BRIT LIT FINAL PROMPTS
Katie Chambers
Bardenhagen
British Literature 2232
FINAL
Final Exam Prompts
Prompt #1: Throughout the semester, the texts that we have worked with have often shown, through the writing, aspects of the author’s life that could have had a certain reflection on what they chose to write about. For this prompt, I have decided to work with Alexander Pope’s, “The Rape of the Lock”. When Pope began to write “The Rape of the Lock”, it was a time of Restoration and the rise of the eighteenth century. A time of enlightenment was befalling upon the people of England, and in turn, had a great deal of influence on the culture and literary works being published at the time. This time period was a time of an awakening and enlightenment, People began to emphasize more on reason and individualism, started to stray away from tradition. With the Enlightenment, it brought about change – a period of intellectual interchange, skepticism, and scientific thought.
The eighteenth century was a time that wit and satire were being brought to the forefront of literature, not only exposing certain aspects of the upper class people, but also exposing the corruption of such a ‘moral’ society in Britain, this is exactly what Alexander Pope set out to do when he wrote “The Rape of the Lock”. The satire he used was to point out the shortcomings of British society by ridiculing the upper class and accepted standards of thought – doing what he did best, revealing a great deal of hypocrisy in Great Britain. In this time of Enlightenment writing, Pope used his satire in “The Rape of the Lock” to chide society by attempting to expose the vanity of women and how unimportant things are being made to appear important.
Without directly attacking British aristocracy, Pope manages to present his story in a way that makes the reader see a new perspective that yes, these people of higher social class are foolish and ridiculous, far too concerned with mere details when there are far more important things they
Bardenhagen
British Literature 2232
FINAL
Final Exam Prompts
Prompt #1: Throughout the semester, the texts that we have worked with have often shown, through the writing, aspects of the author’s life that could have had a certain reflection on what they chose to write about. For this prompt, I have decided to work with Alexander Pope’s, “The Rape of the Lock”. When Pope began to write “The Rape of the Lock”, it was a time of Restoration and the rise of the eighteenth century. A time of enlightenment was befalling upon the people of England, and in turn, had a great deal of influence on the culture and literary works being published at the time. This time period was a time of an awakening and enlightenment, People began to emphasize more on reason and individualism, started to stray away from tradition. With the Enlightenment, it brought about change – a period of intellectual interchange, skepticism, and scientific thought.
The eighteenth century was a time that wit and satire were being brought to the forefront of literature, not only exposing certain aspects of the upper class people, but also exposing the corruption of such a ‘moral’ society in Britain, this is exactly what Alexander Pope set out to do when he wrote “The Rape of the Lock”. The satire he used was to point out the shortcomings of British society by ridiculing the upper class and accepted standards of thought – doing what he did best, revealing a great deal of hypocrisy in Great Britain. In this time of Enlightenment writing, Pope used his satire in “The Rape of the Lock” to chide society by attempting to expose the vanity of women and how unimportant things are being made to appear important.
Without directly attacking British aristocracy, Pope manages to present his story in a way that makes the reader see a new perspective that yes, these people of higher social class are foolish and ridiculous, far too concerned with mere details when there are far more important things they