PRAXIS II ENGLISH CONTENT KNOWLEDGE: MAJOR WORKS SYNOPSES WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS 100%
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PRAXIS II ENGLISH CONTENT KNOWLEDGE: MAJOR WORKS SYNOPSES WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS 100% 2023
Piers Plowman
Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland concerning the narrator's intense quest for a true Christian life. One of the early great works of English literature.
Sir G...
PRAXIS II ENGLISH CONTENT KNOWLEDGE: MAJOR WORKS
SYNOPSES WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS 100% 2023
Piers Plowman
Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland concerning the narrator's intense quest
for a true Christian life. One of the early great works of English literature.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance and one of the better-known Arthurian stories.
Sir Gawain, one of Arthur's knights, accepts the challenge of the mysterious "Green Knight",
beheading him after agreeing to take a return blow in a year and a day. One of the early great works
of English literature.
Canterbury Tales
Late 14th-century work by Geoffrey Chaucer. Collection of tales presented as a part of a story-telling
contest by a group of pilgrims as the travel together to the Canterbury Cathedral. Popularized the
literary use of vernacular.
The Iliad
Epic poem attributed to Homer set during the Trojan War and the ten-year siege of Troy (Ilium) that
chronicles the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between Kind Agamemnon and the
warrior Achilles.
The Odyssey
Epic poem attributed to Homer that centers of the Greek hero Odysseus and his journey home after
the fall of Troy. Fundamental to the Wester canon and, after the Iliad, the second oldest extant work
of Western Literature.
Medea
Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides. Centers on a barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in
the Greek world threatened and on the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has
betrayed her for another woman.
Oedipus Rex
Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes the king of Thebes
after fleeing from Corinth, where he was adopted by that state's childless king, when he learns he is
destined to kill his father and marry his mother. He becomes king by solving the riddle of the sphinx
and is given the hand of Jacosta, his biological mother. Ignoring the advice of the blind prophet
Tiresius Oedipus eventually learns of his true parents and gouges his eyes out and asks to be exiled.
Oedipus at Colonus
Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that describes the end of Oedipus' tragic life. The blinded Oedipus has
come to Colonus, a village near Athens, with his daughters Antigone and Ismene. There the King
Theseus takes pity on Oedipus and grants him Athenian citizenship. All the while Oedipus' two sons
are fighting over the throne of Thebes and over where Oedipus will be buried, which, according to the
Oracle, will determine which brother wins the throne. Creon, a representative of Thebes, comes and
captures Oedipus' daughters, but Theseus and the Athenians rescue them. Oedipus prepares his own
death and, by being buried in Colonus, ensures the protection of Athens.
, Antigone
The third of the Theban plays by Sophocles. Creon now rules the city after Oedipus' sons Polynices
and Ereocles have killed each other over the Theban throne. Creon threatens to kill anyone who tries
to give Polynices a proper burial, but his sister Antigone is determined and is helped by her sister
Ismene. Antigone is caught in the act of reburying him and condemns Antigone to dead by burial alive
while pardons Ismene. The prophet Tiresias convinces Creon to bury Polynices and free Antigone but
she is already dead and his son, Haemon, kills himself, which causes Creon's whife, Eurydice, to also
kill herself. Creon prays that he too might die.
Metamorphoses
Latin narrative poem in fifteen books by Ovid that describes the history of the world from its creation
to the deification of Julius Caesar. All of the narratives involve changes and metamorphoses of some
kind or another.
Aeneid
Latin epic poem by Virgil that tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy where he
became the ancestor of the Romans. In short, Aeneas is driven to found a new city after the sacking of
Troy, and after many attempts and set-backs he and his companions found Rome.
The Decameron
14th-century medieval allegory by Boccaccio told as a frame story that encompasses 100 tales by 10
young people in Florence during the Black Death. These stories explore the traditions and viewpoints
of various social classes.
The Divine Comedy
Epic poem written by Dante in the early 14th century that offers an imaginative and allegorical vision
of the afterlife and helped establish the Tuscan dialect as the standard Italian language. Divided into
three canticas (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) which are subdivided into cantos. Tells of Dante's
journey through the three realms of the dead. Virgil guides him through Hell (which is divided into 9
circles) and Purgatory (set on an island the Mountain of Purgatory is divided into terraces
corresponding to the seven deadly sins). Beatrice, Dante's ideal woman, guides him through the
celestial spheres of Heaven (structure is based on the four cardinal virtues and the three theological
virtues).
The Faerie Queene
Late 16th-century English epic poem by Edmund Spencer written in Spenserian stanza. It is an allegory
that follows several different knights who represent different Christian virtues and whose trials and
courtships represent obstacles and triumphs on the way to a perfect Christian life. Unabashedly
promotes then-monarch Elizabeth I and bashes the Catholic Church.
Beowulf
8th-century Anglo-Saxon epic that takes place in 6th-century Scandinavia, where the story probably
first developed orally. Follows Geatish warrior Beowulf who travels to Denmark to defeat Grendel, an
awful demon who is terrorizing the kingdom of King Hrothgar. Grendel's mother then attempts to
enact revenge and kills some of Hrothgar's men, but Beowulf hunts her down and kills her as well.
Eventually, after his return to Geatland Beowulf ascends to the throne and rules over a prosperous
land until it is threatened by a dragon, who Beowulf hunts down and slays, but he is mortally
wounded in the process.
A Death in the Family
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