Eng. 302     Midterm Essays     March 1997    Name___________________________________

Choose any two questions that do not overlap significantly  (25% each). 
Write 300+ words on each essay.  Please type (double space) or word process if possible. 
Proofread before turning them in.  The midterm is due March 18 at the beginning of class.  Be sure
to cite title and author the first time you talk about each.

1.   Analyze the endings of "A Simple Heart" and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich."  What do they
convey?  Compare and contrast Felicite and Ivan at the end.  What have they learned?  What have
you learned?  Where do you have to stand to understand the ending of each?

2.   What influences of Rousseau's romanticism are apparent in the works of Dostoevsky and
Tolstoi?  Define romanticism as you begin your argument. How unrealistic is their romanticism? 
Is it valuable in the real world?

3.   Discuss characteristics of Maslow's self-actualizing person (note: not his hierarchy  of
needs) as they apply to Goethe's Faust, Emma Bovary, Hedda Gabler, and Anna Karenina.  To what
extent do the characters limit themselves, and to what extent are they limited by external forces?

4.   Define realism and discuss examples from Chekhov, Eisenstein, Tolstoi, and Buchner..

5.   Baudelaire and Dostoevsky seem to focus on the dregs of society. What comments and
insights do they make on the human condition?  Is their message universal or limited?  To what
extent is it bound by their respective cultures (country, class, and time)?  Are any aspects of their
characters and personae admirable?

6.   Think about the nature of the paradoxes in "Notes from Underground" and "The Grand
Inquisitor" episode.  Can you evolve categories and levels of paradoxes (with appropriate examples
for each)?

7.   Discuss the depiction of woman as victim in four of the following: Goethe, Pushkin,
Flaubert, Pagliacci, Ibsen, Buchner, and Chekhov.  To what extent does each work accept or reject
that status?  (If you choose this question, do not also take #3.)