LITERATURE QUESTIONS
CULTURAL AND LITERARY (18TH 19TH) CENTURIES
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The need for linguistic correctness as exemplified in his Dictionary
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The promise of universal knowledge as epitomized by the Encyclopédie
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The ultimate impossibility of achieving happiness, as espoused in his poem “The Vanity of Human Wishes”
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The need for self-sufficiency as detailed in novels like Robinson Crusoe
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Detailed explanation-1: -Johnson’s poem taps on the themes of corruption, hypocrisy, and rustic life. According to Thales, there is a lot of corruption in London.
Detailed explanation-2: -His most highly regarded poem, The Vanity of Human Wishes, was written with such “extraordinary speed” that Boswell claimed Johnson “might have been perpetually a poet". The poem is an imitation of Juvenal’s Satire X and claims that “the antidote to vain human wishes is non-vain spiritual wishes".
Detailed explanation-3: -Johnson’s great contribution to the history of English lexicography was to conceive the dictionary, not as a schoolroom prop, but as a type of literary work. Johnson wrote only one dictionary, but in that one he initiated several dictionary genres.
Detailed explanation-4: -His works include a verse drama, some longer serious poems, several prologues, many translations, and much light occasional poetry, impromptu compositions or jeux d’esprit. Johnson is a poet of limited range, but within that range he is a poet of substantial talent and ability.