Đề cương ôn thi môn Văn học anh Mỹ ngắn gọn, chọn lọc

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ĐỀ CƯƠNG ÔN THI MÔN VĂN HỌC ANH MỸ PHẦN 1: TRẢ LỜI CÂU HỎI TRẮC NGHIỆM KIẾN THỨC CHUNG Writer is consideres to be the most outstanding representative of decadence trend in english literature at the end of 19th century: oscar wilde The leader of aesthetic movement: oscar wilde The picture of dorian gray is wilde’s only novel and it is considered his masterpiece How is dorian gray depicted? Handsome, youngman, kinad, innocent (generous, humance man) Writer often compared blood to a rugby, the blue sky to a sapphire? Oscar wilde The writing style of charles dickens? Humorous with exageration Lord henry wotten is a villain character in the novel the picture of dorian gray Maugham was trained to become a doctor but then he tured to writing Maugham published his materpiece “of human bondage” in 1915 10 The novel “the moon anf sixpence” was written by maugham in 1919 11 Novel is partially an autobiography of somersrt maugham: of human bondage 12 The important works of maugham: liza of lambeth & clakes and ale 13 The name of charles atrickland’s wife: amy 14 The forsyte saga is galsworthy’s masterpiece It consists of novels and interluses 15 The typical characteristics os forsyte family? Individual, snob, show off, competitive, contemp for every thing foreign, 16 John galsworthy was the president of theassociation of writers until he died in 1933 17 The novel “the picture of dorian gray” was written in 1891 18 As an artist, he doesnot care for fame or wealth He never “sold a single pictureand he wa never satisfied with what he has done”: charles strickland 19 Oliver twist was born in a workhouse 20 Writer in his young used to work as an apprentice priter, a river pilot, a miner and a journalist: mark twain 21 Writer gained great success with stories about the life of common american people: mark twain 22 Writer used a lot of american vernacular in his works: mark twain 23 Writer had to work as a family breadwinner before he finished his grade school: jack london 24 Writer had to a lot of labour work before hecan earn money from his pen: o henry 25 Writer was born and died in the year when halley’s comet was visible in the sky? Mark twain 26 “the call os the wild” by london is typical example of story 27 Writer wrote mostly about the life of common people iin new york city: o henry 28 Writer used to work in a bank and was imprisoned for embezzling bank funds: o henry 29 Writer recieved nobel prie for literature in 1954: hemingway 30 Writer took part in many wars and realized the real nature of war: hemingway 31 Which works helped bring the pulitzer to hemingway: the old man and the sea 32 “a farewell to arms” written is based on what incidrnt in his life: 33 Writer commited suicide with his favourite gun: hemingway 34 “death in the afternoon” by hemingway is a story about: a nonfiction account of spanish bullfightin 35 “the nightingale and the rose” by oscar wilde is a fairy tale 36 Artistic method was used in describing the god buck: personification 37 David copperfield is considered to be dickens’ most successful novel 38 The author compares his taking to writing career “as a duck took to water”: somerset maugham 39 The nightingale sacrifice it life for a red rose 40 Author of such fables as “the crab and its mother”, “the man and the lion”, “the wolf and the lamb”: somerset maugham 41 “the ballad of reading gaol” was written by oscar wilde 42 John galsworthy came from a well-to-do bourgeois family, thus he understood very little of the world beyond and beneath his class 43 At the height of his popularity and success, oscar wilde was accused of immorality anf condemned to years; hard labour at reading gaol 44 John galsworthy is a great master of crating characters, in his opinion, each character should possess features typical of a certain group of people in society 45 In oscar wilde opinion, art is isolated fromlife, art is the only thing that really exists and is worth living for 46 “death, the only immortal who treats us all alike, whose pity and whose pease and whose refuge are for all - the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved anf the unloved” is mark twain last written statement 47 One of the great losses in mark twain’s life was the breaths of his children before they reached their twenties 48 After the deaths of his parent, somerset maugham had an awfuan childhood under the care of his childless uncle who understood nothing about the psychology of a child Because of his bad english anf small figure, hw was always ridiculed by friends at school He, therfor, developed little stammer and it stayed all his life 49 In his life, hemingway was awarded prestigious prizes for literature, a pulitzer prize and a nobel prize 50 In many of his works, hemingway frequently used coincidences and surprise enadings to nderline ironies PHẦN 2: VIẾT LUẬN VỀ CÁC TÁC GIẢ, TÁC PHẨM Charles dickens (1812 - 1870) was the greatest critial realist in the 19 th century english literature Dickens was born in the family of a poor clerk in Portsmouth, the second of children in the family In 1821, the family moved to London, poverty still pursued the family even when they were in the capital and Charles father was put on into prison for debts To help the family, charles had to leave school for work in a factory He washed bottles and worked from dawn to dusk Dickens describes this period of his childhood in the novel David copperfield When his father was released from prison, charles was sent to school again and he stay there for years, learning foreign languages and stydying literature At 15, charles left school and worked in a lawyer’s office He studied short - hand at that time and soon took up the work of a parliamentary reporter to a london newspaper This work led him to journalism and from journalism to novel writing Dickens’s life as a literary artist falls into periods The first period (1833 – 1841) is the period of humour and optimism In this period, he shows men and women who remain true to the principles of honor regardless of external circumstances with some novels such as: sketches by boz 1833-36, oliver twist – 1838, Barnaby rudge - 1840 The second one (1842 – 1848) is the period of sarcasm and criticism with americannotes 1842, martin chuzzlewitt 1844 the third period (1849 – 1860) included the most famous novels by