, according to eighteenth - century views, was to fit a man for a happy life among his fellows." Does Gulliver s Travels always agree with this philosophy?

11. Swift satirizes the gulf between appearance and reality in Gulliver s Travels. Illustrate.

12. Would you consider Gulliver s Travels a novel?

13. Why might Swift have chosen horses to rule Houyhnhnm - land?

SEMINAR #7

English Gothic Novel

1. Horace Walpole “The Castle of Otranto

2. Ann Radcliffe “The Romance of the Forest”

SEMINAR #8

English Romanticists

WILLIAM BLAKE "THE LAMB"

(from “Songs of Innocence”)

Little Lamb, who made thee? Little Lamb, I 'll tell thee.

Does thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, 1 'll tell thee:

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed, He is called by thy name,

By the stream and o 'er the mead? For He called Himself a Lamb.

Gave thee clothing of delight. He is meek, and He is mild;

Softest clothing, wooly, bright? He became a little child.

Gave thee such a tender voice, I a child, and thou a lamb,

Making all the vales rejoice ? We are called by His name.

Little Lamb, who made thee? Little Lamb, God bless thee!

Does thou know who made thee? Little Lamb, God bless thee!

1. What is there about childhood that makes it so important? What aspects of childhood are referred to in Jesus’ saying that only those who become as little children shall enter the kingdom of heaven?

2. What contributes to the child-like quality of the poem?

3. Why are the references to the lamb's coat as "clothing" ironic? In fact, why is the lamb being allowed to live and being cared for?

4. Both lamb and child are explicitly likened, in the second stanza, to Jesus. What may we infer about the future of the child? What will happen to his innocence?

5. Some critics think that in the first stanza the child is speaking to the lamb. In the second stanza the mature poet is speaking to the child. Does such explanation seem plausible?

6. Describe the music of the poem. Is it harsh or gentle, rhythmical or proselike, sophisticated or childlike?