FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35  
36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   >>   >|  
fficulty? Give reasons. Compare Cranford with some place that you know in respect to the poverty, aristocracy, social etiquette, employments, and peculiar ways of the people. PLOT.--What relation does Chapter I bear to the rest of the book? Are there suggestions in it that make you expectant of what is to come in the ensuing chapters? What connection has Chapter II with the preceding chapter? with the following? Are Chapters III and IV connected? Are they connected with what follows? Group the remaining chapters to show which belong together. How many separate stories do you find with no connection except for the presence of the same characters? We are told that a good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. What seems to be lacking in _Cranford_? If we were to consider as complete stories the incident of Miss Matty's love affair or of Poor Peter, should we find the same lack? CHARACTERS.--What are the chief motives that prompted the Cranford ladies to do the things that they did, and to do them in the way they did? How did Captain Brown differ from them in the motives that prompted his actions? Show how the incident of Miss Jenkins's argument with Captain Brown on the relative merits of Mr. Boz and Dr. Johnson, illustrates one side of Miss Jenkins's character. What is her other side? Illustrate. Compare Miss Matty and her sister to show the strength and weakness of each. What was there in Miss Matty that made the other ladies help her so generously in her trouble? What sort of woman was Mrs. Jamieson? Were her neighbors blind to her faults? Why did they treat her as they did? Do you think they were insincere? What other characters in the story have a distinct personality? INTERPRETATION.--What purpose do you think the author had in writing this book? From this story, what would you judge were her ideas on sincerity? on the treatment of one's neighbors? on conformity to custom? on social rank? and on other matters of everyday life? METHOD OF NARRATION.--Who tells the story? Does the narrator tell us only of the things that she sees and hears, or of other things as well? How is it in _Ivanhoe_? Would the story have to be changed essentially if it were told by Miss Matty, Miss Pole, or some other of the characters? Give your reasons. Has Mrs. Gaskell succeeded in avoiding the awkwardness in the use of "I" so common in stories told in the first person? If so, how? Compare it in
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35  
36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

characters

 
stories
 

things

 
Cranford
 

Compare

 

Captain

 
ladies
 

prompted

 

incident

 

connected


motives

 
neighbors
 

social

 

Chapter

 

chapters

 

reasons

 

connection

 
Jenkins
 

strength

 

insincere


personality

 

person

 

weakness

 

distinct

 

trouble

 
Jamieson
 
generously
 

faults

 
narrator
 

avoiding


Gaskell
 

succeeded

 

Ivanhoe

 

changed

 
essentially
 

NARRATION

 

awkwardness

 

writing

 
common
 

purpose


author

 
sincerity
 

matters

 

everyday

 

METHOD

 
custom
 

treatment

 
conformity
 

sister

 

INTERPRETATION