ENGL 5662: Victorian Literature
Dr. Sigler

Midterm Examination Part One: Take Home Essay

Directions: Write one detailed short essay (no more than 2-3 pages, typed, double-spaced) on any one of the following topics, writing for no more than 90 minutes.

Due Time/Date: 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday 7 March 2011 (the date and time of the midterm exam). No exam essays will be accepted after this time. Please do not e-mail me your essay; electronic copies will not be accepted.

The essay portion of the midterm covers class material from the first half of the semester and is worth 50% of your final grade for the midterm. The total number of points for the exam, including the in-class portion of the midterm, is 100 points.

Your essay will be read for the quality of its composition, as well as the depth and breadth of the knowledge of class readings and conceptual material it contains. To write a really good essay you should, of course, extend beyond what we did in class, and demonstrate your ability to think on your own. You may use your class texts, handouts, and notes while writing your essay, and will need to use specific details and quotes to illustrate and concretely support your answers, but be sure to document correctly (MLA Style), including a short "works cited" list at the end of your essay. Please do not use secondary sources while writing your essay, and you should, of course, only reference texts from the syllabus discussed in class.

 Please remember :

• These are deliberately open-ended questions, so be sure to begin with a clear main idea/thesis, and develop your discussion with supporting ideas; don't just respond with a list of examples.
• Make your argument through close readings of the text(s) in question and supporting evidence from the texts to which you refer. Avoid huge generalizations about Victorian literature and culture, but be sure to use relevant information from class lectures as well as the readings.
• Use plenty of examples and specific details; don't rely on generalizations. (Remember: one of the main objects of the exam is to enable you to display the range and depth of your knowledge of the class material.)
• Proofread your work: errors of fact, including misspellings of author, character, plot details, etc., from the texts will count as errors.
• Your completed essay is due at 9:00 am on Monday, 7 March. Please print out your work in "best quality" mode on clean paper, and be sure your name is on it.

 

Part I. Write a detailed short essay (2-3 pages) analyzing ONE of the following topics. To write a really good essay, you should extend beyond what we did in class, and demonstrate your ability to think on your own.

1. Lewis Carroll is often credited with creating a new vision of childhood as a stage when children must use their imaginations and intelligence not to better fit into adult society (socialization), but as a means to acquire more secure identities for themselves (subjectivity) in the face of the threats to individualism and identity that the adult world of authority (school, parents, government) can sometimes represent.  But how new is this vision, really: might we see similar depictions of childhood and adulthood in earlier Victorian texts?  Discuss by comparing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to any two earlier depictions (fictional or nonfictional) of the relationship between children and adults or adult society.
   
   
2. Nineteenth-century domestic ideology exalted the position of the Victorian mother and homemaker. As "angels in the home," middle-class women could use their "natural purity and goodness" to create a potent redeeming and reforming environment within the "domestic sphere."  Discuss ways that nineteenth-century writers (male and female) have either supported or subverted this notion of domestic ideology by examining at least three works by different writers; at least one of the three must be a work of nonfiction.

3. A number of works we have discussed critique social problems caused by the inequities of the British class system, particularly the repression and exploitation of the lower or working classes by the middle and upper classes.  Discuss this issue in at least three works by different writers, at least one of which must be a work of nonfiction.  What class conflicts are represented in these texts, and what solutions do these writers offer?