Name: Vũ Hạnh Trang

Troy ID: 1605136

Class: ENG2206 – IVAB
SESSIONS 4
Goethe
1. What was the 19 th-century conception of genius with which Goethe was
an exemplar?
The concept of a 19th-century genius is someone who has achieved many
successes in many fields. Goethe, for example, was a poet, playwright,
novelist, and autobiographer, he also practiced law, was a diplomat and
pursued scientific research. In other words, his life was a life of
achievement.
2. What was the philosophy of the Sturm und Drang movement whose
members encouraged Goethe to discover the values of traditional and
classical forms of art in the past?
The philosophy of the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement is
emphasizing the importance of revolt against established standards.
Participants interested Goethe in such newly discovered forms as the folk
song and the literary vitality of Shakespeare, as opposed to more formally
constricted writers.
3. Where did Goethe live for a long time in his life?
In 1775 Goethe accepted an invitation to the court of Charles Augustus,
duke of Saxe-Weimar. Goethe remained in Weimar for the rest of his life,
for ten years serving the duke as chief minister.
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 the character Faust in Goethe’s Faust is the real Johannes
Faustus - a scholar who lived from 1480 to 1540.
The difference is the ending of the drama. (Christopher Marlowe) Doctor
Faustus' dramatic ending is the protagonist's damnation as a result of his
quest for illegitimate power through learning. However, Goethe's Faust
does not suffer the same fate. He embodies the ideal of limitless aspiration
 in all its glamour and danger, pursuing experience rather than knowledge.
His contract with Mephistopheles stipulates that he will die the moment he
declares himself satisfied, content to rest in the present; he bets his life and
salvation on his ability to yearn for something more.
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, who appears to be witty and powerful in his imagination
at first, gradually reveals his limitations. In the Prologue in Heaven, the
Detail appears to be energetic, perceptive, enterprising, and fearless: a
"joker," as the Lord calls him, apparently more playful than malicious. His
bargain with the Lord is based on his belief in humankind's essentially
"beastly" nature: like Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master, he emphasizes human
misuse of reason.
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?
When Countess Anna Fedotovna lost a large sum of credit to the Duke of
Orleans. She gave her husband the order to pay off the debt. Despite the
fact that he was like a butler to her, he pointed out that they'd spent half a
million in Paris in half a year and refused to pay. She slapped him and went
to bed alone as punishment, but he still refused in the morning. For the first
time, she lowered her dignity by arguing and attempting to persuade him
that she would lose face if she did not repay the debt owed to someone of
the Duke's position, but he was adamant. Without knowing what to do,
Tomsky's grandmother approached a friend named Count Sain-Germain. He
was the subject of numerous stories: He claimed to have found the elixir of
life, a potion that would grant him eternal youth. Despite widespread
ridicule, the Italian explorer Giacomo Gasanova described the Count as a
spy in his memoirs. Regardless of the mystery surrounding him, he was
handsome and charismatic, and she admired him. She knew he had a lot of
money, so she wrote him a note asking him to come see her. When he
arrived, she was overcome with grief and lamented her husband's cruelty.
 Rather than lending her the money, the Count told her a secret to winning
it back, which Tomsky does not reveal. He lights his pipe and continues
speaking, claiming that later that evening his grandmother went to a faro
game that the Duke of Orleans was involved in and began betting against
him. She chose three cards and played them one after the other; each card
won the first turn, and by doubling her winnings with each card, she paid
off her debt.
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?
Lisaveta Ivanovna is a ward of the Countess. Lisa had to obey the
Countess’s every command, which make her life miserable. The Countess is
cheap and egotistic. She has, in old age, found herself alienated from the
present day and so takes her disappointment out on the people who serve
her. Lisa takes the brunt of the Countess’s unpleasant attitude. During
Tomsky’s visit to his grandma, Lisa sees a young officer who appeared from
behind the corner house on the other side of the street from the window
after Tomsky left. His name is Hermann and his job is as an army engineer
officer.
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?
Herman was secretive and ambitious. He had strong passions and a fiery
imagination, but his tenacity of spirit saved him from the usual errors of
youth. The story of the three cards had made a strong impression on his
imagination and he could think of nothing else all night. While arguing with
himself that he must continue to work hard, he found himself in front of
the Countess’s ancient house. He returned to his modest room and dreamt
of winning heaps of gold at card games. Then he plans to approach Liza to
find out and learn of the Countess’s secret knowledge.
4. Summarize in about 200 words the plan Hermann does to approach the
Countess Anna Fedotovna.
After hearing Tomsky's story, Hermann was haunted by the Countess's
secret. He planned to approach the Countess Anna Fedotovna. While
roaming the city, he finds himself drawn back to the Countess Anna
 Fedotovna's house by an unknown force. There, he met Liza's eyes and he
purposely approached her first. Hermann has repeatedly sent letters to Liza
despite repeated rejections. But Hermann was undeterred and Liza began
to like them, eventually showing him where to wait in the house while she
and the Countess were at an embassy ball and the servants had returned to
their home. Instead of going up to Liza's room following her instructions, he
entered the dark study. He finally reached the Countess as she sat in an
armchair by a lamp.
5. What happens with the Countess after Hermann approaches and talks to
her?
After appearing to search for the words, she says it was a joke; she swears
it was a joke. Hermann reminds her of the story of Chaplitsky, and the
Countess looks visibly disturbed, her face reflecting a deep stirring of her
spirit until she suddenly seems to be dozing off again. Hermann gets on his
knees and pleads with her to tell him the winning cards, promising he won’t
waste the money he wins. When she doesn’t reply to anything he says, he
calls her an old witch and pulls a pistol out of his pocket. She shows strong
emotion for the second time and raises her hand to ward off the shot
before falling on her back, where she lies motionless 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?
When he wakes in the middle of the night to see someone glance in the
window and go away. He then hears the front door opening and unfamiliar
footsteps shuffling to his room. The bedroom door opens to reveal a
woman in a white dress. He recognizes her as the Countess. In a firm voice,
she says she has come against her will and was directed to grant his
request. A three, a seven, and an ace will win for him as long as he doesn’t
bet on more than one of them in twenty-four hours, and as long as he
never plays them again. She will forgive him for killing her if he marries Liza.

