T.S. Eliot

On Monday, April 27th, you will take a quiz on the 3 T.S. Eliot poems we read in the textbook: "Preludes," "The Hollow Men," and "The Naming of Cats."

In addition, a test grade will be given on the packet of questions pertaining to "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" that will be due on Monday. Check out this video!

April 15, 2015 The Daily Show Satirical Journal Entry

Explain what is being satirized and how humor helps in understanding the more serious topics. (The Video Can be Found Here.)

On the News Media and News Coverage:

• The urgency to cover insignificant news.
• The methods in which serious, graphic, news is covered.
• The use of language censor versus graphic censor

Questions to Discuss "The Future of Christianity" Segment

• Do you agree/disagree with either one of the people interviewed regarding the future of faith?
• Can AI (Artificial Intelligence), once it becomes aware of itself,  convert to a faith?

April 14, 2015 The Daily Show Satirical Journal Entry.

Explain what is being satirized and how humor helps in understanding the more serious topics. (The episode can be found here.)

• Constitutional authority regarding making treaties and declaring war.
• News coverage of Marco Rubio's announcement as a candidate for president versus Hilary Clinton's lunch.

Interview with Fareed Zakaria and his new book In Defense of a Liberal Education.

• Do you think our educational system needs to be changed? If so, why?
• Is the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) a better alternative to 'traditional' classroom education?

April 13, 2015 The Daily Show Satirical Journal Entry.

Explain what is being satirized and how humor helps in understanding the more serious topics. (The Episode Can be Found Here): 

• Hilary Clinton’s announcement for her candidacy for president and the response from political opponents.

• The NRA spokesman’s comment on 8 years of a “demographically” chosen president and the accompanied skit.

• The Interview with the Mid East correspondent.

Quiz Questions Due Tomrrow

Below are a list of 10 quiz questions. Please choose 2 from each of the Acts and answer them. The answers need to be complete and concise (paragraph length or more.) They will be due tomorrow.

Act One

1. Why does Jack Worthing call himself "Ernest" instead when he is in "town"

(London)?

2. How does Wilde satirize the attitudes and lifestyles of the British

aristocracy in Lady Bracknell's interview with Jack?

3. What is the essence of such Wildean aphorisms as the following?" "[Women

flirting with their own husbands] looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean

linen in public."

4. What point is Wilde making about journalism in general and reviewers in

particular when Algernon remarks, "You should leave that [literary criticism] to

people who haven't been at University. They do it so well in the daily papers"?

5. What tools of satire –irony, juxtaposition, understatement, paradox –are

apparent in this opening act? CITE SPECIFIC LINES FROM THE PLAY.

Act Two

1. "Gwendolen and Cecily are not so much opposites as complements." Explain

this remark by reference to their speeches and actions.

2. Early on in Act One Jack Worthing articulates the difference between city life

and country life. Show three ways in which the life of the country (as

exemplified by the Manor House, Woolton, Herfordshire) is very different from

the bachelor life of The Albany, London.

3. Like Jack, Algy leads a double life, utilizing an escape mechanism when

necessary to free himself of a life of social obligation and lead a life of

unrestrained pleasure. Explain their differing motivations, but how both are

"confirmed Bunburyists," nevertheless.

4. The comedy of mistaken identity is a very old dramatic form – as old, in fact,

as comedy itself – which Wilde manages to revitalize in The Importance of Being

Earnest. The key mistaken identity in this play, of course, is that of “Ernest”

himself. What comic consequences result from Algernon’s assuming the role of

Ernest Worthing?

5. What role does food have within the play? (Notice how Jack and Algy are

eating muffins at key points – and then those pesky cucumber sandwiches in

Act I…)

Vocabulary for Friday Quiz

Vocabulary from Jane Eyre excerpt pg. 961

Damask, “patterned fabric used to cover furniture” (line 1)

Self-indulgent, “pursuing one’s own pleasure or satisfaction excessively” (line 6)

Physiognomy, “facial appearance” (line 15)

Deliberated, “thought carefully” (line 17)

Conventionally, “done in the usual way” (line 18)

Singular, “unusual” (line 20)

Rejoinder, “reply” (line 25)

Brusque, “blunt” (line 25)

Impromptu, “spur-of-the-moment” (line 27)

Consequence, “importance” (line 28)

Placidity, “calmness” (line 31)

Disown, “to reject responsibility for” (line 34)

Repartee, “a quick, witty reply” (line 35)

Vocabulary from Great Expectations pg. 1010

Disdain, “disgust” (line 9)

Trodden, “Walked upon” (line 19)

Arrest, “stopping of movement” (line 19)

Indifferent, “unimpressive” (line 30)

Contempt, “despise” (line 30)

Aversion, “strong dislike” (line 44)

Today's Lesson

Today's Lesson

Read "Meet the Author" on Robert Browning on page 944.

Read "My Last Duchess" on pages 946-948.

Answer the following questions. 

1. The time is the Italian Renaissance, as Browning establishes by references to art and the dowry, which the Duke is negotiating with the Count of Tyrol, as well as by the Duke's "thousand-year-old name." Why is this "name" so important to this Renaissance Duke?

2. The Duke eliminated (divorced? sent to a convent? had executed or poisoned?) his last duchess because (he felt) she undervalued him and treated him much as she treated other men. Which trivial incidents in particular seem to have produced this response in the Duke?

3. Based on the clues that Browning provides in the poem, explain both what happened before the opening of the poem (i. e., what fate befell the Duchess and how) and what will happen just after the poem closes.