Final Exam 2002

Friday, December 13, 12 p.m.

For sample IDs, click here.

Sectional exam--
This exam will be just like the other sectional exams have been, with IDs, short answer, and essay questions. In the IDs, I will select from Hamlet, Paradise Lost, "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "The Flea," "The Ecstasy,"  "To His Coy Mistress," "The Collar." I will ask one of these essay questions:

In both Hamlet and Paradise Lost, characters have to confront the problem of sin. Compare Satan to Claudius. What motivates their actions, and how do they come to terms with those actions? Why do their attempts at repentance fail, and what are the consequences of that failure? Be sure to illustrate with copious specific example.

Both Eve and Hamlet are confronted with the difficulty of figuring out how to use their reason and free will to make a choice. Discuss the ways both try to employ intuitive and discursive reason as they attempt to guide their actions. Do you conclude that their actions are indeed guided by reason?

In much of our reading this semester, the negative consequences of revenge have been discussed, yet in both Hamlet and Paradise Lost revenge seems at times to be a good thing, especially when associated with the idea of justice. What is the difference between revenge and justice? Discuss examples of both revenge and justice in the two works.

Comprehensive final exam--I will ask two essay questions, selected from the following. Each essay is 50% of your exam grade.

Discuss how the standards of heroism develop over the course of the first half of English literature; use an example from each of the three historical eras we have covered: pre-Renaissance (Beowulf, Chaucer, Sir Gawain, Morte Darthur), early Renaissance (sonnets, Dr. Faustus, Faerie Queene, Taming of the Shrew), late Renaissance (Hamlet, 17th C. Poetry, Paradise Lost).

The problem of pride is discussed in many of the works we have studied this semester. Discuss the issue as it appears in four works of your choosing. When is pride a sin, and when is it something more closely akin to honor? Suggested works to choose from: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, "The Nun's Priest's Tale," Dr. Faustus, Paradise Lost. (Do not use Hamlet in this answer).

Discuss and illustrate positive and negative aspects of the portrayal of women in each of the three sections of the course. You may select as few as three or as many as six works as illustration; you may use one or the other but not both of the major works from the last section (Hamlet and Paradise Lost)