Name: Đỗ Thị Anh Tú

ID: 1605638
Class: K19C
Assignments for Session 4

Revolution and Romanticism in Europe and America

Goethe

1. What was the 19 th-century conception of genius with which Goethe was an exemplar?

Goethe was sublimely brilliant in everything that he touched: poet, playwright, novelist, scientist,
statesman, theatre director, critic.

He was so great in his literary fields that it is said that he ‘pushed’ his German contemporaries into
Philosophy, (Hegel, Fichte, Schopenhauer and others) because they could not compete with him in
the realm of Literature. His works are considered to be almost ‘perfect’ examples in their particular
genre.

2. What was the philosophy of the Sturm un Drang movement whose members encouraged
Goethe to discover the values of traditional and classical forms of art in the past?

Sturm und Drang was a short-lived but very influential movement. Inspired by the works of the
English playwright William Shakespeare and the philosophy of Johann Gottfried von Herder, the
writers of this movement wanted to express emotions.

The Sturm und Drang period is the rebellion of the young generation against intellectual
enlightenment, self-realization and the liberation of the individual from the given norms.
Imagination and feeling were valued and any form of authority was rejected.

The behavior of society in the epoch of storm and stress has changed significantly compared to the
time of the Enlightenment. Before the movement, the prevailing opinion was that all problems could
be solved by reason-oriented action. Society only accepts those who adhere to the absolute norms
and rules. The consequence of this is an almost "life-hostile morality" that is reinforced by the
system of social classes with their artificial class barriers. Around the year 1770, however, a youthful
revolt throughout Europe gave rise to the Sturm und Drang movement. It was directed against the
narrow-mindedness and one-sidedness of the Enlightenment and criticized the rigid conventions and
the artificial social order with its clearly separated estates. People rebelled against the existing
society because its political and social order was perceived as unnatural and oppressive.

Everyone wished for a different, new direction that showing your feelings openly was normal. The
rational, empirical way of thinking of reason should no longer dominate, but the emotions, the
sensuality and the spontaneity of each individual were in demand. Through this new conception, the
focus shifted to the individual, who was regarded as a work of art of nature. The genius, in turn, has
the perfection of nature, and thus the divine, it becomes visible through man.

3. Where did Goethe live for a long time of his life?

Goethe was born in Frankfurt (Main) but spent most of his life in the city of Weimar. In 1775, Goethe
was invited to the court of eighteen-year-old Duke Carl as court-advisor and special counsel to Duke
, who would later become Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. He remained in here for the rest of
his life.
4. Who was the prototype of the character Faust in Goethe’s Faust? What is the difference
between Goethe’s Faust and the most important previous embodiment of the tale, that is,
Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus?

The prototype of Goethe's Faust is Johannes Faustus, a scholar, lived from 1480 to 1540.
Nevertheless, the figures of Doctor Faustus have so many versions before Goethe's, such as
Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.

In the poem, Faust is intended by Goethe to represent all humanity. He possesses all the qualities of
human ability and motivation, and is, in effect, an archetypal "everyman" figure.

Both Faust and Faustus delve into powers beyond their control or understanding, with predictable
results, they share a common theme and main characters, however they differ by the way in which
they deliver their message.

The character of Faustus is portrayed as a youthful and arrogant man with a thirst for knowledge
and fame. He has studied widely in all fields but feels he is far beyond their teachings. He has
become frustrated and restless by their restrictions. He wants more knowledge than they can
provide and he wants this now. In contrast, Faust is an elderly gentleman who understands that to
gain knowledge, we must have patience and life experience to understand, appreciate and use this
acquired knowledge.

Another difference between the two characters is that Faust is more concerned with the welfare of
others rather than his own, whereas Faustus is motivated by his ego and how things could benefit
him.

5. What is the similarity between Mephistopheles of Goethe’s Faust and Horse Master of Swift’s
Gulliver’s Travels in regards to the idea about the nature of humankind?

Mephistopheles and Horse Master want to prove that humankind's nature is that they all think the
human is weak and stupid. They are also easy to manipulate because they have so many desires

Pushkin

1. How does the Countess Anna Fedotovna manage to pay back money when she loses a large
amount of money in gambling to the Duke of Orleans? How is she finally able to pay the debt?

