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In the final third of our course, we read sonnets by Petrarch, Shakespeare and Donne, excerpts from the prose of Montaigne and Machiavelli’s The Prince, excerpts from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the entirety of Hamlet, and a large part of Milton’s Paradise Lost. For our third and final exam, you will write on these texts individually and in relation to each other. You will also have the option to make the final “comprehensive” and articulate an argument which includes multiple works from throughout the semester.
Demonstrate your knowledge of the material through specific reference to the text. Do not go beyond the texts we read for the class; in other words, do not use excerpts from Milton, or a Shakespeare play, which were not included in our reading, and do not use additional outside articles or scholarship. You need nothing for this exam beyond our own reading. Instead, spend your time proving that you know the material.
Always remember to have a thesis; back up your argument with specific reference to the text.
This is a “take home” exam and, for that reason, I expect you to proofread, revise, and edit your work before you submit it. Do not force me to grade work which is not your best; neither you nor I will be happy with the results!
All exams are due on Friday Dec 14 in a digital dropbox created on the course’s Desire2Learn website. Use Times New Roman 12 point font, double spaced. Make sure your name and the course number are on the paper before you upload it. After you have uploaded the paper, be sure it has been uploaded! If you experience any problem getting the paper to upload, or if for any reason you are unsure it has uploaded, write to me at jtondro@ccga.edu
Short Answer Questions
Answer three (3) of the following questions with short essays of 2-3 paragraphs each.
1: Compare and contrast the way that Petrarch, Shakespeare and Donne each portray their lovers in the sonnets “Father in Heaven, after each lost day” (p.169), “My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun” (p.179) and “Batter my heart” (p.769).
2: How does Montaigne portray the Native Americans of his era, and to what end does he use this comparison? In other words, what is he trying to say when he uses Native Americans in his writing?
3: Don Quixote seems to be a very ambivalent portrayal of romance, with Cervantes openly criticizing stories of knightly adventure while, at the same time, Quixote himself is portrayed as a sympathetic and noble (though comedic) figure. Ultimately, do you find Cervantes and his book to be more appreciative of, or more dismissive of, the genre of epic romance?
4: Anayze Shakespeare’s portrayal of the themes of “truth” or reality vs. “play” or seeming in Hamlet. In other words, how is “play” or acting represented and what is its relationship to “the truth”? Do you see the play itself saying something more generally about how we act, as people?
5: Milton argues that Adam is a heroic figure, more heroic than Achilles or Aeneas. What is his defense for this statement? Are there examples in which Adam is “heroic”? Do you agree or disagree with Milton’s claim, and why?
Single Long Essay
Select ONE of the following questions and write a complete and thoughtful essay in response. Do not write on more than one question!
In all cases, you must use either: A) three or more authors we have read since the last exam (Plutarch, Shakespeare, Donne, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Ariosto, Cervantes, Milton) or B) one or more author from each of the three periods we examined (Classical, Medieval, Renaissance). In other words, you can choose to make the exam comprehensive, if you wish. I leave this option to you.
A: Many of our authors have discussed, directly or in allegory, the power of the imagination to affect not just our beliefs, but also our actions and even our own physical bodies. Outline some of these arguments and any points of agreement or disagreement you see between them. Which author do you find most or least persuasive, and why or why not?
B: In the literature we have read this semester, a division can be seen between those writers who embrace reading as a difficult exercise, and those who insist that reading is best when reading is easy. Articulate the two sides of this debate using examples on each side, and take a stand on the debate. Recognizing that the ideal literature would be both easy to read and packed with meaning, do you find one of these two arguments more persuasive than the other?
C: Finally (and you knew it was coming) many of our authors have confronted the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” But they almost never attempt to actually answer this question. Instead, they attempt to answer a different question: “If we acknowledge that bad things happen to good people – that is, that the world is not just — how should we conduct our lives in this unjust world?” Outline some of the various responses to this second question which our authors have posed, and discuss which – if any – of these authors you find persuasive
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