dickens: david copperfield 1850, bleak house 1853, hard times 1854,… this is the strongest social criticism on the soulless and unwholesome nature of competition in an industrial life where “devils take the hindmost” Dickens wrote only novels in the fourth period 1861-1865: great expectation 1861, our mutual friend 1864-65 this is the period of romanticization resulting from disillusionment In 1870, he died He was not only the first story-teller of the common people in common place surroundings, but remained, after countless imitators and brilliant successors, yet the greatest He took the trivialities, the little comedies, the little tragedies, erradiated them with his glorious humour and ever-flowing sympathy Oscar wilde, one of the greatest literary showmen of the English nineteen century, was born in Dublin on october 16 th 1854 he was a son of an Irish surgeon and a Dublin endowed with literary talent While he was at school, oscar was always among the best students of the humanities He was awarded a number of classical prizes Under the influence of his teacher, john Ruskin, he joined the Aesthetic Movement and soon became the most sincere supporter of this movement After graduating from the university, he turned his attention to writing , traveling and lecturing and when the Aesthetic movement became popular, he earned a reputation of being the leader of the movement and as an apostle of beauty His publications, among many others, include: the happy prince and other tales 1888, the picture of dorian gray 1891, lady windermere’s fan 1892,… at the height of his popularity, wilde was accused of immorality and was put to years; imprisonment He died in paris in 1900 like most writers and poets, he glorifies natural beauty but at the same time he is the admirer of artificial color Though wilde’s claimed the theory of extreme individualism, he often contradicted himself In his works, in his tales in particular, he glorities beauty and not only the beauty of the nature and artificial beauty but the beauty of devoted love john galsworthy was a novelish, dramatist, short story writer and essayist taken together His works give the most complete and critical picture of the English bourgeois society at the beginning of the 20 th century He was born at combe, surrey, on august 14, 1867 and died on 31 january 1933 he came from a well-to-do bourgeois family of a rich layer He was intended to follow his father’s career, yet he turned to letters as his profession only year later his graduation from oxford university He began to travel all over the world His life-long dream was to expose all the evils of society and to reveal the truth of life He handed over to mankind a huge heritage of novels, short stories, plays, essays, letters He was the president of the association of writers until he died in 1933 he awarded the nobel prize in 1932 galsworthy’s masterpiece is entitled the forsyte saga He was a great master of creating characters In his opinion, each character should possesses features typical of a certain group of people in society His novel are appeals with characters, most of them are alive and fullblooded The author appeals both to the heart and reason of his readers, yet there is little sentimentality in his works, William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 in paris, he is the sixth and the youngest child of an English family His father is a solicitor to the british embassy in paris When he was eight, his mother died years later, his father also passed away He became an orphan and he was brought back to England to be cared for by his childless uncle There, Maugham lived through his awful childhood At home, his uncle proved cold to him and understood nothing of his psychology At school, due to his small figure and bad English, he was always ridiculed by his mates which made him to become more quiet and private Also at this age, Maugham developed stammer and it stays all his life Later, he was trained in Germany to become a doctor He worked as a doctor in a London hospital for a short time before turning to writing career However, experience as a doctor was of rich literature values to Maugham As a doctor, he had chances to meet people of “low” sort that he would never have met in one of the other professions and to see them in a time of heightened anxiety and meaning in their lives Maugham wrote about people of all social classes in the contemporary society Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born in Florida, Missouri on 30 november 1835 when his father died in 1847 the family was left in financial straits, so 11 years old, he left school and had to many job to earn living such as an apprentice printer, a river pilot, a miner,… he scored great success with stories about life of common American people Despite the fame of a brilliant humorist, he made an important contribution to American literature as a social critic His social criticism can be found in his best works The adventures of tom sawyer 1786, the prince and the pauper… in 1870 he married Olivia “livy” Langdon with whom he would have children He died on 21 april 1910 he suffered many losses in his life including the deaths of of his children and accumulated large debts which plagued him for many years Both adults and children enjoys mark twain’s book His mocking humour is based on the common sense of common peopke living around him who he always describes with a warmth of human understanding and sympathy the American short-story writer William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the pseudonym O.Henry, pioneered in picturing the lives of lower-class and middle-class New Yorkers He was born in 1862 he attended school for a short time, then clerked in an uncle’s drugstore At the age of 20 he went to Texas, working forst on a ranch and later as a bank teller In 1887 he married and began to write free-lance sketches A few years later he founded a humorous weekly, the Rolling Stone When this failed, he became a reporter and columnist on the Houston Post Indicted in 1896 for embezzling bank funds, Porter fled to a reprting job in new Orleans then to Honduras O.henry had a broad knowledge of the life of common people They are the main characters their stories and their fates comprise those unusual and unexpected plots which never fail to surprise the reader He was the master of surprise ending The work of O henry reflect a specific period