GRE Literature in English (REA) (20 page)

Oscar Wilde's plays are famous for this type of comedy. If you do not know the term or the type of play or novel, think of the choices. (B) is too specific. (C) could be applied to many works. (D) is a possibility but could be applied to most comedies, as (E) could be applied to many novels. Novels of Jane Austen and E. M. Forster perfectly define the term, “comedy of manners.”

 

34.
(E)

Frost's famous poem outlines his neighbor's efforts to keep a wall between them. Frost's image captures the poet as a genial, nature-loving, integral-to-nature man, as “fertile” and adaptable as an apple tree. The neighbor is as trenchant, solid, and unchanging as the pine tree. He insists on rebuilding the wall between them.

 

35.
(D)

Gerard Manley Hopkins' poetry is easily recognizable for its sprung rhythm, a counterpoint to the normal English rhythm. If you do not recognize the title, go back to the poetry—the second line should reveal the difference from the usual in poetry.

 

36.
(B)

Ecclesiastes lends itself into being adapted to various poems and songs because of its rhythms and paradoxes. “Ode to Autumn” and “Fern Hill” are equally as rhythmic but without the same resonance of meaning—one dealing with death of a season, the other the death of youth.

 

37.
(B)

If you do not recognize Hemingway's
Hills Like White Elephants
, analyze the passage carefully. What is it the male thinks is so easy and the female is so reluctant to discuss?—not simply (A) or (D). There is accusation (C) and repetition (E), but they are not the main point of the discussion.

 

38.
(C)

Simply from context, the word sums up the relationship gathered from the desultory conversation, a relationship without love, commitment, or understanding between the man and the woman. When an author as sparse in description as Hemingway includes a detail such as this, you know it is there for a specific reason.

 

39.
(D)

Two key elements help here: the amount of labels on the luggage and the point of the “nights” spent together, not days or vacations or weeks, but specifically, nights. This suggests a purely physical relationship which can be gathered from the conversation also, and the labels suggest the restlessness of a couple constantly packing bags and moving on.

 

40.
(B)

If you do not know the Gothic novel, eliminate through analyzing the other types of novels. Italian novels (A) is meant to mislead you; realistic novels (C) tended to be about the trials of working-class life; naturalistic novels (D) would not be about “haunted buildings”; and detective novels (E) usually have the detective as the hero/heroine rather than a virtuous young woman.

 

41.
(A)

Parodies and burlesques grow out of serious novels, poems, or plays. Jane Austen used
The Mysteries of Udolpho
in her novel (the two “heroines” and “hero” discuss the plot) to poke fun at the type and show the nature of real evil in the world. The other choices here have elements of the Gothic, but none makes a burlesque like Austen's novel.

 

42.
(A)

Swift's trick in his
A Modest Proposal
is to convince the reader he is a reasonable man who has done research into the problem of the poor. The other suggestions are not relevant to this passage—if you know the whole tract, leave it at a distance to analyze this particular piece of information.

 

43.
(C)

If you know the whole document, you will know the exact proposal for the starving Irish that is under consideration. If not, read the passage carefully to see in which direction the writer is heading. (A), (D), and (E) would be financially crippling in the implementation, and imagine the collection time for suggestion (B)!

 

44.
(B)

Swift is famous for his satirical writing, especially this piece, which original readers took very seriously and became outraged at the suggestion of eating babies. The other suggestions can be eliminated by referring again to context: certainly not realistic (A), too harsh for irony (C), too serious and calm for Modernism (D), and certainly too unpleasant for hedonism (E).

 

45.
(C)

This is a good test to see if you know the author and, more importantly, can place him in the correct era. Think of how early (A), (B), and (E) were written, and how much later and in a much softer style is Henry James. Think of works by Fielding in a similar vein, poking fun at the Establishment-mock-heroic, yet with serious consideration of the plight of the poor.

 

46.
(E)

Browning perfected the technique of the dramatic monologue, a poem in which a speaker addresses a silent listener—not to be confused with the soliloquy in which the speaker addresses thin air, a thinking-aloud process. If you are not familiar with the form, eliminate through what you recognize; none of the others apply.

 

47.
(C)

If you do not know the poem “My Last Duchess” and the situation (showing a portrait of the dead Duchess to an ambassador for the next duchess!), catch the clue about the paint and the painter and the subject of the painting—not a landscape (B), designs (E), or a book (D), but a portrait of the lady under discussion. Later, the two men look at the sea horse sculpture (A).

 

48.
(A)

Again, read closely and analyze through tone. What is the Duke saying about the lady? He disliked her simply because she enjoyed simple earthly pleasures which, he suggests, he does not. His tone is not weak (B), certainly, nor is it angry (C); it is not approving (D) nor is it unreasonable (E). There is an element of both pride and egoism.

 

49.
(B)

A good dramatic monologue reveals as much about the subject as the speaker. The lady is revealed as sweet and pleasure loving—enjoying the simpler things of life. There is no hint here, or in the rest of the poem that she is flirtatious (A), licentious (E), avaricious or interested in rank (D), yet her husband has her executed, as revealed later in the poem.

