Samuel Johnson's Rasselas most fundamentally emphasizes which theme from Johnson's other works or other 18thcentury works ?
Correct answer: C. The ultimate impossibility of achieving happiness, as espoused in his poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes"
- A. The need for linguistic correctness as exemplified in his Dictionary
- B. The promise of universal knowledge as epitomized by the Encyclopédie
- C. The ultimate impossibility of achieving happiness, as espoused in his poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes"
- D. The need for self-sufficiency as detailed in novels like Robinson Crusoe
Explanation
Rasselas tests the possibility of finding lasting happiness and concludes that worldly choices cannot remove human dissatisfaction. This closely parallels the pessimistic lesson of Johnson's poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes."
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