Past and Present

1. Most authors of course have a distinctive style, and this is especially true of the Victorian prose writers. What characterizes Carlyle’s style in this work? What does his prose sound like, what are its rhythms? What kind of language does he use? What sort of tone does he adopt? What aspects of his word choice, structure, etc. do you find unusual? Does he employ figurative language and allusions? If so, what are his most frequent sources?
2. In an 1831 essay. Carlyle argues that “the new omnipotence of the Steam-engine” is breaking down the existing political and social system. Twelve years later, in Past and Present, what is his view of the turn the Industrial Revolution has taken? Is he ultimately optimistic or pessimistic about England’s future in this work?
3. What is Carlyle’s view of laissez-faire capitalism, with its doctrine of competition and its reliance on “cash-payment”? What does he see as problematic about the position of owner and worker within it? What does he advocate instead?
4. “Liberty, I am told,” says Carlyle, “is a Divine thing. Liberty when it becomes ‘Liberty to die by starvation’ is not so divine!” (1112). What does he mean by this? What does he see as the problem with democracy?
5. The “past” of Past and Present is the Middle Ages. What does Carlyle see in the Middle Ages that he thinks is worthy of emulation? How does he use the examples of Gurth and Cedric, William the Conqueror, and the Irish Widow to illustrate what’s wrong with the present and right about the past?