 

50.
(D)

Othello has just listened to Iago's hints about Desdemona's infidelity, and his pleas to “Beware jealousy!” Pay close attention to Shakespearean names which can sound similar. (A) is the courtier accused of sleeping with Desdemona; (B) is from
The Merchant of Venice;
(C) is from
Romeo and Juliet
; and (E) is from
Hamlet
.

 

51.
(C)

Most Shakespeare editions give a detailed explanation of this metaphor, which would need no explanation for the Elizabethans: a haggard is a partly trained hawk gone wild. The jesses are straps that attach the hawk to the trainer's wrist. If Desdemona is unfaithful, like a hawk gone wild, then Othello will release her and allow her freedom.

 

52.
(B)

Horns were supposedly the sign of a man whose wife was unfaithful. Othello is beginning to believe Iago's lies about Desdemona's adultery; he is being cuckolded. Later when she wishes to bind Othello's head for a headache, he insists the handkerchief (the handkerchief that is so vital to the plot) is too small, i.e., the horns are beginning to grow!

 

53.
(B)

If you are not familiar with the word, think of the religious phrase “the quick and the dead”—the living and the dead. In context, derive the meaning: great ones are susceptible to adulterous affairs—they are as inevitable as death—as soon as they are born. Thus, Othello makes the contrast between the living and the dead.

 

54.
(D)

Kate Chopin is well known for her short stories. Her main novel,
The Awakening
, is less favored but well worth reading for its similar theme to
Madame Bovary
, but with more sympathy for the heroine. It is a feminist novel written in the late 1800s. If you do not know the novel, think of the heroines of the authors listed here. None of them relates to Flaubert's character.

 

55.
(A)

Shaw's play parodies the Greek concept of heroism in battle and gallantry to women. The so-called hero Sergius is brave in battle but weak in life. The so-called coward Bluntchi runs away from battle but is morally brave. Think of the first lines of the epics listed and eliminate those whose contexts do not fit Shaw's title.

 

56.
(C)

In
Shooting an Elephant
, Orwell crystallizes all the conflicts and fears involved in colonialism. The other writers listed write of colonialism, but none were so directly and personally involved as Orwell, nor express themselves with such feeling. Orwell served as a policeman in Burma.

 

57.
(B)

If you know the passage and Orwell's life, the answer is clear. If not, read the passage for clues. “Dominion in the East” rules out (C), (D), and (E) (the rifle shows the era for the latter). The yellow faces and the white man's uneasiness rules out India—very little of the literature in this age shows white men uneasy with their roles in India.

 

58.
(C)

The Medieval writers or singers frequently name their characters for the vices or virtues they displayed, so that the simple country folk watching a play would identify a character immediately. Later this device became more sophisticated. Thus, Everyman represents every human being. John Bunyon's Christian, in
Pilgrim's Progress
, is every Christian.

 

59.
(C)

This is a famous statement on the novel in
The Common Reader
by Virginia Woolf, who recommends that novels not be straight, linear, A to B chronologies, but reflect the randomness of life's experience. Woolf experimented in stream-of-consciousness writing which shows not fragmentation, but life-like accounts of how life is passed in the brain.

 

 

60.
(A)

Henry Fielding pokes fun at society in the Age of Reason (or the Augustan Age, named after Augustus who brought culture to his age) for worshipping all aspects of Greek life. The “battle,” not between great Greek heroes but a simple village girl and her neighbors, bears allusions to Venus and Mars, which should provide clues for your answer.

 

61.
(D)

The poet is parodying Wordsworth's “It is a beauteous evening,” written after experiencing a transcendental moment with his daughter. Here the poet “lowers the tone” as the wife watches the husband with a hang-over. You may recognize the original poem for the parody but not the poet. Think of famous poems by the other poets listed and eliminate.

 

62.
(D)

The famous opening lines of Jonson's play, spoken by Volpone himself, make a sacrilegious parody of the prayer to God at the opening of a new day. If you are not familiar with the play, analyze the style and tone of the other possibilities, all to do with money or possessions. Distinguish the Shakespearean style from the Jonsonian.

 

63.
(B)

Do not be confused with Salonio's speech (C) where Antonio's debt to Shylock is directly mentioned. In
The Merchant of Venice
, Shylock's speeches are frequently in the normal speech patterns of conversation, not in blank verse or rhyme. Salonio, as a friend of the rich merchant Antonio, maintains the speech patterns of the upper-class.

 

64.
(E)

Again, to establish a character of the lower class, Shakespeare gives Falstaff the speech patterns of prose, unlike Hotspur's speech (A). Notice that when Prince Hal speaks to Falstaff he adopts the lower-class speech. When he talks to his peers he reverts to blank verse. In this speech Falstaff begins the wish process for a change of identity.

 

65.
(D)

If you do not recognize the speech patterns of Huck Finn, start eliminating the names you do know. David Copperfield's tone and style of speech (A) are much more elevated than Strether's (E), and he is not the narrator, nor are Carrie and Maggie, (B) and (C), whose speech patterns are as colloquial but not as harsh.

 

66.
(E)

If you recognize the passage, you will recognize the Grangerford house. On the surface the family is orderly and civilized, yet underneath the surface lies a hypocrisy: the morbidity of the dead young girl obsessed with death when alive, the feuding with the Shepherdsons for thirty years. They are not what they seem, just like the fake fruit.