In Paris sixty years before, the Countess lost an enormous sum at court to the Duke of Orleans in a
game of faro. After returning to her residence, she directed her husband to pay the debt. The
normally compliant man refused to do so, pointing out that she had spent 500,000 francs in just six
months. In desperation, she wrote a letter to old Count St. Germain.

The Count immediately went to her and told her a secret card strategy that would enable her to win
back her money. That night at Versailles at the jeu de la reine she again played against the Duke of
Orleans after telling him a little tale about why she had not yet paid him his money. Upon employing
the secret strategy, she immediately recouped her losses.

Afterward, the countess guarded the card secret from others. However, after taking pity on an
acquaintance named Chaplitzky, who had lost 300,000 rubles, she told him the secret, designating
three cards he should bet on. She also made him promise that after the game he would never play
cards again.
2. Who is Lisaveta Ivanovna? What is her relation with Tomsky’s grandma? In Tomsky’s visit to his
grandma, whom does Lisaveta see from the window after Tomsky left? What is his name and what
is his job?

Lizaveta Ivanovna is a ward of the Countess and the Countess is Tomsky's grandmother. Liza is
described as beautiful and shy. She has a fresh face and gleaming black eyes, and is prone to
blushing.

In Tomsky’s visit to his grandma , Lizavetta catches sight of a young soldier staring up at her. She
does not know him, but the reader becomes aware that it is Hermann, the engineer.

3. What are the characteristics of Hermann? What does he desire after the night he hears from
Tomsky the story about the Countess Anna Fedotovna? What does he plan to do then?

The character of Hermann fulfills the typical traits of the Byronic hero by being cunning, intelligent,
mysterious, charismatic, sophisticated, and struggling with integrity.

Throughout the novella, Hermann seduces Lizaveta, an old countess’s servant, in order to get close
to the countess to gain her secret of the cards. Hermann is very insistent and perseverant on gaining
Lizaveta’s favor as stated. Hermann’s blind obsession with gaining the secret of the countess puts
not only himself but also others at risk as he pursues his maniacal quest for self-profit. Ultimately,
Hermann ends up accidentally murdering the countess of fright when he draws his gun on her.

4. Summarize in about 200 words the plan Hermann does to approach the Countess Anna
Fedotovna.

Hermann starts the plan with approaching Lisaveta Ivanovna (a ward of the Countess). A few days
after the evening, he appeared near the window of Lizaveta, whom the girl noticed while sitting by
the window behind her hoop. A week later Lizaveta smiled for the first time.

Lizaveta receives a letter from a secret admirer, in which he confessed to her in love. The young lady
writes the answer and returns the message of Hermann, throwing him a letter on the street through
the window. But it did not stop Hermann – he began to send letters to the girl every day, asking for a
date. Finally, Lizaveta yielded, throwing a message in the window, in which she explained how to
imperceptibly come to her room at night while the Countess was at the ball.

Entering the Countess’s house at night, Hermann hid in the study leading into the Countess’s room.
When the old woman was left alone, the man went out to her. Asking the countess not to scream,
he explained that he came to find out the secret of the three cards. Seeing that the old woman does
not want to share a secret with him, the man took out a pistol. Afraid of the type of weapons, the
countess dies.

5. What happens with the Countess after Hermann approaches and talks to her?

After the countess and Lizaveta pull away in the carriage, Hermann goes directly to the countess’s
room and waits. When the countess returns, he will ask her to reveal the card secret.

After a clock strikes two, Hermann hears the carriage pull up. When maids enter the room with the
countess, Hermann is in the closet behind the right door. After she puts on her nightcap and dressing
gown, Hermann emerges, frightening her.
When he asks her to tell him the secret, she replies that it is a joke. There is nothing to it. When he
tells her that he knows she once disclosed the secret to a man named Chaplitzky, she takes him
more seriously. However, she does not reveal the secret. Hermann pleads with her. Still she holds
her tongue. The countess remains silent and he draws a pistol and commands her to disclose the
secret. She falls backward with frighten when he draws his gun on her and dead.

6. How does Hermann know about the secret cards from the Countess? What does the ghost of
the Countess ask him to do? What does he do after knowing the secret? What is the result finally?

Hermann know about the secret cards from the Countess from Tomsky.

When Hermannn awakens in the middle of the night, a woman in white enters his room–the dead
countess. She tells Hermann that she has been commanded to reveal the secret. Then she identifies
three cards guaranteed to win--the three, the seven, and the ace--and tells him how to play them.
There is a condition: After he wins, he must never again play cards for the rest of his life. Before
disappearing, the countess says she will forgive Hermann if he marries Lizaveta.