Hermann is immediately overcome by his obsessive greed and does not

stop to consider why the Countess would have been ordered to deliver
such a gift to the man who killed her. The tension rises as he wins big on
the three and the seven, soberly abiding by the rule that he must only bet
 on one in a twenty-four-hour period. The story reaches its climax when
Hermann realizes that he had mistakenly chosen to bet on his queen, as
opposed to his ace. He cannot comprehend how he would make such a
stupid decision and finds the queen winking at him mockingly, just as the
dead Countess did when lying in her coffin.

The surreal event causes Hermann to lose his mind. The statement that he
would not risk something essential in order to win something superfluous
has a moralistic resonance: by succumbing to the allure of greed—i.e. the
intense and selfish desire for attaining more than one needs—Hermann
risked his essential morality. For all his calculations, he winds up losing not
just money but his sanity.
Douglass
1. How was Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American
Slave written and developed through its different versions?
Douglass gradually enlarged and elaborated his Narrative, which exists in
three subsequent versions: My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and two
different editions of Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881, 1892). The
earliest, shortest form has the greatest narrative integrity and clarity. For
literary as well as historical reasons (its status as an important document in
the abolitionist crusade), it merits reprinting. It belongs to a genre familiar
in its time: thousands of slave narratives were published in America – and
in many cases translated into European languages – between the end of the
eighteenth century and the beginning of the American Civil War. They won
a large, enthusiastic readership; by making the horrors of slavery
emotionally immediate, they intensified abolitionist sentiment. From the
first publication of Douglass’s work, it was acknowledged as unusually
forceful by virtue of its rhetorical control and its narrative skill.
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?
After reading the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by ex-
slave Frederick Douglass, the oppression that slaves faced during the
antebellum error was magnified to me. I always knew about the horrors of
 slavery, but Douglass was able to illustrate in-depth the struggles he
overcame on his path to becoming educated. According to Douglas, his
education ultimately led to his freedom. Douglas created a positive cultural
identity for blacks through the writing of his narrative, by showing that a
black man is capable of not only writing his own story but having the will to
survive and escape slavery.

3. What can we know about Colonel Lloyd through Douglass’ descriptions in

his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass?
Colonel Lloyd was a wealthy landowner in Talbot County who owned about
four hundred slaves on more than twenty farms. He lives in a place called
the Great House Farm, where every trade takes place. Colonel Lloyd owned
many slaves that he did not know and all of them did not know him. Lyoyd
was a man who treated his slaves very harshly. There are some examples
given by Douglass such as Lyod having a large arable garden and to prevent
slaves from eating the fruit in the garden, he covered the fence with black
tar and whipped any slaves who were caught. black ink on the body. Or his
punishing and whipping two horse-keepers for even minor horse faults that
even they themselves could not control and if his slaves stood silent and
frightened while he say they will be punished without comment. Moreover,
when he asked a slave who did not know he was the master and he did not
know the slave worked for him about whether the master treated him well
or not. He replied that he worked for Colonel Lloyd and that he was not
treated well and a few weeks later the slave was sold. This meant that the
Colonel treated the slaves unfairly and prevented the slaves from telling
the truth.