English 205 week9

English 205 week9A

· The Gothic Puritan

READ:

Young Goodman Brown ()：http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/ygb.html

The Minister's Black Veil ()：

http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/mbv.html

Rappaccini's Daughter ()：

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/RappDaug.shtml

Hawthorne's great-great-grandfather, William Hawthorne, was a Puritan who came to American with John Winthrop in 1630.  His ancestor John Hawthorne was a magistrate during the Salem Witch Trials. (note signature below)

For further background on how Hawthorne's family history affected his writing, see: "The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692 and "Young Goodman Brown" available at the link below:

http://www.hawthorneinsalem.org/Literature/Quakers&Witches/YoungGoodmanBrown/Introduction.html

 (http://melbergink.blogspot.com/2012/03/young-goodman-brown-1-wo-ink.html)

Major Themes in Hawthorne's Fiction

alienation - a character is in a state of isolation of self-cause, or social cause, or a combination of both

initiation - involves the attempts of an alienated character to get rid of his isolated condition

guilt - a character's sense of guilt forced by the Puritanical heritage or by society (also, guilt v. innocence)

pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil

· physical pride

· spiritual pride

· intellectual pride

Puritan New England - setting

allegory - writing is allegorical, didactic, moralistic

individual v. society

identity v. personna / mask

self-fulfilment v. frustration

hypocricy v. integrity

fate v. free will

 

Discussion Board：

Explore the moral ambiguity in the stories you have read for this unit ("Young Goodman Brown" "The Minister's Black Veil" and "Rappaccini's Daughter").  How do they affect the reader's ability to discern "good" and "evil" characters?

250 words， no work cited

English 205 week9B：

· Poet, Critic, Puzzlemaster: 1809 - 1849

     

READ:

Fall of the House of Usher：http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/fall.html

The Tell-Tale Heart：http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/telltale.html

The Purloined Letter：http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/purloine.html

   

Discussion Board：

Is Lady Madeleine real, or a figment of the narrator's or Usher's imagination? What does the narrator feel when he first sees her, and how does he respond to the news that she has passed away? Could Madeleine be a psychological part ("twin") to Usher?

250 words， no work cited

English 205 week9 comment：

(make sure write where is this quote from into beginning of explanation) (you can find a quote from reading in first assignment).

Students will choose a short excerpt / quote from one of the readings of that week, type it in, then add a short (150 words or so) explanation for your choice. Was your selection important because it:

· is an example of beautiful or striking language?

· exemplifies a particular theme or character?

· makes the reader think about something in a new way?

· reflects a particular aspect of French culture?

· was just something that you liked?

For example:

"Whoever gets knowledge from God, science,

and a talent for speech, eloquence,

Shouldn't shut up or hide away;

No, that person should gladly display."  Marie de France

explanation:

In the opening lines to the Prologue to the Lays, Marie de France is providing her readers with an explanation for writing these stories down.  This is a very common and traditional rhetorical move informing readers about the ethos or qualifications of the speaker.  In this case, Marie is claiming that she is knowledgeable and eloquent and that these gifts come from God and therefore should be used.  I think it goes further than that; Marie, like most women of her day,* would have been expected to "shut up" and "hide away" as a matter of course, since women's voices were not welcomed in the public sphere.  By opening her work in this way, she preempts criticism about the appropriateness of her authorship.