Pride & Prejudice Interpretive Questions
- Why does Mr. Darcy suddenly propose?
- Why does Miss Bingley feel obligated to ruin people’s lives? Why is Miss Bingley so two-faced? She tries to be friends with everybody, but then talks behind their backs.
- Why did Darcy break up Jane and Bingley? Did Darcy not really know that Jane and Bingley were in love?
- If Lady de Bourgh is so dignified, why is she so condescending and bitchy toward people?
- Why doesn’t Mrs. Gardiner like and believe Mr. Wickham?
- What is Jane’s opinion of Darcy based on?
- Is Charlotte happy with Mr. Collins?
Essay Requirements
Level 1
Ideas
Thesis:
- Answers the question
- Narrow and manageable
Support:
- Thesis supported by at least three minor premises (paragraphs)
- Frequent specific textual references
- Not summarizing the plot in “book report” form
Organization
- Introduction:
- Complete paragraph
- Presents thesis
- Inviting
Conclusion:
- Complete paragraph
- Closure
- Reviews thesis
Organization:
- Organized into paragraphs
- Unified by thesis
- Linear (not repetitive)
Paragraphs: topic sentence, unity
Voice
Clarity
Word Choice
Language uses proper denotation and diction
Sentence Structure
Sentences: Essay uses complete sentences, without sentence errors: fragments, run-ons, comma splices, rambling sentences
Mechanics
No focus errors
-0.1 for every error
Presentation
Typed papers should use 12-point type of a clearly readable font. Margins should be 1” top, bottom, left, and right. The paper should be double spaced. Front page or title page should contain name, course, assignment, date assignment was due. The essay should have a title that describes your thesis.
Chapters 13-16
We discussed comprehension questions for chapters 13-16, then took the quiz. The quiz took the rest of the period today.
Interpretive Questions
At the ball, is Mr. Darcy being rude or is he rejecting an outdated tradition?
Why is Mr. Darcy rude to people he doesn’t know?
Which character shows pride and prejudice, and how?
Why does Miss Bingley go out of her way to be nice to Jane and Elizabeth (when she is nice)?
Why does Mr. Bennett favor Lizzy?
What does Mr. Bennett think about the marriage process, (based on what we know of him so far)?
Pride & Prejudice Chapters 5-8
Reading Quiz
We finished list of interpretive questions & voted on top three in each group. Tomorrow we will begin discussing the book using the interpretive questions.
Interpretive Questions
Purpose- Dig deeper into text
- Explore author’s intent
- Dialogue about underlying ideas
- Discover personal meaning
Characteristics- More than one possible answer
- Answers supportable from the text
- Leads us to consider what the author intended us to think about
- Leads us to think deeper about the meaning of the text
- Answers require the development of a thesis and support of that thesis with clear thinking and textual evidence
In-class exercise – brainstorm a list of interpretive questions for the first four chapters of
Pride and Prejudice.
Astrophil & Stella - One last try
We did one more day of small group work for "Astrophil & Stella." After this you are on your own! We will discuss the essay fomat, but starting tomorrow we will begin reading
Pride and Prejudice. Come see me if you have problems explicating a stanza.
Explication Help
When you are identifying meaning clusters, first look at how the poet is using punctuation. Usually a complete sentence, even if it is split across stanzas, makes a good meaning cluster. Look at Shakespeare's Sonnet 138. The sentences span four lines each. If you interpret the meaning of the four lines together, you will avoid error. If you need to divide a sentence into two meaning clusters, combine your interpretation of both clusters to get the meaning of the complete sentence.
When my love swears that she is made of truth,
I do believe her though I know she lies,
That she might think me some untutor'd youth,
Unlearned in the world's false subtleties.
An incorrect division of this four-line sentence might conclude that the first two lines mean that his lover lies, but he believes her and that the second two lines means that she thinks he is stupid. However, if you try to work these two interpretations back together to find the meaning of the sentence, you find that they do not fit together. However, if you interpret the four lines together as one sentence you (hopefully) realize that the ideas in the first two lines and the ideas in the second two lines are joined together by "that she." So, you could interpret these four lines together as "when my lover tells me that she never lies, I choose to believe her even though I know that she lies
so that she will think that I am naive (gullible?) in the ways of deception."
Try this with the first stanza of
Astrophil and Stella. Divide the stanza into meaning clusters based on sentences. Divide up each sentence to find the meaning of digestible sections, but then spin it back together to make sure it makes sense as a sentence.
