Essay Questions

Explore dual states as brought out in Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver.

The title of this novel, Quicksilver is a clear presentation of the novel’s interest in dual states. In this way, the central theme, Quicksilver is essentially mercury. In the alchemical sciences of the years that have gone by, mercury was considered as a perfect, faultless and seamless symbol of dual states particularly through the fact that it exists in both solid and liquid forms. In this way, the novel in its title alludes to the dual states explored within its pages.

Show how human progress is brought out in Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver.

Employing historical fiction, the novel does an exceptional and magnificent job of presenting the unavoidable and foreseeable nature of the progress of humans. Through dramatic irony, the characters in this work play out major events such as the Great Fires of London as well as the French revolution. The progressive nature of time is also explored and brought out as slavery, something that all humans are subject to.

Show how political revolution is brought out in Quicksilver.

In the 1700s France, a revolution occurs as a result of the political imbalances prevalent in the country at the time, this is what is greatly recognized as the French revolution. In this work, the writer makes an argument that revolutions are plausible and possible particularly where the people in positions of power use it to protect those systems that are directed towards benefiting them. In this way, revolutions become the end result of this kind of oppression.