中山大学翻译学院大一泛读总结

泛读作品总结Rip Van Winkle

The Taming of the Shrew

(1)The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written

between 1590 and 1592.

(2)The main plot depicts the courtship of Petruchio and Katherina, the headstrong, obdurate shrew.

Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in the relationship, but Petruchio tempers her with

various psychological torments—the "taming"—until she becomes a compliant and obedient bride.

Thesubplot features a competition between the suitors of Katherina's more desirable sister,Bianca.

The play's apparent misogynistic elements have become the subject of considerable controversy, particularly among modern scholars, audiences and readers.

2.Character:

●Katherina (Kate) Minola – the "shrew" of the title

●Bianca Minola – sister of Katherina; the ingénue

●Baptista Minola – father of Katherina and Bianca

●Petruchio – suitor of Katherina

●Lucentio – suitor of Bianca

●Vincentio – father of Lucentio

3.theme:

(1) Marriage as an Economic Institution:As a romantic comedy, the play focuses principally on the romantic relationships between men and women as they develop from initial interest into marriage. In this respect, the play is a typical romantic comedy. However, unlike other Shakespearean comedies, The Taming of the Shrew does not conclude its examination of love and marriage with the wedding. Rather, it offers a significant glimpse into the future lives of married couples, one that serves to round out its exploration of the social dimension of love.

(2)convey a gender harmony of marriage and family concept

Othello

1. Author and introduction:

(1)it is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is based on the story Un Capitano Moro("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565.

2.Character: Othello, a Moorishgeneral in the Venetian army;

his beloved wife,Desdemona;

his loyal lieutenant,Cassio;

his trusted but ultimately unfaithful ensign,Iago.

3.themes:(1)racial prejudice: though well-known as a soldier and in high position, Othello has been a man

living in loneliness, because he is blacl.The citizens of Venice seem to be treating him as one

of themselves, but to have him marry one of their daughter is quite another matter.

(2)Love&jealousy:almost all the character are involved in jealousy.Othello, the essentially noble

man, who is not “easily jealous”,has been infected by Iago’s jealousy and becomes a prey of

jealousy.

(3)humanism

The Untold Lie

1. Author and introduction:

It introduces us to two farm workers, Ray Pearson and Hal Winters. Ray is about fifty years old, has a sharp-featured, sharp-voiced wife and half-a-dozen thin-legged children. Hal is a twenty-two-year-old bachelor.

2.themes: responsibility, marriage, dream

Bible:Genesis

1.introduction:the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity - describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind

2.summary:

God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the

first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent, portrayed as a deceptive creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway, and she entices Adam, whereupon God curses them and throws them out in the fall of man. Eve bears two sons,Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abel's offering but not Cain's. God then curses Cain. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abel's place.

After many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sinof man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the

righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat and put examples of all the animals on it. Then God sends

a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he will not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, theTower of Babel, God divides humanity with many languages and sets them apart with confusion.

God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. There God makes a covenant with Abram promising that his descendants shall be as numerous as the stars. But that people will suffer oppression in a foreign land for four hundred years, after which they will inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates." Abram's name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, andcircumcision of all males is instituted as the sign of the covenant. Because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. Through Hagar, Abraham fathers Ishmael.

God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people. Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abraham's

nephew Lot and his family but his wife looks back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt. Lot's daughters, concerned that they are fugitives who will never find husbands, get him drunk to become pregnant by him, and give birth to the ancestors of the Moabites and Ammonites.

Abraham and Sarah go to the foreign land of Gerar, pretending to be brother and sister (they are

half-siblings). The King of Gerar takes Sarah for his wife, but God warns him to return her, and he obeys. God sends Sarah a son to be named Isaac, through whom the covenant will be established. At Sarah's insistence, Ishmael and his mother Hagar are driven out into the wilderness, but God saves them and promises to make Ishmael a great nation.

God tests Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice Isaac. As Abraham is about to lay the knife upon his son, God restrains him, promising him numberless descendants. On the death of Sarah, Abraham

purchases Machpelah (believed to be modern Hebron) for a family tomb and sends his servant to Mesopotamia to find among his relations a wife for Isaac, and Rebekah is chosen. Other children are born to Abraham by another wife, Keturah, among whose descendants are the Midianites, and he dies in a prosperous old age and is buried in his tomb at Hebron.

Isaac's wife Rebecca gives birth to the twins Esau, father of the Edomites, and Jacob. Through deception, Jacob becomes the heir instead of Esau and gains his father's blessing. He flees to his uncle where he prospers and earns his two wives, Rachel and Leah. Jacob's name is changed to Israel, and by his wives and their handmaidens he has twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel, and a

daughter, Dinah.

Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, is sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers. But Joseph prospers, after hardship, with God's guidance ofinterpreting Pharaoh's dream of upcoming famine. He is then reunited with his father and brothers, who don't recognize him but who plead for food. After much manipulation, he reveals himself and lets them and their households into Egypt, where Pharaoh assigns to them the land of Goshen. Jacob calls his sons to his bedside and reveals their future before he dies. Joseph lives to an old age and exhorts his brethren, if God should lead them out of the country, to take his bones with them.

The Doll’s House

(3)discrimination

(4)hope

The fox

1.author:a novella by D. H. Lawrence which first appeared in The Dial in 192

2.[1] Set in Berkshire, England,

during World War I

2.summary:

Banford and March live on a farm together because it does not look like they will marry. Although they are only in their late twenties, in that era women who were still single at their age were generally considered to have foregone the prospect of marriage. Banford is thin and frail, in contrast to her companion who is physically masculine. However particular emphasis is given to March's face, which is feminine and expressive. The women are depicted as fearful of femininity and fertility. For example, they sell a heifer before it calves.

The fox becomes a hindrance to Banford and March, but March finds she cannot hunt it, and rather, she becomes entranced by it. Shortly after this, Henry, a young man, comes to stay with the women, and a link is established between the fox and Henry.

This intriguing novella explores gender roles, sexuality, femininity, and the pity of war, as do two other Lawrence novellas written at the same time, The Ladybird and The Captain's Doll

(2)the relationship between men and women

(3)subconsciousness

(4)feminism