Transcendentalist and Dark Romantic Study Guide

Directions: Answer each question with complete sentences and to the best of your ability. Use the readings and your response notes, as well as in class notes to help you fill in the study guide.

1. Who wrote Self Reliance? Emerson
2. Who wrote Bartleby the Scrivener? Melville
3. Who wrote Walden or Life in the Woods? Thoreau
4. Who wrote Nature? Emerson
5. Who wrote Annabel Lee and Masque of Red Death? Poe
6. Who wrote “Loomings”? Melville
7. Where is the following quotation from& who wrote it? “In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can be fall me in life- no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair.” Emerson from Nature
8. Where is the following quotation from& who wrote it? “I would prefer not to.” Melville from Bartleby
9. Where is the following quotation from& who wrote it? “In the seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue.” Poe from Masque of  the Red Death
10. Where is the following quotation from& who wrote it? “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to dies, discover that I had not lived.” Thoreau from Walden
11. Where is the following quotation from& who wrote it? “… two and two there floated into my inmost should, endless procession of whale, and midmost of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like snow hill in the air.” Melville from Moby Dick chapter 1 “Loomings”
12. Which author was a popular lecturer as part of the Lyceum movement? Emerson
13. Which author was admired more abroad than in the United States? Poe
14. Which author inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.? Thoreau
15. Which author was a whaler at sea for 5 years? Melville
16. Which author lost much of his optimism after his son’s death? Emerson
17. Where was much of the intellectual and social growth during the first half of the 19th century? (This was in the pre-reading of the textbook for the dark romantics & transcendentalist). New England
18. What reform movements where happening mid-nineteenth century? Women’s rights, Abolition of slavery, improvement of public education
19. Who was the most influential of all Transcendentalists? Emerson
20. Who was Emerson’s student? Thoreau
21. Why were Melville, Poe, and Hawthorne different from other Romantics and Transcendentalists? ( again this was in the introductory text) They did not ignore the darker side of human nature
22. What is the literary term for a contradictory statement? Paradox
23. What does “Self Reliance” encourage readers to do? Trust themselves
24. Where was “Concord Hymn” read at and why? Sung at a combative ceremony for the dedication of the monument to the Minutemen
25. In “Nature” what is Emerson’s main theme? All nature deserves reverence and in nature we can believe in God.
26. What does Emerson say about children in “Nature”? That children have more imagination than adults and fully appreciate nature.
27. In “Self Reliance” who are the great men Emerson lists? Pythagoras, Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton
28. Why does Thoreau go out to Walden? He wanted to find out what life is. Or to experience nature and live a simple life.
29. How long does he live at Walden? a little more than 2 years
30. What does Thoreau hope to accomplish at Walden? To experience life and nature
31. Why does Thoreau leave Walden? He has accomplished his goal and he is ready to move on to his next adventure
32. What is the primary conflict in “Civil Disobedience”? Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax which supported the Mexican War, which was going to support another slave state.  He believes an individual should stand up for what they believe is morally right despite what the government says.
33. How long does Thoreau spend in jail? 1 night
34. What does Thoreau believe about the individual versus the government? “That government is best which governs not at all”( Resistance to Civil Government) and “We don’t have to oppose wrong doing actively, but we have to refuse engaging in it.”
35. What is the “Masque of Red Death” an allegory about? Life and Death
36. Why is the “Masque of Red Death” a Gothic tale? Elements of the bizarre and supernatural
37. In “Annabel Lee” what does Poe say about his special love? (List all the answers that may apply) stronger than death
38. What literary devices are used in “Annabel Lee”? Inversion, Imagery, Rhyme,
39. How did Virginia (Sissy) Poe die and how did that influence Poe’s work? Tuberculosis and many of his works are about a wife dying
40. What are the names of Bartleby’s colleague’s? Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut
41. What reason does Bartleby give for not doing any work? “I’d prefer not to.”
42. What job did Bartleby have before coming to work as a scrivener? Dead letter office
43. How does the narrator react to Bartleby’s death? “Ah the Humanity”
44. What is the name of the ship in Moby Dick? The Peqod
45. What is the name of the narrator of Moby Dick? Ishmael
46. What literary device is used in the first chapter of Moby Dick “Loomings”? Foreshadowing
47. What is the definition of “looming” as used in Moby Dick? Something indistinct, perhaps threatening or ominous
48. What does the literary term Foil mean? a character who acts as a contrast to another character
49. Define the literary term lyric a poem which rather than telling a story, is the expression of the author’s feelings or ideas
50. Define the literary term Dramatic Poem A poem , which tells a story through use of monologue or dialogue

51.   Define the literary term Ballad  A song or poem that tells a story that uses steady rhythm , rhyme pattern , and refrain
52. Define the literary term Allegory a story or poem in which character, settings, or events stand for other people or events, or for abstract ideas or qualities in a set one –to-one correspondence.

53.  What is the theme of “Rappaccini’s Daughter”? Misuse of science, the destruction of innocence and the evils of arrogance
54. Who are the foils in “Rappaccini’s Daughter”? Rappaccini & Baglioni
55. What does Hawthorne make clear in creating the characters in “Rappaccini’s Daughter” or what does he consider important in a character? Wit

Be prepared for an in class reading accompanied by questions and a short essay response.