Mr. W’s Gr. 12 English

In Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, Mrs. Cheveley tells Sir Robert Chiltern that England would not allow him to continue in his career if his scandal became known.

On page 318, she says:

Remember to what a point your Puritanism in England has brought you. In old days nobody pretended to be a bit better than his neighbours. In fact, to be a bit better than one’s neighbour was considered excessively vulgar and middle-class. Nowadays, with our modern mania for morality, everyone has to pose as a paragon of purity, incorruptibility, and all the other seven deadly virtues — and what is the result? You all go over like ninepins — one after the other. Not a year passes in England without somebody disappearing. Scandals used to lend charm, or at least interest, to a man — now they crush him.

Is Mrs. Cheveley telling Sir Robert the truth? Explain.

Do you think that this is true about North America today? How does her philosophy pertain to the political scandal that you researched?

category: Uncategorized     tags: An Ideal Husband, Bernier, Iran-Contra, Monicagate, Mulroney, Oscar Wilde, Sponsorship, Watergate

We have put Unit 1 behind us and are going to temporarily shelve the ideas about ‘What Makes a Person Great’ and move onto questions about trustworthiness.

Who do you trust? I’m not looking for a name here… I want to know what type of a person you believe that you could trust with your deepest, darkest secrets? Could you trust family members? Could you trust friends?

How do you know? What makes a person trustworthy?

category: Who can you trust?     tags: An Ideal Husband

How would you answer the question, “What makes a person great?”  What characteristics are essential for a person to be great:  that is, to be “distinguished, markedly superior, or noble” (to borrow from Merriam-Webster online)?

Tell me and your peers what you think in one to two paragraphs.  You may answer the question generally if you wish, without referring to any particular great person.   (“A great person has these characteristics …”)  Another way to approach this is to think of a person who is great in your opinion, and share with us what it is that makes him/her great.  (“______ was a great person.  She had these characteristics:  ___________)

I’m looking forward to hearing what you think.

category: What makes a person great?    

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category: Blogging