LITERATURE QUESTIONS
PURITAN LITERATURE
|
Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
|
|
|
It was revenge for a crime she had committed.
|
|
|
Other people had lost their homes as well.
|
|
|
They were moving anyway.
|
|
|
Everything was God’s anyway, He can give and take as He pleases.
|
Detailed explanation-1: -Why does the speaker believe the fire was “just"? It was revenge for a crime she had committed. Other people had lost their homes as well. They were moving anyway.
Detailed explanation-2: -The fire is essentially a spark to her uncertain faithfulness toward the Puritan beliefs of providence, resulting in her conflicting tones within the poem. The poem ends with Bradstreet accepting her loss and remaining loyal to her Puritan beliefs, despite her loss of everything else.
Detailed explanation-3: -“I wakened was with thund’ring noise / And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice. / That fearful sound of ‘Fire! ‘ and ‘Fire! ‘ / Let no man know is my desire.” The power of Bradstreet’s poem is ultimately in its inquiry into whether and how the stuff-the material possessions destroyed in the fire-should be valued.
Detailed explanation-4: -Bradstreet feels guilty that she is hurt from losing earthly possessions. It is against her belief that she should feel this way; showing she is a sinner. Her deep puritan beliefs brought her to accept that the loss of material was a spiritually necessary occurrence.
Detailed explanation-5: -The flame consume my dwelling place. And when I could no longer look, I blest His name that gave and took, That laid my goods now in the dust.