Updated 4/1/2010

 

The exam is designed to:

  • Reward students who have read works, attended class, and participated in group work.

  • Gauge students’ ability to identify important passages from texts and explain their significance

  • Measure how well students can discuss issues and ideas associated with the romantic period.

 Preparation Tips:

  • Spend time reviewing the reading list.  Look at particular authors and jar your memory about their works and what makes the writers distinctive. 

  • Reread the introduction on the Victorian period.

  • For essays, make sure you can remember main points and ideas.

  • For stories and poems, try to review the plots or main ideas, themes and techniques. 

  • Make outlines to answers for questions on the essay question sheet.

  • Review group work and study with classmates.

Part I.  Short Answer:  Answer five of six questions with a brief response (25 total points).  Some will require a word or two; others will require a sentence or two. 

  1. What dates are we using for the Victorian period and what historical events occur on those dates?

  2. Who used the term "captain of industry" and what did it mean?

  3. When was the corn law repealed and why was this significant?

  4. When was the first reform act passed and what important change did it make in the franchise?

  5. What was The Great Exhibition and why was it significant?

  6. When was Origin of the Species published and who published it?

  7. What did the Married Women's Property Acts do for women?

  8. Why is the ending of Gaskell's "Cranford" ironic?

  9. What was so significant about the publication of Lyell's  Principles of Geology?

  10. Why was the ending of the Oxford Movement ironic?

  11. Strauss's book The Life of Jesus is an example of "higher criticism."  What is higher criticism?

  12. What is a dramatic monologue and what two writers were most famous for writing them?

  13. What were the two main traits of the Pre-Raphaelite poets (not the painters)?

  14. Name one of two Victorian poets who was also a visual artist?

  15. What is La Gioconda?

  16. The way one interprets the phrase "the woman" in Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia" is critical to determining whether the story is sympathetic to women.  How must you interpret the phrase if you think the story is NOT sympathetic to women?

  17. Who went to jail for violating England's sodomy laws at the end of the nineteenth century?

  18. Where does Kipling's "Without Benefit of Clergy" take place?

  19. What does "bunburying" mean?

  20. With what absurd justification did Gosse try to reconcile 19th century geological discoveries with the literal Biblical account of creation?

  21. Who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"? (it wasn't Darwin)

  22. What point does Carlyle try to make with the story of the Irish Widow?

  23. In what particular industry did the "first wave" of the industrial revolution take place?

  24. Who popularized "The Argument from Design" to account for the existence of a creator/God?

  25. What is the significance of the two authors compared in Gaskell's "Our Society at Cranford"?

  26. What poet died as a result of falling off a bar stool?

  27. What famous Northern industrial town does Engels write about in The Condition of the Working Class in England?

  28. How is Ulysses different from Telemechus in disposition?

  29. Which Victorian poet buried his manuscripts of poems with his dead wife and later dug them up so he could publish them?

  30. Who was the Poet Laureate during most of the Victorian Period?

  31. What is the "love that dare not speak its name"?

  32. What poem's syntax reflects the poet's intense struggle over his faith?

  33. In what passage of "Without Benefit of Clergy" would a Darwinian critic be most interested?

  34. What is a "three-decker"?

  35. What was the Crystal Palace?

  36. What might push a critic from viewing "The White Witch" as a decadent poem instead of an aesthetic poem?

  37. Over what painting did Whistler sue Ruskin for libel?

  38. According to our textbook, what percentage of Victorians could read by the end of the century?

  39. What childhood job did Dickens have that greatly affected Great Expectations?

  40. Who injures Mrs. Joe?

Part II. Identification:  Choose 4 of the 5 quotations and identify author and title of the work (2 pts.).  Then in two or three sentences explain the significance of the lines (why the lines are especially important to the work). (6 pts.). (4x8=32 total points) 

Part III. Essay:  Choose 1 of 2 and answer in a brief essay.  (43 total points).  Make sure to plan your answer before writing it.  Begin your answer with a clear thesis statement that forecasts your answer (no need for an extensive introduction), and then develop your thesis with organized paragraphs that include topic sentences, use specific references to the texts, have clear analysis which explains your answer to the question or addresses the topic.  Take time to proofread your answer before you turn it in.  These questions test both your ability to write in depth about particular ideas and make connections across genres and periods. 

  1. The industrial revolution was certainly a significant influence on the attitudes and literature of the Victorian period.  Explain how "Cranford" and one other literary work reflect different attitudes about the industrial revolution.

  2. One of the social responses to the Industrial Revolution was a "counter-revolution" in arts and literature.  Explain what that counter-revolution was and illustrate your answer with at least three different examples (from different works).

  3. When we were talking about Victorian fiction, I mentioned three main expectations Victorian readers generally had for fiction.  Explain what these expectations were and show how one work of fiction clearly met these expectations and another did not.   

  4. Explain how Tennyson uses imagery in "The Lady of Shalott" to comment on how difficult it is for an artist to live in "the real world."

  5. Class distinction is a HUGE issue during the Victorian period.  Explain how two literary works (fiction, poetry, or drama) offer a critique of the class system in Britain.  

  6. The Victorian period is often noted for being an age of great faith and at the same time an age of great doubt.  Do one of the following: A) Pick one work and explain how it exemplifies this conflict, or B) Pick two works (one on faith and one on doubt) and explain how they exemplify these different views.

  7. The Victorian Period is an era which valued education and self-improvement a great deal.  Explain how Great Expectations and one other work comment on the value of education and/or self-improvement.

  8.  Define and distinguish between the terms Aestheticism and Decadence and illustrate your answer with at least two different poems.

  9. Oscar Wilde uses humor in The Importance of Being Earnest to suggest flaws he sees with Victorian society.  Choose two aspects of the culture that he thinks should be changed, and use a couple of examples to illustrate each point.

  10. Several works of the Victorian period represent aberrant personalities, characters that deviate from the norm to such an extent that they are shocking, immoral, and perhaps even evil.  Select two of these characters and explain how the authors are able to make the characters so unsettling and what point the authors are trying to make by using these creepy characters.   

  11. As many of the works we've read demonstrate, Victorian writers had a particular “passion for the past” (to use Tennyson’s phrase).  Give two examples of writers who set their works in the past and explain why that strategy is particularly appropriate given the topic or theme of the work.

  12.  Several of the works reveal subtle and not so subtle violence against women.  Pick two different works and explain what attitudes about women are reflected in the works based on the way the authors depict them.

  13. One of the issues we discussed was the decline of religion during the Victorian period.  Compare and contrast how two literary works show the decline of over Christianity and it's replacement with a secularized version of some Christian values.