Pygmalion Emma Exam Review

Exam identification passages:

From Pygmalion:
• P. 41 (Act Two): “Oh, don’t say that, sir: there’s more ways than one of turning a girl’s head; and nobody can do it better than Mr. Higgins, though he may not always mean it. I do hope, sir, you won’t encourage him to do anything foolish.”
• P. 43: “Oh, pay her whatever is necessary … She’ll only drink if you give her money.”
• P. 58: “I’m one of the undeserving poor: that’s what I am … and I drink a lot more.”
• P. 61: “I tell you, it’s easy to clean up here … Wish they could see what it is for the like of me.”
• P. 67 (Act Three): “What are you doing here today? It is my at-home day: you promised not to come.”
• P. 76: “Why should she die of influenza? … he kept ladling gin down her throat ‘til she came to so sudden that she bit the bowl off the spoon.”
• P. 84: “The advantages of that poor woman who was here just now? … Is that what you mean?”
• P. 104 (Act Four): “I’m sorry. I’m only a common ignorant girl … what belongs to me and what doesn’t?”
• P. 122 (Act Five): “I am not blaming him. It is his way … you always treat me as a lady, and always will.”
• P. 126: “The great secret is not having bad manners or good manners … and one soul is as good as another.”

From Emma:
• p. 1 (Vol. I, ch. I): “The real evils, indeed of Emma's ... as misfortunes with her.”
• p. 13-14 (Vol. I, ch. III): “She would notice her; she would improve ... her leisure, and powers.”
• p. 17 (Vol. I, ch. IV): “That may be – and I may have seen him … a young farmer … as in every other way he is below it.”
• p. 84-85 (Vol. I, ch. XV): "To restrain him as much as might be … Mr. Elton actually making violent love ... It really was so."
• p. 89 (Vol. I, ch. XVI): "The first error and the worst lay at her door... to do such things no more. "
• p. 100 (Vol. II, ch. I or ch. 19): "Thank you. You are so kind! … I was reading [Jane's letter] to Mrs. Cole, and, since she went away, I was reading it again ... the whole paper and crosses half."
• P. 144 (Vol. II, ch. VIII, or ch. 26): "He started ‘Thank you for rousing me,… whether she colours."
• p. 171 (Vol. II, ch. XIII or ch.31): "Emma continued to entertain no doubt... forming a thousand amusing schemes ... she refused him."
• p. 196 (Vol. II, ch. XVII or ch. 35): "I did not mean, I was not thinking ... I do not know where it lies … something that would do."
• p. 218 (Vol. III, ch. IV or ch. 39): "Such an adventure as this, --a fine young man ... as her mind had already made."
• p. 244 (Vol. III, ch. VII or ch. 43): "Happy couple! … rued it all the rest of his life! "
• p. 246 (Vol. III, ch. VII or ch. 43): "She was vexed beyond what could have been expressed ... of common kindness."
• p. 295 (Vol III, ch XV or ch. 51): " … Mr. Woodhouse taken from Hartfield! … her home, it should be his likewise. "
• p. 315 (Vol. III, ch.XVIII or ch. 54): "If not in our dispositions … so much superior to our own. "
• p. 317-318 (Vol. III, ch. XIX or ch. 55): "Harriet, necessarily drawn away … in the most gradual, natural manner. "

Vocabulary:

From Pygmalion:
gumption (11), brogue (26), bilious (27), prodigal (31), petulance (34), pathos (36), dogmatic (49), blackguard (53), remonstrate (54), incensed (64), brusque (70), straitened (70), pedantic (73), imprecation (75), extricate (75), voluble (87), cant (103), asunder (108), repudiate (116), incorrigible (123), reproach (123)

From Emma:
inducement (22), approbation (28), countenance (29), indisposed (71), incongruity (89), presumption (89), ingenuousness (92), mortification (93), insidious (102), diffidence (110), foppery (132), auspices (179), licentiousness (185), penury (185), impelled (219), reproof (230), arrear (231), abhor (247), dilatory (253), solicitude (264), tautology (268), captious (275), intimation (278), parley (285), wan (291), archly (315)

Terms:

• Didactic Literature
• Comedy of manners (or novel of manners)
• Free Indirect Discourse
• Bildungsroman
• Subtext
• Pastiche

Essay options for Pygmalion – Emma exam:
Two of the following essays will appear on your exam. You will choose to answer one. Be sure to prepare an answer that addresses each section of the question and uses specific examples from both texts.

