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1. Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria share in common the fact of being female monarchs in the patriarchal societies of their respective eras, but their identities were essential in shaping the production and definition of literature and art from their periods, respectively called Elizabethan and Victorian. For all these points of comparison, their subjects chose to represent them quite differently and for different reasons. Consider these differences and similarities by comparing Aemilia Lander's To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty (see pages 1282–83 in volume 1B), Ben Jonson's "Epitaph on S.P., a Child of Queen Elizabeth's Chapel" (see page 1399 in volume 1B), and Thomas Carlyle's portrait of "Queen Victoria at Eighteen." Also consider Victorian representations of Queen Elizabeth, for example in W. S. Gilbert's "When Britain Really Ruled the Waves," how these differ significantly from sixteenth-century representations, and how they also reflect a particularly Victorian way of talking about the monarchy.
2. Representation of the French Revolution during the Romantic era and the Victorian era reflected a changed attitude toward the potential outcome of insurrectionary movements. What are the attendant social and historical reasons? Consider the ways in which literature of the respective periods demonstrates this difference and the reasons for such a difference. Compare and contrast the selection from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution and the selection from Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (see pages 122–133 in volume 2A).
3. Consider how the function and form of the novel changed from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. How does representation of society and the individual's place in society change between these periods? Consider the selection from George Eliot's Mill on the Floss and compare and contrast it to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (see pages 1957–2016 in volume 2C) or the selection from James Joyce's Ulysses (see pages 2269–2308 in volume 2C).
4. How do writers like John Stuart Mill and Leonard Huxley draw on the style of eighteenth-century essayists in their nonfiction writing? How does their respective styles differ or compare to their eighteenth-century predecessors, such as John Locke in the selection from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (see pages 2145–2149 in volume 1C). How do they differently or similarly position themselves with respect to their readerships? Also consider forms and structure of argumentation.
5. What is the place of religion in society, literature, and education in the Middle Ages as compared to the Victorian era? How does the function and place of spirituality get expressed? To what extent are spiritual concerns wrapped up in the institution of the Church? Consider the selection from John Henry Cardinal Newman's The Idea of the University and the selection from Bede's An Ecclesiastical History of the English People (see pages 24–26 in volume 1A).