1.Examine the character and role of Tartuffe, and explain how Moliere uses him to advance a particular agenda in the play.
2.Examine the characters in “Tartuffe” who represent Reason, and explain their function and treatment in the play and the way they represent a particular historical milieu.
3.Discuss the techniques Swift uses to advance his argument in “A Modest Proposal,” and explain what his real argument is.
4.In “Rape of the Lock,” explain and explore the way Pope uses Belinda’s lock to unlock a powerful satire about his own society referencing the clever poetic techniques Pope uses.
5.Explain why Candide shifts from his conviction for much of the book that the peculiar, violent and predatory world he experiences is in fact the “best of all possible worlds” to the idea of “one must cultivate one’s garden”?
6.At the heart of Voltaire’s “Candide,” is a love story of sorts—what themes are embedded in the relationship between Candide and Cunegonde?
7.The life story of the sensuous hermit offers fascinating cultural facts about Japan, and universal observations about the human condition—where are those things entwined and most interesting?
8.With reference to Rousseau’s “Confessions,” demonstrate how Romanticism was a reaction to the values of the Enlightenment.
9.Examine Blake’s poems of Innocence and Experience and explain the thematic and conceptual arc(s) that Blake explores between the two.
10.Look at Wordsworth’s and Keats’ use of the ballad form (“We Are Seven,” and “La Belle Dame sans Merci”) to explain key themes that echo in the Romantic period.
11.Examine and discuss the Romantic use of the sonnet form discussing either Keats’ “Bright Star,” or Wordsworth’s “Surprised by Joy.”
12.Tennyson’s “Marianna” and “The Lady of Shalott” are fascinating Victorian insights into the Woman Question. What do the poems reveal about women of the period?
13.The Romantics were particularly interested in Folklore and the way the tales revealed regional and rustic identities—and spoke to the human condition. Explore the themes in the selected stories and explain what they suggest about their culture.
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