1. George Bernard Shaw emphasizes in his preface to Pygmalion that his play is an example of “didactic art.” Could Jane Austen’s Emma be considered a didactic novel? How would you articulate the “lesson” each of these texts seeks to teach its reader? Evaluate both texts in terms of their success at convincingly conveying their respective lessons.

2. Emma is clever but continually mistaken, well intentioned but capable of callous behavior. Austen commented that Emma is a heroine "no one but myself will much like." By the end of the novel, do you find Emma a likable character? Why or why not?

3. Toward the end of Emma, Mr. Knightley observes that “everything serve[s] to prove more and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each other” (Vol. II, ch. 15, p. 293 or ch. 51, p. 354). Does the novel as a whole support this statement or not, and why or why not?

Remaining Emma Syllabus

Mon 2/23 Finish Emma, Ch. 17-19 (16 pp.) [53 – 55]. Vocab: sagacity (308), accession (314), archly (315, check “arch”), impudent (315). Has Emma matured? Find at least three specific passages that show that she has or has not. In what sense is this novel a “comedy”? Is this a truly happy ending? Will any or all of thevarious newly married couples be happy?

Tues 2/24 Peer edit compare-contrast essay; draft due in class

Wed 2/25 Watch Clueless (1995, dir. Amy Heckerling)

Thurs 2/26 Watch Clueless

Fri 2/27 Book talks and independent reading / Compare-contrast essay due in class

Mon 3/2 No school—parent/teacher conferences

Tues 3/3 Discuss Clueless in relation to Emma. Is this film a good adaptation of Austen’s novel into a late-twentieth-century context? Why is 1990s Beverly Hills an interesting time and place to set this story? What significant connections do you see between Clueless and Emma? Does this film convey any of the significant conflicts, ideas, or themes of the novel? Introduction to modernism.

Wed 3/4 Exam review

Thurs 3/5 Quarterly exam: Pygmalion-Emma

Fri 3/6 Book talks and independent reading

Emma Syllabus Week 4

Mon 2/9 Emma, Vol. III, Ch. 8-9 (10 pp.) [44 – 45]. Vocab: abhor (247), dilatory (253). Characterize Emma’s attitude and manner during her visit to Miss Bates. Do you see a change in her, and if so, how do you account for it? How do you interpret Jane’s illness and her responses to Emma’s repeated attempts at kindness?

Tues 2/10 Emma, Vol. III, Ch. 10-11 (15 pp.) [46 – 47]. Vocab: intreat (263, check entreat), solicitude (264), tautology (268), corroborating (268). What news does Mrs. Weston give Emma about Frank? On what subjects does this news cause Emma to revise her thinking? What does the conversation Emma has with Harriet in chapter 11 indicate about the ways that Harriet has been altered by Emma’s tutelage? What feelings of Emma’s does this conversation expose?

Wed 2/11 Emma, Vol. III, Ch. 12-13 (14 pp.) [48 – 49]. Vocab: captious (275), levity (276), intimation (278), clemency (280). Do you sympathize with Emma in her anxieties about Mr. Knightley? What is your response when they come to an understanding? Compare/contrast introduction and basic outline with evidence due – we’ll spend some time in class workshopping these outlines.

Thurs 2/12 Emma, Ch. 14-16 (18 pp.) [50 – 52]. Vocab: parley (285), caviller (287, check “caviler” or “cavil” if you can’t find “caviller”), bandied (290, check “bandy”), wan (291). Do you think Frank's letter explains and/or excuses his previous behavior? What is Emma's response to the letter? What is unconventional about the arrangement Mr. Knightley suggests in chapter 15 [52] to circumvent Emma’s having to leave her father in order to marry? How is Jane’s manner toward Emma in chapter 16 [52] different than the last time Emma attempted to visit her, and why? Emma pastiche due.

Fri 2/13 No class—preregistration activities