ENGLISH 201 ESSAY EXAM
Dr. Bruce R. Magee
Essay questions. Answer five of the questions below.
Use
complete sentences and good grammar. Use diagrams and lists where
appropriate.
-
Write from memory 10 lines of poetry and analyze
their meaning
to you in
a well-written paragraph. Include the poem title, author (or
anonymous),
and page number in the book to facilitate grading.
- Discuss the three estates. Name & define each
estate.
Discuss the place in society, duties, & potential shortcomings of
each.
- Analyze the significance of Gawain's shield in Sir
Gawain
and the Green Knight. Be sure to discuss both the front and
back
sides of the shield.
- Discuss the great chain of being. What were the
implications
of the chain of being for the universe? Society? The individual?
Support
your discussion with diagrams.
- Compare & contrast Beowulf and Paradise
Lost.
What genre is each? What are the characteristics of those genres? What
type of society does each represent? What kinds of virtues are
portrayed?
What kinds of vices? How do these change as the society
changed? Remember to discuss how various characters represent
specific virtues/vices.
- Discuss the hero of Paradise Lost from
the perspectives
of Milton and Blake. Whom did Milton intend to be the hero? Whom does
Blake
regard as the hero? How do their opinions reflect the changing
understanding
of heroism in the two eras?
- The notes on Pilgrim's Progress give you
the four
levels of allegory for the story as a whole. Pick one of the
incidents
in the story and analyze the four levels of allegory as they apply to
that incident.
EXTRA CREDIT: Write from memory up to 20 lines
of
poetry for up to 10 points of extra credit. Partial credit is possible.
Include the poem title, author (or anonymous), and page number in the
book
to facilitate grading. Do NOT
use
the same lines you used in #1 above. You may use different lines
from the same poem.