ENGL 362: Spring 2004 Dr. Helen Bittel Study Guide #12: Lady Audley Instructions: Complete any 4 of the following question clusters. Use your best judgment to choose the clusters that seem most likely to enhance your understanding of the text and to best address your own interests and expertise. FYI, the "smaller" questions within each cluster are intended as prompts or suggestions and not as a definitive outline. You are not expected to answer each systematically (or to cover as much ground as the prompts themselves), but only to provide substantive and well-supported responses to the stories, responses that goes beyond "what" (i.e. plot, setting, characters) and into "why it matters." In answering these questions, you may draw on any part of the novel that you've read thus far. 1. Setting. How do elements of setting contribute to the structure and/or thematic concerns of the story? In what ways are elements of setting symbolic? Which elements recur throughout the novel? What do the distinguishing features of interior settings tell us about the occupants? Do all characters move freely between interiors and exteriors? Are some characters associated primarily with either one or the other? 2. Words and Images. How do the author's word choices establish tone, and what does this contribute to the development of the story? Are there any words or phrases that are especially striking or often repeated (hint: "mad" is one of these words!) Why might the author have chosen those words and not others? Are there words with strong connotations (associations beyond the dictionary meaning of the word)? Words that have several possible meanings? Does the author use allusion (i.e. references to other texts)? What are they and why might the author have chosen them? What associations might they have for the reader? Are there any strong symbols or recurrent images? What are they and why might the author have chosen them; how do they complement or contradict other elements of the text? 3. Characters: What role do "minor characters" play in the development of the story? Which of these seem to have the most significant roles and why? Which characters (major and minor) seem to be doubles or foils, why do you think this is the case, and why might this be significant? 4. Metanarrative. Many critics of this novel have attended to its metanarrative---to the ways that this novel, in its frequent descriptions of reading and writing, comments on the power, limitations, possibilities, and dangers of these practices. Where moments and details are such critics likely to notice, and what might they say about them? 5. Narrative Style. How do Braddon's choices regarding narrative style affect our reading of the text? How, for example, do the ways the story is told (for ex., the unknown narrator, the largely 3rd person account, the frequent shifts of focus, the delayed revelation of pronoun referents in the opening chapters, etc) shape our experience of the novel? How do you think that the narrative directs (or tries to direct) our sympathies? With whom are we encouraged to identify or side with, with whom not, and why do you think this? 6. Potpourri Is there any else that you think might be important in understanding how the story works that we have not covered above? What and why? Contact the English Department at: 570-348-6219. E-mail: English@marywood.edu.

HOME || GOALS || FACULTY || MAJORS/MINORS || COURSES || UG RESEARCH || ACTIVITIES || NEWSLETTER || BAYLEAF || BOOK SWAP || LAMBDA || CAREER DAY || USING YOUR DEGREE || ALUMNI || NEWS/EVENTS || ADMISSIONS || USEFUL LINKS

Comments to the English Department Pagemaster: lsantarsiero@ntsvr002.marywood.edu

Last update August 12, 2004
Copyright © 2003 by Marywood University. All rights reserved.