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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What, according to Burke, is the first and most simple emotion of the human mind?

2. What is the general reason Burke wrote the book, as stated in the First Preface?

3. What does Burke use as a common, but bad, example of infinity?

4. Which medium does Burke feel arouses the passions most effectively?

5. What does Burke assert is necessary for the success of "A Philosophical Enquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Briefly describe the significance of human judgment to the faculty of taste.

2. Describe Burke's idea of beauty.

3. What kind of infinity exists in "pleasing objects," according to Burke, and what is an example he uses to support his claim?

4. What types of colors are productive of the sublime, and which colors are not, according to Burke?

5. According to Burke, why can grief be considered pleasurable?

6. What does Burke identify as the central tension between the imagination and the judgment?

7. Describe the main difference between light and dark relative to the sublime.

8. Describe the passions belonging to society, as Burke introduces them.

9. What, according to Burke, is sublime about religion?

10. What is astonishment, according to Burke, and why is it important?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Summarize Burke's definition of pain and pleasure. How do they exist relative to one another? How do they influence human passions? What state of being does one occupy when experiencing neither pain nor pleasure? How does Burke distinguish delight from pleasure, and how does he connect joy and grief? What examples does Burke use to support his definitions?

Essay Topic 2

Define the three classes of words that Burke identifies, and summarize his reasons for classifying language in this manner. Give examples of all three classes of words, and explain why your examples are appropriate. How does Burke differentiate between the three classes of words? What does Burke accomplish by categorizing language? What three primary effects do words have upon a listener or a reader, and how are these effects manifested? How does Burke explain that words may have an effect without raising images in the listener or reader's mind. How do words not connected to concrete or sensible things affect the mind? Which categories of words does Burke attach to certain effects? What kinds of words are the strongest and have the greatest effects upon the listener or reader?

Essay Topic 3

Carefully analyze Part III, sections VI, IX, and XV, looking for passages which you think are particularly important in demonstrating ways in which Burke characterizes women. Pay close attention to Burke's word choice, imagery, use of metaphor or other figurative speech, and his general tone. How does he use women to demonstrate that perfection is not the cause of beauty? How does Burke use women as examples to demonstrate some of the aspects of beauty? What gender distinctions does Burke make between men and women, and do these distinctions seem to move beyond merely the realm of the beautiful? What parts of the female body, and what characteristics of femininity, does Burke focus on? What portions of the body or characteristics of femininity does Burke neglect?

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