What
theme, according to the editors,
can be found in almost all of Johnson's major writings?
"The Vanity of Human Wishes" (1749)
1392:
In what ways,
according to the editors, does this poem exemplify Juvenalian satire?
What, according to the editors,
is this poem's theme?
General Questions (from The Victorian Web )
What is Johnson implying about the human condition, about
pride, about ambition, about human relationships?
Why does he give us portraits of the wealthy man, the
statesman, the soldier, the scholar, the beauty, the virtuous
man, and so on?
Is the end of the poem a cheerful or a gloomy one? Explain.
1393:
Explain:
"When statutes glean the refuse of the sword,/How much more
safe the vassal than the lord"( 31-32).
1395:
What message to college
students does the speaker offer in 155-58?
1400:
At the
end of the poem, what role does Johnson ascribe to Heaven in
offering possible solutions to human concerns?
Final Question:
How
does this poem compare with Pope's Essay on Man? Explain.
Other Discussion Questions:
1390:
What "one commanding purpose"
do the editors identify in Johnson's writings?
What,
according to the editors, was significant about
Johnson's compilation of his Dictionary?
1391:
How do the editors
characterize Johnson's style?
General Questions (from The Victorian Web )
What does he have to say about human greatness, about hope,
about fear, about man's relationship with God?
What use does he make of the historical figures whom he
invokes throughout the poem?
In what ways is this a personal poem — why, for example, did
Johnson substitute, in 1755, the word "patron" for the original
"garret" in the lines "Yet think what ills the scholar's life
assail,/Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail"?
What does he imply about the pursuit of happiness, about
success?
With its emphasis on mortality and mutability, how is "The
Vanity of Human Wishes" like (or unlike) other works we've
discussed this semester?
What solutions does he offer us, in the end, to the problems
he has raised in the course of the poem?
1392:
What does Johnson mean by
"the general massacre of gold" (22)?
1393:
How,
according to Johnson, is England different from
Democritus's Greece?
1394:
Explain: "For now no more we
trace in every line/Heroic worth, benevolence divine:/The form
distorted justifies the fall" (87-89).
Describe the significance of
the example of Cardinal Wolsey.
1396:
Explain: "Nor deem, when
Learning her last prize bestows,/The glittering eminence
exempt from foes" (165-66).
1396-97:
What does the example of
Charles XII of Sweden suggest about the pride of warriors?
Explain the significance of
Charles Albert.
1397:
Explain: "He left the
name at which the world grew pale,/To point a moral, or adorn
a tale" (221-22).
Explain lines 263-66.
Explain lines 291-94.
1399:
Explain: "But few there are
whom hours like these await,/Who set unclouded in the gulfs of
Fate" (311-12).
1399:
Explain: "But few there are
whom hours like these await,/Who set unclouded in the gulfs of
Fate" (311-12).