in the history of American literature: the turn of the 20th century He occupies an immediate position between the critical and the romantic tradition in American literature, which means that in his stories, realism and romanticism mingled O henry was most famous as a writer of city-life stories jack London is the praiser of strong-willed people struggling with severe nature and tricks of fortune He was born in 1876 in the family of an impoverished farmer His life was one of unending toil After completing grammar school, London worked at various odd jobs By the time he was 22, he had lived more than most people in fifty years He had worked on ships and in factories, he had traveled across the ocean as a sailor, he had tramped from san Francisco to new york with an army of unemployed and back through Canada to Vancouver he had learned life from his own experience and had studied it through art, science and philosophy Many of his stories including “the call of the wild”, “sea-wolf”,… made him famous both at home and abroad His style – brutal, vivid, and exciting distinguished him from other great masters of world literature In 1900 he married Elisaneth Maddern, but left her and their daughters years afterwaeds, eventually to marry Charmian Kittredge In 1901 he ran unsuccessfully on the socialist party for mayor of Oakland On the morning of November 22, 1916, he died because of taking to much narcotics Earnest hemingway, one of the greatest and most influential modern American novelesh, short-story writers and essayist, was born in 1899 in Oak Park, a small provincial town near Chicago, Illinois He started writing when he yet a choolboy On graduating from high school in 1917, he took to newpaper reporting, but left his job within a few months to serve as a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy during World War 1914 – 1918 he later transferred to the Italian infantry During one of the attacks he was badly wounded at the Italian front It was there that he realized the stupidity and brutality of war which he condemned in the works that followed He covered the war in the Near East for the Canadian newspaper Star and spent several years in Paris Some his famous publications are a farewell to arm 1929, the oldman and the sea 1950, for whom the bell tolls 1940 hermingway’s style is often to as an expression of the “iceberg principle” which means that he avoided describing his characters’ emotions He made the reading of taxt similar to a travel into a world where the reader has to use his/her own experience to decipher what is unsaid In 1954 he was awarded the nobel prize in literature On july 1961 he committed suicide with his favorite shotgun at his home in Ketchum, Idaho the nightingale and the rose The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde is a fairy tale in which the first character that appears is a Student He is sad because a girl promised to dance with him on condition that he brought her red roses, but he did not find any of this colour; there were white and yellow roses, but he could not find red ones While he was moaning because her love would not dance with him, four characters from nature started to talk about him A little Green Lizard, a Butterfly and a Daisy asked why he was weeping, and the Nightingale said that he was weeping for a red rose The first three characters said that weeping for a red rose was ridiculous The Nightingale, who understood the Student’s feelings, started to fly until ‘she’ saw a Rose-tree She told him to give her a red rose and she promised, in exchange, to sing her sweetest song, but the Rose-tree told her that his roses were white, and he sent the Nightingale to his brother that grew round the old sun-dial The Nightingale went to see this new Rose-tree and, after promising the same in exchange for a red rose, the Rose-tree told her that his roses were yellow, but he sent the Nightingale to his brother, who grew beneath the Student's window So the Nightingale went there, and when she arrived, she asked the Rose-tree to give her a red rose The Rose-tree said that his roses were red, but that winter had chilled his veins and the frost had nipped his buds, so he could not give her a red rose The Rose-tree suggested a solution: he told her that if she truly wanted a red rose, she had to build it out of music by moonlight and stain it with her own heart's blood She had to sing to the Rose-tree with her breast against a thorn; the thorn would pierce her heart and her life-blood would flow into the Rose-tree veins The Nightingale said that death was a great price to pay for a red rose, but at the end, she accepted The Nightingale went to see the Student and told him that he would have his red rose, that she who would build it up with her own blood; the only thing she asked him for in return was to be a true lover The Student looked at her, yet he could not understand anything because he only understood the things that were written down in books But the Oak-tree understood and became sad because he was fond of the Nightingale, and asked her to sing the last song; when she finished, the Student thought that the Nightingale had form, but no feeling At night, the Nightingale went to the Rose-tree and set her breast against the thorn She sang all night long She pressed closer and closer against the thorn until the thorn finally touched her heart and she felt a fierce pang of pain The more the rose got red, the fainter the Nightingale's voice became, and after beating her wings, she died The rose was finished, but she could not see it The next morning, the Student saw the wonderful rose under his window He took it and went to see the girl to offer her the rose, but she just said that the rose would not go with her dress and that the Chamberlain's nephew had sent her real jewels, adding that everybody knew that jewels cost far more than flowers After arguing with her, the Student threw the rose into a gutter, where a cart-wheel crushed it, and he said that Love was a silly thing and that he preferred Logic and Philosophy This fairy tale is very incisive and, despite its apparent simplicity, leaves the reader with a clear moral message: it is important to remember that some people 10 Even if we might feel that Dickens’s social criticism would have been more effective if he had focused on a more complex poor character, like the Artful Dodger or Nancy, the audience for whom Dickens