CVSP 203 Final, Fall 2002

Dr. Mallette Final exam Name Part A: Identifications and short answer questions (30 possible points). You will answer five questions in this section of the exam. Identifications: Choose three of the following passages. As best as you can, in about 5-7 sentences, identify: (a) the name of the text and the author, and (b) its significance to the themes central to early modernity that we have discussed in the course. 1. Iam thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile* to my natural lord and king if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable* to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency* and affection, is most due. Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous. docile = sweet, gentle equitable = just, treating equally clemency = mercy, gentleness . Lam the spirit of perpetual negation; And rightly so, for all things that exist Deserve to perish, and would not be missed — Much better it would be if nothing were Brought into being. Thus, what you men call Destruction, sin, evil in short, is all My sphere, the element I most prefer. “The ancient teachers of this science promised impossibilities and performed nothing. The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera.* But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible,* have indeed performed miracles. They penetrate into the recesses of nature and show how she works in her hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of the air we breathe. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers; they can command the thunders of heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its own shadows.” chimera = a grotesque product of the imagination crucible = a vessel made of material that does not melt easily; used for high temperature chemical reactions — 4. ea ETN nn eSV EAST -f Va BRARY$.. OP BEAST Freeman and slave, patrician and piebeian, tord and seri, gutkimaster and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. And so I am seeking magic’s assistance, Calling on spirits and their might To show me many a secret sight, To relieve me of the wretched task Of telling things I ought rather to ask, To grant me a vision of Nature’s forces That bind the world, all its seeds and sources And innermost life — all this I shall see, And stop peddling in words that mean nothing to me. Short answer questions: As best as you can, in about 5-7 sentences, answer two of the following questions: 1. Define “enfranchisement,” and explain how Marx wanted to redefine enfranchisement as it was understood by traditional liberal political philosophers. Is Gretchen saved at the end of Faust? Why, or why not? Briefly discuss one way in which Frankenstein exemplifies the anxiety of the Romantic era concerning the advances of modernity. ee i meme tae RR In writing your response be sure to give specific examples where you can, drawn from the passages we read in the course. Be sure to give yourself enough time to answer this question thoroughly. You will be graded not only on the thoroughness and accuracy of your answer, but also on your synthesis of the various authors’ thought, the originality of your argument, and your reformulation of the ideas you have been exposed to. Essays which simply summarize an author’s thought and lack synthesis will not receive as many points as more synthetic ones. 1, This semester, we read three literary portraits of demiurges (powerful creative personalities); Prospero, Faust, and Frankenstein. Compare and contrast these three figures, paying attention in particular to the authors’ differing conceptions of the potential and the limits of the human ability to understand and manipulate the (social or natural) world. 2. Define the notion of the sublime as we discussed it in relation to Faust. Do you believe that a similar notion of the sublime exists in Frankenstein? Discuss. 3. What does Mephistopheles represent in Faust? Use one of the works we read earlier this semester to discuss the philosophical background of the figure of Mephistopheles.