Questions for Book Two – Old and Young (questions for part one here, do not worry if you haven't answered them yet, they’ll stay up )
1) Why is this book titled “Old and Young?” Do you think it applies to more than one set of characters? On a related thought, do you like or dislike the quotes at the beginning of each chapter? Has there been one that you particularly thought was good, thought provoking, or applicable to the chapter?
2) I told my mom in a conversation that I loved the first chapter of this section. Looking back, it’s the overarching back-story of Lydgate that goes through the first few chapters that I really loved... Do you agree with my assessment? Do you like the characters as Eliot has drawn them? More or less than Dorothea and her family?
3) Lydgate’s passion is ignited in Chapter 15: The page he opened on was under the heading of Anatomy, and the first passage that drew his eyes was on the valves of the heart. He was not much acquainted with valves of any sort, but he knew that / valvae / were folding doors, and through this crevice came a sudden light startling him with his first vivid notion of finely adjusted mechanism in the human frame… But the moment of vocation had come, and before he got down from his chair, the world was made new to him by a presentiment of endless processes filling the vast spaces planked out of his sight by that wordy ignorance which he had supposed to be knowledge. From that hour Lydgate felt the growth of an intellectual passion.
Firstly, am I the only one who didn’t know the etymology of the world valve? Secondly, what did you think of this description? Have you had or seen this experience of having a new world opened to you?
4) At the end of Chapter 18, Lydgate is pressured into a vote for Tyke. What does this tell you about his personality? Do you think this is a commentary on English society at the time?
5) Chapter 19 opens with Dorothea in Rome, capturing the attention of Naumann who takes Casaubon’s cousin (and ward) to see her. What did you think of this scene? What do you think of Dorothea’s experience in Rome, and of the chance meeting with Ladislaw? What do you think of Eliot’s portrayal of the clash between English culture and the art of Rome, especially in the quote from Chapter 20: “the gigantic broken revelations of that Imperial and Papal city thrust abruptly on the notions of a girl who had been brought up in English and Swiss Puritanism, fed on meagre Protestant histories and on art chiefly of the hand-screen sort”
6) In Chapter 20 and 21, we see Dorothea facing the realities of married life. What do you think of her marriage experience, emotions and feelings?
7) We end this section (Chapter 22 ) with a deepening friendship between Dorothea and Ladislaw. What do you think of this friendship? What do you think of Casaubon’s reaction to this friendship? Do you think that Dorothea handles the conflict well? Do you think that there is foreshadowing in this chapter?
8) (this may be my standard Question 8, grin!) Is there anything that I missed that you thought was interesting and wanted to discuss?
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am greatly enjoying this novel, and our discussion. I have some thoughts on some points brought up in Book One that I will be commenting on. I am nearly done with Book Three (although I just dropped my bookmark out a couple of minutes ago) so those questions will be posted probably over the weekend.
1) Why is this book titled “Old and Young?” Do you think it applies to more than one set of characters? On a related thought, do you like or dislike the quotes at the beginning of each chapter? Has there been one that you particularly thought was good, thought provoking, or applicable to the chapter?
2) I told my mom in a conversation that I loved the first chapter of this section. Looking back, it’s the overarching back-story of Lydgate that goes through the first few chapters that I really loved... Do you agree with my assessment? Do you like the characters as Eliot has drawn them? More or less than Dorothea and her family?
3) Lydgate’s passion is ignited in Chapter 15: The page he opened on was under the heading of Anatomy, and the first passage that drew his eyes was on the valves of the heart. He was not much acquainted with valves of any sort, but he knew that / valvae / were folding doors, and through this crevice came a sudden light startling him with his first vivid notion of finely adjusted mechanism in the human frame… But the moment of vocation had come, and before he got down from his chair, the world was made new to him by a presentiment of endless processes filling the vast spaces planked out of his sight by that wordy ignorance which he had supposed to be knowledge. From that hour Lydgate felt the growth of an intellectual passion.
Firstly, am I the only one who didn’t know the etymology of the world valve? Secondly, what did you think of this description? Have you had or seen this experience of having a new world opened to you?
4) At the end of Chapter 18, Lydgate is pressured into a vote for Tyke. What does this tell you about his personality? Do you think this is a commentary on English society at the time?
5) Chapter 19 opens with Dorothea in Rome, capturing the attention of Naumann who takes Casaubon’s cousin (and ward) to see her. What did you think of this scene? What do you think of Dorothea’s experience in Rome, and of the chance meeting with Ladislaw? What do you think of Eliot’s portrayal of the clash between English culture and the art of Rome, especially in the quote from Chapter 20: “the gigantic broken revelations of that Imperial and Papal city thrust abruptly on the notions of a girl who had been brought up in English and Swiss Puritanism, fed on meagre Protestant histories and on art chiefly of the hand-screen sort”
6) In Chapter 20 and 21, we see Dorothea facing the realities of married life. What do you think of her marriage experience, emotions and feelings?
7) We end this section (Chapter 22 ) with a deepening friendship between Dorothea and Ladislaw. What do you think of this friendship? What do you think of Casaubon’s reaction to this friendship? Do you think that Dorothea handles the conflict well? Do you think that there is foreshadowing in this chapter?
8) (this may be my standard Question 8, grin!) Is there anything that I missed that you thought was interesting and wanted to discuss?
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am greatly enjoying this novel, and our discussion. I have some thoughts on some points brought up in Book One that I will be commenting on. I am nearly done with Book Three (although I just dropped my bookmark out a couple of minutes ago) so those questions will be posted probably over the weekend.
posted by Mimi @ 2/24/2010 11:45:00 AM
4 Comments