was writing might not have been receptive to such a portrayal Dickens’s Victorian middle-class readers were likely to hold opinions on the poor that were only a little less extreme than those expressed by Mr Bumble, the beadle who treats paupers with great cruelty In fact, Oliver Twist was criticized for portraying thieves and prostitutes at all Given the strict morals of Dickens’s audience, it may have seemed necessary for him to make Oliver a saintlike figure Because Oliver appealed to Victorian readers’ sentiments, his story may have stood a better chance of effectively challenging their prejudices love between Robert and maria Even though many of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls take a cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel still holds out hope for romantic love Even the worldly-wise Pilar, in her memories of Finito, reveals traces of a romantic, idealistic outlook on the world Robert Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic Love endows Robert Jordan’s life with new meaning and gives him new reasons to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels for the Republican cause He believes in love despite the fact that other people—notably Karkov, who subscribes to the “purely materialistic” philosophy fashionable with the Hotel Gaylord set—reject its existence This new acceptance of ideal, romantic love is one of the most important ways in which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theories in favor of intuition and action over the course of the novel tom sawyer Tom sawyer, the main character of the novel tome sawyer by mark twain is a typical boy of western America He is playful, intelligent and cunning as well He clever and cunning is shown very clearly through the chapter when he 14 “slaughters” almost all the boys in the village by his own trick Tom is always on the alert to some mischief, even when being in a trouble Tom plays hockey in stead of being at class, thus Aunt Polly decides to make him to work on Saturday Tom hates work more than anything else Moreover, having to work on Saturday while all the other boys are having holidays is quite a severe punishment on him In fact, whitewashing the fence is not too hard for the children of Tom’s age, but tom considers it as a torture and thus he feels very depressed and miserable as well Life to him seems nothing but a burden and he works without spirit He becomes dejected because he can not know when the work is completed Mark Twain is successful when he makes a contrast between tom’s mood and his surrounding views As a result, tom’s personality is revealed clearly When “there is a song in every heart… a cheer in every face…all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit Tom is forced to whitewash the fence whereas other free boys go on “all sorts of delicious expeditions” Tom does not want either to lose face in front of all the boys in the village or to be made fun of So tom keeps on the idea of escaping from the task as soon as possible This can only ne carried out by buying the boys with his worldly wealth-“straitened means” as he calls : bits of toys, some marbles and trash An intelligent and mischievous boy like tom will never easily surrender The more hopeless the situation is, the brighter the idea in his mind appears He skillfully turns a hard task into a great privilege and considers it as an honour “does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fense everyday?” as for him, whitewash is not really work but play, “it suits Tom Sawyer” Tom also pretends not paying attention to any other things, keeping an yes on his work as a real artist He makes his whitewash work sn ornament that other boys wish to Tom absolutely admits “there ain’t one boy in a thousand, aybe thousand, that csn it the way it is got to be done” With his considerable price In other 15 words, he offers his great privilege in trade for a lot of things: marbles, part of a jew’s harp, a tin soldier, a kitten with one eye,… tom enjoys his own trick happily Being a mischievous but intelligent boy, tom discovers a “great law of human action” and discovers that work is “whatever a body is obliged to do” and play is “whatever a body is not obliged to do” It is a lesson tom masters to considerable profit in the whitewashing work Tom himself draws out such a great law that not every one can The nature of work anf play is the same but in fact work and play are quite different from each other It is because of man’s thought and conception In conclusion, with his great inspiration in the hopeless moment tom marvelously turns his awful Saturday into a wonderful day Apart from not having to work, tom has time to rest and chance to get wealth From a povertystricken boy he becomes wealthy, from a boy who hates work than anything else in the world he finally realizes the nature of work and play It can be said that tom’s intelligence is so great for a boy of his age jordan’s feeling The protagonist of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan left his job as a college instructor in the United States to volunteer for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War Initially, he believed in the Republican cause with a nearreligious faith and felt an “absolute brotherhood” with his comrades on the Republican side However, when the action of the novel starts, we see that Robert Jordan has become disillusioned As the conflict drags on, he realizes that he does not really believe in the Republican cause but joined their side simply because they fought against Fascism Because he fights for a side whose causes he does not necessarily support, Robert Jordan experiences a great deal of internal conflict and begins to wonder whether there is really any difference between the Fascist and Republican sides 16 Robert Jordan’s interior monologues and actions indicate these internal conflicts that plague him Although he is disillusioned with the Republican cause, he continues to fight for that cause In public he announces that he is anti-Fascist rather than a Communist, but in private he thinks that he has no politics at all He knows that his job requires that he kill people but also knows that he should not believe in killing in the abstract Despite his newfound love for Maria, he feels that there cannot be a place for her in his life while he also has his military work He claims not to be superstitious but cannot stop