To what extent was his life a success?
Form.—Basing your answers on a few specific paragraphs, tell what you find about the unity of the paragraphs, the clearness of their development, regularity of sentence structure.
Do you find the words specific or general? forceful and full of feeling, or conventional?
How much use is made of figurative language?
Does the style seem finished as though the work had been revised with care, or rough as though written at white heat and not revised? Illustrate.
The Life and Character of the Author.—What do we know of Carlyle's parents? his education? the simplicity and severity of his early life? his perplexity in choosing his life work? his friendship with Edward Irving? his early manhood struggles with doubt, poverty, and sickness? his courage? his faith in himself? the slow recognition of his work? his literary successes? his life in London? his friends? his last years?
What characteristics made Carlyle disagreeable to live with?
What characteristics made him enthusiastically admired by a multitude of men?
What did Carlyle see in the life of Burns to attract him so strongly?
Why does it seem somewhat remarkable that he should have written sympathetically of Burns?