1. Characters & Conflicts
Cultural Context
Characters & Conflicts
Symbols
Poems
Themes & Motifs
100
200
300
400
500

2. Which works were set around (pre or post) the World Wars (give specific dates)?
Great Gatsby & all Plath

3. Donne’s work spanned what two time periods (name them and specific dates) and what two genres?
Elizabethan (Romantics) & Jacobean (Metaphysical)

4. What poetic genre did Plath help invent and name one other poet who also helped make the genre popular.
Confessional Poetry – Anne Sexton & Robert Lowell

5. What era was Wilde writing in (date and name)
What era was Wilde writing in (date and name)? Provide at least 3 specific facts about that era and it’s culture.
Victorian 1800’s (see the Victorian CC packet for facts).

6. For EACH of the 4 authors we studied, name at least 2 major cultural conflicts that affected each of their lives and how it was reflected in their work.
Donne (social status conflicts, Catholic vs. Protestant, sexual vs. married love); Wilde (social status conflicts, political/economic love vs. romantic/sexual love, power of men vs. women); Fitzgerald (social status conflicts, money and greed vs. the idealistic ‘American Dream’, the roles and power of men and women in society); Plath (the roles and power of men and women in society, societies vs. the individuals expectations, strict societal roles vs. taboo realities/outcasts)

7. Are they tragic or comic and how so?
Name any TWO heroes
from the works we’ve
studied.
Are they tragic or comic
and how so?
Gatsby (tragic), Daisy (tragic), Jack & Algy (comic), Cecily & Gwendolyn (comic), Esther Greenwood (comic – ‘happy’ ending)

8. Name 2 pairs of ‘struggling lovers’ from the works studied.
What is keeping each couple apart?
- Gatsby & Daisy vs. Status and money (marriage and infidelity)
Tom & Myrtle vs. marriage and infidelity (money and status)
Gwendolyn & Jack vs. social status
Algernon & Cecily vs. money

9. characters from the works studied who are pivotal
Name at least 4 minor
characters from the works
studied who are pivotal
or significant in their work.
How are they
Pivotal?
- George Wilson (the only character who doesn’t die, commits the murder/suicide denouement of the novel, the only character who references ‘god’ who ‘sees everything’)
Owl Eyes (representative of a godlike or all knowing character, the only other person besides Nick and Gatsby’s father to attend the funeral)
Lady Bracknell (a parody of Queen Victoria, represents upper class hypocrisy and society, demonstrated female power)
Miss Prism (pivotal to the plot climax as she reveals Jack’s heritage and back story, female antithesis to Bracknell)

10. works studied that suffer an Individual vs. Self Conflict.
Name 2 characters in the
works studied that suffer an Individual vs. Self Conflict.
Name 2 characters who suffer an Individual vs. Society conflict. (4 total)
Esther (Both), Gatsby (Both), Nick (Both), Jack & Algernon (Ind. Vs. Society), Gwendolyn (Ind. Vs. Society),

11. Name at least 4 examples of
Mythological or Biblical characters in the works studied.
T. J. Eckleberg (God), Gatsby (Trimalchio), ‘Lady Lazarus’ Plath, ‘Persephone’ Plath, ‘Venus’ Donne & Plath (Heavy Women), ‘Mary’ Plath

12. Name 5 environmental or nature symbols from a play, novel, or poem studied.
‘Poppies’ Plath, ‘Spring/Summer/Winter’ Plath, ‘Hurricane’ Plath, ‘Sun’ Donne, ‘Death’ Donne, ‘Fish’ Donne, ‘Rain/water’ Fitzgerald, ‘Flowers/dirt’ Wilde

13. Name 3 or more symbols of money or social status from a play, novel, or poem studied.
‘cigarette case’ Wilde, ‘handbag’ Wilde, ‘cakes/muffins’ Wilde, ‘Green and Gold/Silver’ Fitzgerald, ‘Tom & Gatsby’s Mansions’ Fitzgerald, ‘The card Gatsby flashes to the Policeman’ Fitzgerald

14. Name 2 scientific symbols from any Donne poem we studied.
The ‘compass’ in VFM, the ‘cosmographers’ in HtGmGimS, the ‘alchemists’ from Sun Rising

15. Name 3 symbols representing her Father from any Plath poem we studied.
‘Marble heavy, bag full of God/White toe big as a Frisco Seal’ Plath – Daddy
‘Steak in your fat black heart’ vampire Plath – Daddy
‘Hurricane’ Plath – Disquieting Muses
‘Panzer Man/Swastika, etc…’ Nazi Plath – Daddy
‘Nazi lampshade’ Nazi Plath – Lady Lazarus

16. Name 3 symbols that change throughout a play, novel, or poem we read and how so?
Green light – from the romantic pursuit of the American Dream to the Futile and transient nature of human greed (Fitzgerald)
Bunbury – from a symbolic representation of ‘man’s right to lie, cheat, and play around’ with women to a representation of the responsibilities and commitments a man takes on when married (Wilde)
Muses – change from horrific figures who haunt her to inspirational figures who silently share and support her depression. (Plath)
Suit – change from a symbol of manliness and protection to a restrictive ideal that you must adhere to until you die and are ‘buried in it’ (Plath)
Bait – change from men catching women to women catching men (Donne)

17. Name the titles of at least 2 Plath poems about seasons.
Two Sisters of Persephone & Spinster

18. Name the titles of at least 2 Donne poems that focus around sleeping with a woman.
Sun Rising, Good Morrow, and perhaps the Indifferent & The Bait

19. Name the titles of at least 2 Plath poems about pregnancy and/or marriage.
Spinster, The Applicant, Heavy Women

20. Name the titles of at least 2 Donne Poems that focus on the type of love that endures the test of time.
Triple Fool, Broken Heart, Valediction Forbidding Mourning, & Hymn to God my God in my Sickness

21. Name the titles of at least 4 Donne OR Plath Poems about Death and/or depression.
Disquieting Muses, Lady Lazarus, Daddy, Holy Sonnets, Hymn to God my God in my Sickness

22. Name at least 2 specific motifs (repeated ideas/items) we see throughout Great Gatsby.
Weather, water, green, gold, lies, ashes, etc….

23. Name at least 2 specific motifs (repeated ideas/items) we see throughout Importance of Being Earnest.
Food, allusions to the French/Germans, clothing references in connection to characterization, the name Earnest, etc…

24. Name at least 4 specific motifs (repeated ideas/items) we see throughout Plath’s poems.
Nature, greek mythological figures, biblical characters, references to her mother/father, suicide, etc…

25. Name at least 4 specific motifs (repeated ideas/items) we see throughout Donne’s poems.
Fire (phoenix, tapers, ‘fire that in eating heals’), water (seas, floods, sigh tempests), mockery of powerful figures (royals, saints, the sun, death), death and resurrection (jesus, compass, heavenly imagery), sexual diction/imagery, etc…

26. Name at least 4 themes (a phrase – NOT a word) that works for ALL FOUR AUTHOR and provide specific examples of each.

27. FOR EACH AUTHOR (4 total)
Bonus Question
(worth 1,500 points)
FOR EACH AUTHOR (4 total)
List TWO specific quotes word for word.
2. Detail how those quotes connect to a universal theme (you must name the theme specifically).