thinking about the world as giving him signs of things to come These conflicts weigh heavily on Robert Jordan throughout the bulk of the novel Robert Jordan resolves these tensions at the end of For Whom the Bell Tolls, in his final moments as he faces death He accepts himself as a man of action rather than thought, as a man who believes in practicality rather than abstract theories He understands that the war requires him to some things that he does not believe in He also realizes that, though he cannot forget the unsavory deeds he has done in the past, he must avoid dwelling on them for the sake of getting things done in the present Ultimately, Robert Jordan is able to make room in his mind for both his love for Maria and his military mission By the end of the novel, just before he dies, his internal conflicts and tensions are resolved and he feels “integrated” into the world the lessons that buck got after the first days Buck, the dog hero and protagonist of the novel, begins life as a sated aristocrat Proud and self-assured, he lives in a big house in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley in California Although he is pampered by his master, Judge Miller, and his sons, he is more than a mere housedog Buck keeps his large body lean and strong by hunting with the judge and by exercising in the outdoors Because 17 of his tremendous size and ability, he is stolen and sold to become a sled dog in the Yukon On the journey to Alaska, Buck experiences restriction for the first time in his life He is tied, caged, and beaten, bringing out the fierceness in him The trip also teaches him the law of the club If he does not obey, he will be hurt When he finally arrives in the Klondike, he must quickly learn to adapt or perish He soon knows that if he does not follow the directions given by the driver of the sled, he will be whipped; as a result, he soon becomes a valuable member of the dog team He also learns the law of the fang; if he does not attack, he will be attacked He watches Curly, a dog that is friendly to him, being viciously attacked by a Husky Once Spitz is able to get Curly down, all the other dogs move in for the kill Buck is determined that he will never go down He also realizes that in the wild, there is not fair play; it is every dog or man for himself Buck rapidly casts off his past aristocratic ways He learns how to burrow underneath the snow in order to stay warm and sleep He learns how to steal food and eat all kinds of things he would never have touched before He learns how to be a member of a dog team, laboring harder than he has ever labored in his life Physically, he becomes stronger and more able The more hardy he becomes, the more he adapts to the naturalistic environment that surrounds him The primordial beast is strong in him, and the "instincts once dead became alive again." Spitz is a constant nuisance to Buck and his worst enemy Buck cannot forget how he is responsible for Curly's death; he also resents that Spitz is the leader of the team and must be followed Even though Spitz torments Buck on a regular basis, Buck wisely does not rise to the taunts Then one day Spitz steals Buck's resting-place; he can no longer hold his anger in check He attacks Spitz, 18 and the fight is vicious Francois and Perrault have to break it up before both dogs are dead Even though the first battle is ended, the skirmishes between the enemies continue One day the dogs are all chasing a rabbit, making a great sport of it Spitz takes a shortcut and kills the rabbit for himself Buck is infuriated and attacks Spitz with a vengeance; again the fighting is fierce When Spitz is about to get the better of him, Buck calls upon his intelligence and imagination Instead of going for the throat, he breaks Spitz's two front legs, causing him to go down The other dogs quickly come in for the final kill With Spitz out of the way, Buck fights for and wins the position of leadership of the dog team He proves himself worthy, for the sled goes faster and further each day than ever before When Francois and Perrault's trip is completed, they sell the team to a Scotch Half-breed Although this new master understands the Yukon and is fair to the animals, he pushes Buck and the other dogs unmercifully Although several of the dogs perish on the trip, Buck survives, even though he is exhausted and loses weight When the Scotch Half-breed is through with Buck and the team, he sells them to Charles, Hal, and Mercedes, three inexperienced adventurers They overload the sled and not take enough food; as a result, most of the dogs die, but Buck survives from sheer determination When he arrive at the camp of John Thornton, the exhausted Buck refuses to go onward As a result, he is brutally beaten until Thornton intervenes The party departs without Buck; before they are out of sight, they sink beneath the ice, which has melted so much that it cannot bear the weight of the sled Buck licks his new master's hand as if to say thanks for sparing him from such an end Thornton is extremely kind and generous with Buck, who learns the meaning of real love for the first time Buck is totally loyal to this new mater who has saved his life and nursed him back to health As a result, he will 19 anything for Thornton; he saves his life on two different occasions and pulls a sled packed with over a thousand pounds so that Thornton can win a bet Although Buck loves his master dearly, he has a yearning to leave civilization behind and contemplates returning to his roots, living with the wolves As time passes, he spends more and more time in the woods, even getting acquainted with a timber wolf Only his devotion to Thornton stands in the way of his following his natural instincts Because of the lessons he has learned as a sled dog, Buck is totally prepared to survive in the wilderness As a result, when Thornton is killed by Indians, Buck can finally answer the call of the wild the picture of dorian gray The Picture of Dorian Gray is the story of one beautiful, innocent young man's seduction, moral corruption, and eventual downfall We meet our three central characters at the beginning of the book, when painter Basil Hallward and his close friend, Lord Henry Wotton, are discussing the subject of Basil's newest painting, a gorgeous young thing named Dorian Gray Basil and Henry discuss just how perfectlyperfect Dorian is – he's totally innocent and completely good, as