After that, Hermann goes with Narumov to plays the game. He lays down his bet and won in the first
and second evening.

However, in the third evening, he loses, remains silent and motionless, then leaves. Eventually,
Hermann loses his mind and is confined to Obukhov Hospital, where he spends his time repeating,
“Three, seven, ace. Three, seven, queen."

Douglass

1. How was Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave written and
developed through its different versions?

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave was published in 1845, less than seven
years after Douglass escaped from slavery. The book was an instant success, selling 4,500 copies in
the first four months. Throughout his life, Douglass continued to revise and expand his
autobiography, publishing a second version in 1855 as My Bondage and My Freedom. The third
version of Douglass' autobiography was published in 1881 as Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,
and an expanded version of Life and Times was published in 1892. These various retellings of
Douglass' story all begin with his birth and childhood, but each new version emphasizes the mutual
influence and close correlation of Douglass' life with key events in American history.

Douglass begins his Narrative with what he does not know about his birth in Tuckahoe, Maryland
(age,his father and separating from his mother) which was common among slaves.

As a child on the plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd, Douglass witnesses brutal whippings of various
slaves—male and female, old and young which emphasize the status of slaves and the nature of
slavery over his individual experience. He describes his childhood as a typical or representative story,
rather than a unique or individual narrative.

At age seven, Douglass is sent to work for Hugh Auld, a ship carpenter in Baltimore. The young
Douglass' growing sense of freedom is due in part to his new master's wife, Sophia Auld, who very
kindly. However, Hugh soon puts a stop to these reading lessons, warning his wife that learning to
read would not suitable to be a slave. Over the next seven years, he succeeded in learning to read
and write.
At age fifteen, Douglass is sent back to Colonel Lloyd's plantation to work for Hugh's brother,
Thomas Auld, a ship captain. He begins to resist the tyranny of slavery more forcefully (p. 56). A few
months later, Auld hires Douglass out to Edward Covey, a Methodist with a reputation for "breaking"
recalcitrant slaves. After a difficult year in which he is beaten, runs away, is recaptured, and finally
battles Covey in a lengthy fistfight, Douglass is hired out to another landowner, William Freeland, to
work as a field hand.

Douglass does not provide the full details of his escape in his 1845 Narrative, for he fears that this
information will prove useful to slave owners seeking to thwart or recapture future runaways. (He
later provides an explanation of his escape in both versions of Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.)
However, in his first autobiography Douglass does reveal that he is able to plan his escape when
Hugh Auld allows him to work for wages at a Baltimore shipyard.

By the end of his Narrative, Douglass has resettled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and married
Anna Murray, a free black woman to whom he became engaged while still enslaved in Baltimore. In
New Bedford, he is introduced to the members of William Lloyd Garrison's American Anti-Slavery
Society. Douglass ends his narrative with a beginning, as he recalls his first public address before an
audience of abolitionists.

2. What can we learn about Douglass through his autobiographical Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass in the aspects of his life, family, education, masters, slavery, and struggle for
freedom?

Being a slave was already bad enough and a human rights violation and therefore unity among the
people would be the only possible way of redeeming themselves from slavery.

Freedom is not easily attained; people have to struggle for it. The justice system should protect
everyone whether slave or master or whether black or white. The justice system should treat people
selectively and should protect people from crimes against humanity.

Douglass narrative teaches about self-determination and courage. Despite the suffering he
underwent under different slave-masters, he did not lose hope. He was determined to escape
whether it meant losing his life. It is this determination that would help slaves overcome the
unending slavery.

Being able to read and write is the key to overcoming slavery. Education could help enlighten the
people and expand their understanding of contemporary issues such as their human rights. Through
education, slaves would be bold enough to denounce slavery and fight for their human rights.
Education would help them share their views with like-minded anti-slave campaigners like the
abolitionists group and help fight slavery both in the North and South of America.

3. What can we know about Colonel Lloyd through Douglass’ descriptions in his Narrative of the
Life of Frederick Douglass?

Douglass describes his master's family and their relationship with Colonel Lloyd, who was sort of a
"grand master" of the area. Colonel Lloyd is an extremely rich man who owns all of the slaves and
lands where Douglass grows up. Lloyd insists on extreme subservience from his slaves and often
punishes them unjustly. Lloyd had higher standards for them.