–What motivates Hedda to encourage Lovborg to resume drinking?
–Discuss the role of Thea in the play? What function does she serve?
–What role does class play in Hedda Gabler?
–What does Lovborg’s death mean to Hedda?
–Do you feel sympathetic to Hedda? Why or why not?

1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
2. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is full of French words. What purpose do they serve?
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
4. On his deathbed, Ivan asks, “Why, and for what purpose, is there all this horror?” Does the text provide an answer to this weighty question?
5. Compare the attitude toward death we see in Ivan Ilyich’s family and social milieu to that of our own society. How do we treat illness and death?

1. Who do you think Jacobs envisions as the audience for her autobiography? How can you tell?
2. What does Jacobs add to the understanding of the experience of slavery we gleaned from Frederick Douglass?
3. How does Jacobs attempt to control her own destiny?
4. What is “the loophole of retreat?”

Hi Everyone,
Just letting you know that I have finished reading your essays. They are available for you on turnitin.com. Once you access your essay, you should see my comments. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the final comment in order to see your grade. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about my comments.
Enjoy this beautiful day!
Professor Sylvor

1. What is the significance of the information Douglass provides about the early years of his life?
2. What does he mean, on p.238, when he describes the first whipping he witnessed as, “the blood-stained gate”?
3. What have you learned from reading this narrative that you didn’t already know about slavery in America?
4. Explain the significance of literacy for Douglass?
5. How does Douglass feel about Southern Christianity? Why?

1. In Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry,” he states that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World.” What do you think he means by this?

2. Compare Shelley’s attitude toward nature with that of Wordsworth. What do these two Romantic poets seem to share and where do they differ in their relationships with the natural world?

3. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?,” the concluding line of “Ode to the West Wind” is one of Shelley’s most frequently quoted lines. What do you think it means?

–In what sense does “Tintern Abbey” offer readers a “religion of nature”? What are some of the specific ways in which nature works as a substitute for traditional religion?
–Why do you think Wordsworth gives “Tintern Abbey” such a precise and detailed sub-title? What is the significance of this poem’s full titile?
–In the final portion of “Tintern Abbey,” the speaker turns to his “dear friend.” Who is this friend and what role does he/she play in the poem?
–“Composed upon Westminster Bridge” and “The World Is Too Much with Us” are both sonnets. Why do you think a poet might choose to work with such a highly structured form?
–Describe some of the ways in which Wordsworth’s poetry conforms to the features of Romanticism that we’ve discussed. What evidence can you find to illustrate this?

1. Blake describes innocence and experience as “the two contrary states of the human soul.” What do you think he means by this?
2. Compare the mode of creation described in “The Lamb” with that of “The Tyger.” How are they similar? How are they different?
3. In “London” the speaker says he hears “mind-forged manacles” (line 8) What do you think that phrase means?
4. What differences do you see between the two “Chimney Sweeper” poems?
5. The introductory poem to Songs of Innocence refers to a poet/singer/piper who composes “…happy songs,/Every child may joy to hear.” To what extent does this line describe the poems in Songs of Innocence?