well as being the most beautiful guy ever to walk the earth Lord Henry wants to meet this mysterious boy, but Basil doesn't want him to; for some reason, he's afraid of what will happen to Dorian if Lord Henry digs his claws into him However, Lord Henry gets his wish – Dorian shows up that very afternoon, and, over the course of the day, Henry manages to totally change Dorian's perspective on the world From that point on, Dorian's previously innocent point of view is dramatically different – he begins to see life as Lord Henry does, as a succession of pleasures in which questions of good and evil are irrelevant 20 Basil finishes his portrait of Dorian, and gives it to the young man, who keeps it in his home, where he can admire his own beauty Lord Henry continues to exert his influence over Dorian, to Basil's dismay Dorian grows more and more distant from Basil, his former best friend, and develops his own interests One of these interests is Sybil Vane, a young, exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally talented – and exceptionally poor – actress Though she's stuck performing in a terrible, third-rate theatre, she's a truly remarkable artist, and her talent and beauty win over Dorian He falls dramatically in love with her, and she with him For a moment, it seems like everything will turn out wonderfully However, this is just the beginning of Dorian's story Once he and Sybil are engaged, her talent suddenly disappears – she's so overcome with her passionate love for Dorian that none of her roles on stage seem important to her anymore This destroys Dorian's love for her, and he brutally dumps her Back home, he notices a something different in his portrait – it looks somehow crueler In the meanwhile, the distraught Sybil commits suicide, just as Dorian decides to return to her and take back his terrible words Sybil's suicide changes everything At first, Dorian feels horrible – but he rather quickly changes his tune On Lord Henry's suggestion, Dorian reads a mysterious "yellow book," a decadent French novel that makes him reevaluate his whole belief system The protagonist of the book lives his life in pursuit of sensual pleasures, which intrigues Dorian From this moment on, Dorian is a changed man Dorian starts to live as hedonistically as his wicked mentor, Lord Henry, does The only thing that documents this turn for the worst is the portrait, which alarmingly begins to exhibit the inward corruption of Dorian's soul; the beautiful image changes, revealing new scars and physical flaws with each of 21 Dorian's dastardly actions As years pass, the man in the picture grows more and more hideous, as Dorian himself stays unnaturally young and beautiful Rumors start to spread about the various people whose lives Dorian has ruined, and his formerly good reputation is destroyed On Dorian's 38th birthday, he encounters Basil, who desperately asks his former friend if all the horrifying rumors about him are true Dorian finally snaps and shows Basil the portrait, in which the horrible truth about his wicked nature is revealed Basil recoils, and begs Dorian to pray for forgiveness In response, Dorian murders Basil, stabbing him brutally He blackmails another of his former friends into disposing of the body Dorian retreats to an opium den after dealing with all of the evidence, where he encounters an enemy he didn't know he had – Sybil Vane's brother, James Through a rather complicated turn of events, James (who's on a mission to punish Dorian for his mistreatment of Sybil) ends up dead Dorian isn't directly responsible, but it's yet another death to add to Dorian's tally of life-wrecking disasters Dorian is relieved that his enemy is out of the way, but this event sparks a kind of mid-life crisis: he begins to wonder if his vile but enjoyable lifestyle is worth it He actually does a good(ish) deed, by deciding not to corrupt a young girl he's got the hots for, which makes him question his past actions even more Seeking some kind of reassurance, Dorian talks to Lord Henry, who's not any help at all, unsurprisingly Dorian even practically admits to murdering Basil, but Henry laughs it off and doesn't believe him That night, Dorian returns home in a pensive mood Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he hates his own beauty and breaks the mirror Again, he 22 vows to be good, but we find out that his various crimes don't really haunt him, because he doesn't consider them his fault Instead, he selfishly wants to be good so that the painting will become beautiful again Heartened by this thought, he goes up to see if his recent good deed has improved the painting – in fact, it only looks worse Frustrated, Dorian decides to destroy the picture, the visible evidence of his dreadful crimes, and the closest thing to a conscience he has Dorian slashes at the painting with the same knife that killed Basil, trying to destroy the work as he did the artist A tremendous crash and a terrible cry alert the servants that something very, very bad has happened – it's even audible outside the house Finally, they go upstairs to check it out, and are horrified by what they find: a portrait of their master, as beautiful as ever, hangs on the wall, and a mysterious, grotesquely hideous dead man is lying on the floor with a knife in his heart Upon close examination, the rings on the dead man's hand identify him as Dorian Gray In his plays wilde gives a realistic pictures of contemporary society and exposes of the bourgeois world 10 the forsyte saga The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family Only a few generations removed from their farmer ancestors, the family members are keenly aware of their status as "new money" The main character, Soames Forsyte, sees himself as a "man of property," by virtue of his ability to accumulate material possessions—but this does not succeed in bringing him pleasure.The book combines three novels and two short interludes part I: The Man of Property focuses on Soames's marriage to Irene, in which 23 he tries to buy her affection He thinks only in terms of possession, however, and the more he is seduced by her beauty the more she withdraws and becomes cold towards him Instead she falls in love with a young architect, Philip Bosinney, who is engaged to Soames's cousin's daughter, June Soames has employed Bosinney to build him a new house in the country, where he can move Irene and so isolate her