Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, Chapter 27-49

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  1. In their discussions on greatness and power, Rasselas and his party decide that having great power is not a way to happiness because:
    You can rarely be perfectly fair, and your subjects will not always see the fairness of your actions.
    You are constantly in danger of your life when you rule a people.
    Rulership and greatness take up so much of one.s time.
  2. Who argues against marriage, maintaining that it is a state of misery and infelicity?
    Imlac
    Rasselas
    Nekayah
    Pekuah
  3. In Chapter 29, Rasselas says, "What can be expected but disappointment and repentance from a choice made in the maturity of youth, in the ardor of desire, without judgment, without foresight, without inquiry after conformity of opnions, similarity of manners, rectitude of judgment, or purity of sentiment." What choice is he referring to?
    Career
    Marriage
    Philosophy
    Major
  4. Who speaks out against late marriages, in other words, marriages made after youth?
    Imlac
    Rasselas
    Nekayah
    Pekuah
  5. Who says "Wretched would be the pair above all wretchedness, who should be doomed to adjust by reason every morning all the minute detail of a domestic day"?
    Imlac
    Rasselas
    Nekayah
    Pekuah
  6. Imlac is reputed to say that "nature sets her gifts on the right hand and on the left." What does that mean?
    Nature offers abundant gifts, out of both right and left hand.
    Nature offers gifts that are plain and evident for the taking (on the right hand) and offers other, hidden gifts that you must seek out (on the left hand).
    Nature offers pairs of gifts: taking one of them (for example, from the right hand) causes the other to diminish or disappear.
  7. At the end of their discussions on marriage as a means of happiness, Rasselas is discouraged about seeking any further his choice of life. At this point, Imlac recommends that he:
    Study the sciences
    Retreat into a monastery
    Study history
  8. To begin this phase of their search, they:
    Go to the pyramids.
    Go to the marketplace of a great city.
    Go the royal court of a great emperor.
    Attend the lectures of a great and famous philosopher.
  9. Imlac considers the pyramids a monument to:
    The grandeur or the Egyptian emperors
    The insifficiency of human enjoyments
    The great powers of human engineering
    The desire for eternal life
  10. While they are in the pyramid, this happens:
    Pekuah is kidnapped.
    Nekayah is kidnapped.
    Pekuah is raped and murdered.
    Nekayah is raped and murdered.
    All of their belongings are stolen.
  11. Who says "my search for happiness is now at an end. I am resolved to retire from the world with all its flatteries and deceits, and will hide myself in solitude...till, with a mind purified from all earthly desires, I shall enter into that state, to which all are hastening..."?
    Imlac
    Rasselas
    Nekayah
    Pekuah
  12. One of the characters remarks "She was the radical principle of happiness." Who says this, and about whom?
    Imlac about Nekayah
    Imlac about Pekuah
    Nekayah about Pekuah
    Pekuah about Nekayah
    Rasselas about Pekuah
    Rasselas about Nekayah
  13. Who says "Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired...Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always lessening...Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want to motion: commit yourself again to the current of the world" and to whom?
    Imlac to Nekayah
    Imlac to Pekuah
    Nekayah to Pekuah
    Pekuah to Nekayah
    Rasselas to Pekuah
    Rasselas to Nekayah
  14. Nekayah makes the observation that "Yet what...is to be expected from our pursuit of happiness, when we find the state of life to be such, that happiness itself is the cause of misery?" What does she mean?
    She has grown weary of their search for happiness and wants to quit.
    She has found that all forms of happiness eventually turn into forms of misery.
    It makes her miserable to feel happiness at a time that she is still mourning the loss of Pekuah.
  15. Imlac becomes close friends with a learned astronomer, who appears to Imlac to be a truly happy man. But this man also has a problem; what is it?
    He is growing blind and soon will not be able to continue his studies of the stars.
    He feels his death approaching and wants someone to take over his studies because he believes he is on the brink of a major discovery.
    He believes that he controls and regulates nature and that, because he is growing old, he must find someone to take over his duties.
    He has grown tired of his choice in life.the study of the stars.
  16. Imlac attributes the problem of the astronomer to the fact that:
    He has grown old, and his reasoning powers have become decrepit.
    His imagination, or fancy has become predominant over his reason.
    He has developed a chemical imbalance in the brain.
  17. Considering the plight of the astronomer, Pekuah, Nekayah, and Rasselas each confesses their own fantasies, which are, respectively:
    To be queen of Abyssinia; to be a shepherdess; to be a perfect governor
    To be a shepherdess; to be queen of Abyssinia; to be a perfect governor
    To be a shepherdess; to be queen of Abyssinia; to be a hermit
    To be queen of Abyssinia; to be a shepherdess; to be a hermit
    To be an astronomer; to be married and have lots of children; to be a perfect governor
    To be married and have lots of children; to be an astronomer; to be a perfect governor
  18. Toward the end of Rasselas, they visits the catacombs; here they discuss:
    The meaning of life
    The best choice of life
    The existence and nature of the soul
    The possibility of rebirth after death, reincarnation into additional earthly lives
  19. In the end, Nekayah, Pekuah, Imlac, and Rasselas make which decisions as to their choice of life, respectively:
    Take up residence in a convent; found a school of learned women; be "driven along the stream of life"; administer a small kingdom.
    Found a school of learned women; take up residence in a convent; be "driven along the stream of life"; administer a small kingdom.
    Found a school of learned women; take up residence in a convent; administer a small kingdom; be "driven along the stream of life."
    Take up residence in a convent; found a school of learned women; administer a small kingdom; be "driven along the stream of life."
  20. But before they take up these choices of life, all these characters:
    Return to Abyssinia.
    Return to Cairo.
    Return to the monastery of St. Anthony.s.
    Return to the residence of Pekuah.s kidnapper located on the island in the Nile.

   

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