Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Note: This list is not necessarily comprehensive, but aims to serve as a starting point to encourage study of the particular pieces and anticipation for the types of questions that will be included on the exam.  Please read the works and not just the online summaries—that is the best preparation (as well as listening in class).  

I.         A Modest Proposal  by Jonathan Swift (in spite of all his satire, he was a conservative Protestant minister – he attacks the pretensions of Enlightenment rationalism).  How is this work the fruit of the spirit of the age?   What is Swift’s proposal?  What problem is the author aiming to solve?  How does the proposal reflect the enlightenment mindset?  Who is he satirizing? Why? What is his point?  Why is this remedy necessary?  What possible remedies to the problem are disregarded by Swift at the end of his proposal?  How are these rejected solutions ironic?

II.        Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift  

How is this work the fruit of the spirit of the age? What is the premise of the story?  What was his main purpose?  Who is the main character?  Why is he an unreliable narrator? Be prepared to discuss the attributes of the Houyhnhmns and the Yahoo through the eyes of Gulliver.  How is he similar to them, how is he different?  What is the grand maxim of the Houyhnhmns?  What are their principle virtues?   What is the purpose of the Houyhnhnm family unit, mating, offspring, etc.  What is the role of the Grand Council (Assembly)? What are the Houyhnhnm’s views of their own hierarchy, lying, death, the eradication of the Yahoos?  Why does Gulliver become enamored with the Houyhnhmns?  How does Gulliver represent the European view of the world to his Master? What does he say about the human pursuit of war, incidence of disease, man’s physical limitations and appetite, political corruption?  Is it ironic that none of the Houyhnhnm’s have names? Why?  Why does he leave the island?  What are the two maxims that Gulliver adopts as he prepares to leave the island?  How are they ironic?  What are the negatives in the Houyhnhnm culture and lifestyle?  What do they lack (aside from emotion)?  How does he respond to the treatment of Don Pedro and later to his family?  At the close of the work, what is Gulliver doing and why?  What is Swift saying about man, reason, England, etc.?  What does the author mean when he states: “my sole intention was the public good” (338)?

III.        What are the main characteristics of Romantic Poetry? What is the spirit of the age and what is it advocating and what is it a reaction against?  Provide examples of these characteristics as they appear in the works of Blake and Wordsworth.  

Be prepared to discuss the social, political and religious environment during the time when the Romantic poets produced their best work.  What were they rebelling against and what were they encouraging? Provide examples from each poet’s work.

For all poems, be prepared to identify the poem’s speaker, tone and the major poetic devices (simile, metaphor, personification, allusion).  Also be familiar with specific verses in these poems, discuss their meaning and relay the significance of the verse to the poem.