from her London friends He becomes incensed at the effect the affair has on Irene Husband and wife have separate bedrooms, but Soames forces his way into Irene's bedroom one night and rapes her She leaves him Soames sues Bosinney over the building project Bosinney is killed in a road accident Volume II: In Chancery begins with the funeral of Soames's uncle, Old Jolyon The family is slowly disintegrating as the old guard die out But before he died, the old man was reunited with his wayward artist son, Young Jolyon He bought the house Bosinney built so they could all live together in the country He caused upset by leaving a substantial trust fund to Irene, with whom he kept in touch in the years after she left Soames This book is about the legal ramifications of marriage, birth, death and divorce Soames and his sister both decide to divorce their partners, a scandalous decision in nineteenth century London, especially when Soames names his cousin, Young Jolyon (now widowed), as co-respondent This volume ends with the funeral of Queen Victoria in 1901 Soames sets about accquiring a new wife, Annette, who bears him a daughter, Fleur Irene marries Young Jolyon and gives birth to a son, Jon Volume III: To Let begins in 1920, after the Great War has brought about the destruction of the Victorian ethos under which the Forsyte dynasty had prospered The hatred between Soames and Irene attains Shakespearean proportions when their children, scarcely out of their teens, meet and fall in love with each other Irene is willing to allow love to take its course, but Soames can't stand the 24 emotional conflict it arouses within him Meanwhile Fleur has another suitor, the aristocrat Michael Mont Fleur and Jon are left as unhappy as the rest of the family 11, of human bondage Of human bondage , partially an autobiography was written on 1915 it is about the life of an Englishman, Philip carey Like his author, an orphan, he is left to the care of is childless uncle, a clergyman, who knows nothings about the psychology of a child and his wife who tried to be in the place of philip’s mother clumsily and is rejected Philip, a clubfooted boy is thrown into a hostile world He is a boy of reading world love for miss Wilkindon is frustrated at seeing her in her room His loe for Mildered is not returned “The reality which was offered to him differed too terribly from the ideal of his dreams” The popularity of the novel lies in the fact that philip’s fate is also the one of many young Englishmen He learns much about human bondages, crueltym unhappiness, grief and pain which so many human beings have to experience 12, the gift of the magi The Gift of the Magi is a well-known tale by American short story writer O Henry (the penname ofWilliam Sydney Porter) The story first appeared in The New York Sunday World on December 10, 1905 and was later published in O Henry's collection The Four Million on April 10, 1905 The story tells of a young married couple,James (Jim) and Della Dillingham The couple has very little money and lives in a modest apartment Between them they have two possessions that they consider their treasures: Jim's gold pocket watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's, and Della's lustrous, long hair that falls almost to her knees It's Christmas Eve, and Della finds herself running out of time to buy Jim a Christmas present After paying all of the bills, all Della has left is $1.87 to put 25 toward Jim's Christmas present Desperate to find him the perfect gift, out she goes into the cold December day, looking in shop windows for something she can afford She wants to buy Jim a chain for his pocket watch, but they're all out of her price range Rushing home, Della pulls down her beautiful hair and stands in front of the mirror, admiring it and thinking On a sudden inspiration, she rushes out again and cuts off her hair to sell She gets $20.00, just enough to buy the platinum chain she'd seen in a shop window for $21.00 When Jim comes home from work, he stares at Della, trying to figure out what's different about her, and she admits that she sold her hair to buy his present Before she can give it to him, however, Jim casually pulls a package out of his overcoat pocket and hands it to her Inside Della finds a pair of costly decorative hair combs that she'd long admired, but which are of course completely useless now that she's cut off her hair Hiding her tears, she jumps up and holds out her gift for Jim: the watch-chain Jim shrugs, flops down onto the old sofa, puts his hands behind his head and tells Della flatly that he sold his watch to buy her combs The story ends by comparing these gifts to the gifts that the Magi (or three wise-men) gave to theBaby Jesus in the manger in the biblical story of Christmas The narrator concludes that Jim and Della are far wiser than the Magi, because their gifts are gifts of love, and those who give out of love and self-sacrifice are truly wise because they know the value of self-giving love 13.the luncheon The character : The lady was 40 year old, talkative and not attractive She loved his writing She had read of his books and wrote a letter to congratulate him on his work He invited her for lunch and to his horror she chose an expensive restaurant E.g : "She was in fact a woman of forty (a charming age, but not one that excites a sudden and devastating passion at first sight), and she gave me the impression of having more teeth, white and large and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose She was talkative, but since she 26 seemed inclined to talk about me I was prepared to be an attentive listener" Not only her appearance but also her dialogues express that she is an extremely fat, food-loving and ravenous woman who does not even think a bit about the costs the speaker would have to pay for the lunch She has a very good appetite, and gobbles a lot of money also The most interesting part is the verbal irony hidden in the lines she utters to the speaker, like she does not eat too much etc The woman's tone never changes while she cheats the host and orders the most expensive dishes, and the repetition of same phrases proves it I never eat anything for luncheon", and "I never eat more than one thing" And that is the key sentence of the text The woman's insistence in saying that she does not eat anything for lunch is in the stressed mark of irony, for she ate like a heroine She ordered