Sheet Review for English 292 Midterm Exam #2: The Victorian Age
Some work of noble note, may yet be done . . .
Format of the Exam (140 points total, 2 hour time limit)
*** No outside sources may be consulted on this exam.***
1. Identification Questions: These questions will test your knowledge of important terms, major events, literary figures,
and textual quotations from the Victorian Age. Definitions or descriptions will be provided, and you will be asked to fill
in the appropriate name, date or term. In addition to those items listed below, a few quotations will be drawn from the
texts we have read. You should be prepared to identify these by author OR title.
(20 items, 2 points each, 40 points total)
2. Short Response Essays: These questions will give you an opportunity to discuss key aspects of some of the particular
works we have studied. Prompts are given in the form of quotations. First explicate the passage, indicating its meaning
and significance within the text from which it is taken. Comment specifically on ideas and themes of the text as a whole
that are developed in the passage. Then suggest in detail ways in which the passage and the text from which it is taken
relate to other works we have studied, and to overarching issues (literary or social) from the time period. Above all, be
specific. Dont just name texts and themes; explain them so that someone unfamiliar with the subject could understand
your arguments. Fundamentally, your answer should clearly show that you understand the passage and its larger
significance. You should write 2 information-rich paragraphs of about 4-6 sentences each: one on the textual passage
itself and the themes of the larger source text, and another on its connections to other works and more general themes.
(2 prompts, 20 points each, 40 points total)
3. Synthesis Essay: In this essay you will have an opportunity to explore a general issue relevant to the Victorian Age.
You may be invited to compare the work of two or more authors, to discuss overarching themes, or to discuss specific
texts or textual passages in light of historical, socio-political, and moral/ethical contexts. You should plan to write
approximately 6 information-rich paragraphs of 4-6 sentences. If in doubt, be inclusive rather than selective in your
examples and interpretive ideas, and detailed rather than general in your explication of the textual passages your give as
examples.
(1 prompt, 60 points total)
Contents of the Exam
Possible Identification Items:
The following are possible names, dates and terms which you may be asked to identify on the exam. The bolded portion(s) of each
item is the portion you must know for the exam. Answers that are correct but misspelled will receive 1 point.
Charles Dickens
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning
Matthew Arnold
Christina Rossetti
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Conrad
Oscar Wilde
1830 (Tennyson, Poems, Chiefly
Lyrical)
1830 (Opening of Liverpool and
Manchester Railway)
1832 (First Reform Bill)
1833 (Slavery Abolished)
1836 (Dickens, Pickwick Papers)
1837 (Victoria Queen)
1838 (Peoples Charter)
1842 (Browning, Dramatic Lyrics)
1845-46 (Irish Potato Famine)
1846 (Repeal of Corn Laws)
1847 (Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre;
Emily Bronte, Wuthering
Heights)
1850 (Tennyson, In Memoriam)
1850
1851
1853
1854
1857
1859
1861
1862
1877
(Tennyson succeeds
Wordsworth as Poet
Laureate)
(Great Exhibition)
(Arnold, Poems)
(Dickens, Hard Times)
(Indian Mutiny)
(Origin of Species)
(Death of Prince Albert)
(Rossetti, Goblin Market)
(Victoria Empress of India)
1891
(Hardy, Tess of the
DUrbervilles; Conan Doyle,
Sherlock Holmes)
1895 (Wilde, Importance of Being
Earnest)
1899-1902 (Boer War)
1901 (Death of Victoria;
succession of Edward VII)
the white mans burden
dramatic monologue
inscape
Bunburying
Short Response Essay Prompts:
Any significant passage discussed in class may appear on the exam. The best way to prepare for this section is to review the texts and
your class notes, noting major themes and ideas and practicing what you might say about specific passages.
Synthesis Essay Prompts:
One synthesis prompt essay from the following set will appear on the exam.
1.
Outline the primary arguments of Engels from The Great Towns, and explore his ideas as they come up in various ways in
other texts we have studied. Consider especially themes or elements relating to industrialism and the fragmentation or
atomization of Victorian society. Consider various examples of isolation and communion: in society, in personal or
intimate human relationships, in oneself, in relation to God and nature. Be sure to address Dickens Hard Times and the work
of at least two other Victorian writers in your response.
2.
Explore the topic of nostalgia in the Victorian works we have studied. Consider possible motivations for setting works in a
romanticized past or fantasy realm (i.e. in the times of King Arthur, or in the Renaissance, or in classical Greece, or even in
realms where animalistic goblin men can talk). What might have been attractive about such settings for the Victorians, and
what did these settings allow the writers to accomplish in their works that might not otherwise have been possible? Consider
specifically how these nostalgic impulses function in relation to industrialism, issues of faith and doubt, and imperial
expansionism. Be sure to analyze in detail works by at least three of the Victorian writers we have studied.
3.
In the preface to a book on Tennyson, Terry Eagleton comments that, Few readers or critics are now likely to credit the
ludicrous claim that a particular Victorian middle-class conservative [referring, of course, to Tennyson himself] was speaking
in In Memoriam in the language of the human race itself. Yet the opening stanzas of the poem seem to invite just such a
reading, and many Victorian works seem to follow a similar pattern of the individual writer giving voice to the experiences
and desires of the general populace. Looking at the works of at least three of the Victorians we have studied, explore ways in
which the experiences, thoughts and emotions of the authors and/or the literary characters they have created seem to reflect
the concerns and dreams of the Victorians as a whole.
4.
Introduce and explore the issue of faith and doubt as it appears in the works of at least three of the Victorian writers we have
studied. This could mean describing and comparing the religious visions contained in particular works (e.g. In Memoriam,
Fra Lippo Lippi, Dover Beach, Goblin Market, or Hopkins poems), as well as looking at issues of ethics or morality
in general in other works (Hard Times, the writings on empire and colonialism, Heart of Darkness, The Importance of Being
Earnest). What historical events or trends made religion such a contested subject in this literary era, and how do various texts
negotiate this difficult social and cultural environment?
5.
Introduce and explore the Woman Question as a major issue developing in the Victorian Age, and suggest ways in which
this issue comes out through the representations of women in various texts we have read. Be sure to analyze in detail works
by at least three of the Victorian writers we have studied.
6.
Introduce and explore the general topic of exploration and empire as it comes up in the works of both early and late
Victorians. Consider the appeal of travel (both real and imaginary/vicarious) to the Victorians, and give examples of works
and passages that seem to reflect this notion. Discuss also the notion of the white mans burden and how it is represented in
the works of various writers. Be sure to address Conrads Heart of Darkness and at least two other texts in your response.
7.
Discuss some of the different views of the function of art that come out of the Victorian Age. What did Arnold think art (and
the criticism of it) should do, and how does this contrast to Wildes views? Where do other Victorian writers seem to fall on
the general question of education/edification versus aestheticism? In other words, should art make people better, or just
please or entertain them somehow? What can we discover from the lives and especially the works of the authors we have
studied?