one expensive dish after another So we can make a conclusion that the woman is smart, experienced, selfish, cold, without any feeling except to fulfill her desires, and hardly bothered about the expense 14 soams forsyte “the man of property” is a social novel im the foesyte saga which shows the typical characteristic features of the bristish upper-middle class society, of which soames forsyte is a typical forsyte in the forsyte family Firsly, he is a show off person He always thinks that with money he can buy anything, even beauty and the love of his wife – Irene Therefore, he invites Philip bossiney to build a house on robin hill with sophisticated decoration According to his order, the house has to be commodious, there are countless nooks resembling bird’s mests and little siliver things are deposited like eggs Windows have to hang flower boxes filled with funchsias,…besides, he still likes his wife to dine with a low dress for dinner because it gives him an inexpressible feeling of superiority to the majority of his axquaintance It denotes that he is not only a rich man but also has a beautiful wife Thus, he 27 makes boast of everything on his own way Secondly, he is competitive and slights people It is a reason why in his Marlborough days he has to be the first boy in to white waist coast in summer and corduroy waist coast in winter For him, it is imposible to conveive of him with a hair out of place, a tie deviating one-eighth of an inch from the perpendicular, a collar unglosses Furthermore, he believes that it is bitter scorn if a person go out without a bath Thus, he has to a perfect person and always be number one Finally, he usually hides himseft and his snobbery shows his nature Irene’s silence does not make him angry He just thinks in his mind and never say about that for his wife He indeed asks her when he needs more information In addition, he often tales Irene to the theater, instinctively choosing the modern society plays with the modern society conjugal problem, so fortunate different from any conjugal problem in real life He finds that they too always ended in the same way, even when there is a lover in the cases He hopes that she will love him In conclusion, he is a show off, snobbish and affected person It is his nature characteristics, therefore he becomes a examplarsy forsyte 28 [...]... him…nothing could be more ordinary I do not know that there was anything about them to excite the attention of the curious.” But the rest of the book shows that the first impression was altogether wrong At the age of forty Charles Strickland leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris to study art He was aware of the hardships in store for him but his desire to paint was so strong that nothing was... to comfort Canvas and paint were the only things he needed “…when no food was to be had he seemed capable of doing without… There was something impressive in the manner in which he lived a life wholly of the spirit” Strickland did not care for fame or wealth He never sold his pictures, nor even showed them to anybody He lived in a dream, the reality meant nothing for him “He was never satisfied with... private he thinks that he has no politics at all He knows that his job requires that he kill people but also knows that he should not believe in killing in the abstract Despite his newfound love for Maria, he feels that there cannot be a place for her in his life while he also has his military work He claims not to be superstitious but cannot stop thinking about the world as giving him signs of things... talented – and exceptionally poor – actress Though she's stuck performing in a terrible, third-rate theatre, she's a truly remarkable artist, and her talent and beauty win over Dorian He falls dramatically in love with her, and she with him For a moment, it seems like everything will turn out wonderfully However, this is just the beginning of Dorian's story Once he and Sybil are engaged, her talent suddenly... her roles on stage seem important to her anymore This destroys Dorian's love for her, and he brutally dumps her Back home, he notices a something different in his portrait – it looks somehow crueler In the meanwhile, the distraught Sybil commits suicide, just as Dorian decides to return to her and take back his terrible words Sybil's suicide changes everything At first, Dorian feels horrible – but he... his whole belief system The protagonist of the book lives his life in pursuit of sensual pleasures, which intrigues Dorian From this moment on, Dorian is a changed man Dorian starts to live as hedonistically as his wicked mentor, Lord Henry, does The only thing that documents this turn for the worst is the portrait, which alarmingly begins to exhibit the inward corruption of Dorian's soul; the beautiful... while she cheats the host and orders the most expensive dishes, and the repetition of same phrases proves it I never eat anything for luncheon", and "I never eat more than one thing" And that is the key sentence of the text The woman's insistence in saying that she does not eat anything for lunch is in the stressed mark of irony, for she ate like a heroine She ordered one expensive dish after another... family Firsly, he is a show off person He always thinks that with money he can buy anything, even beauty and the love of his wife – Irene Therefore, he invites Philip bossiney to build a house on robin hill with sophisticated decoration According to his order, the house has to be commodious, there are countless nooks resembling bird’s mests and little siliver things are deposited like eggs Windows have... him from such an end Thornton is extremely kind and generous with Buck, who learns the meaning of real love for the first time Buck is totally loyal to this new mater who has saved his life and nursed him back to health As a result, he will do 19 anything for Thornton; he saves his life on two different occasions and pulls a sled packed with over a thousand pounds so that Thornton can win a bet Although... friend, Lord Henry Wotton, are discussing the subject of Basil's newest painting, a gorgeous young thing named Dorian Gray Basil and Henry discuss just how perfectlyperfect Dorian is – he's totally innocent and completely good, as well as being the most beautiful guy ever to walk the earth Lord Henry wants to meet this mysterious boy, but Basil doesn't want him to; for some reason, he's afraid of what will