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LORD BYRON
BYRONIC HERO
moody, restless and Romantic rebel
- unconventional
- outsider, isolated, individualist, noble birth, handsome but wild
- great sense of beauty
She walks in beauty
The poet celebrates the beauty of an unnamed woman. image of “ walking woman”, image of pure and peaceful beauty beauty= more night than day
- harmony between dark and bright,
- beauty contrasted with the garish daylight
- interest in physical beauty as well as her inner beauty. Structures and form 3 stanzas poem each stanza contains six lines ABABABAB this form is mostly used for humans and is thus associated both with simplicity and chasteness The poem is a type of love poem, but it doesn’t refer to passionate or sexual love.
JANE AUSTEN
Regency era : 1795-1837 but the official regency is 1811-
- king george died and then George, and then George 4
- regency society was based on hierarchy, women didn't inherit wealth and they were openly allowed to earn their income.
- women were expected to do women stuff
- marriage was the only option, they couldn't study or work Jane austen portrays negative sight of marriage and provides a new model based on love, understanding and respect social convention: marriage was the principal concern for middle and upper class families; The classes were strictly defined and it was almost impossible to cross the boundaries between them ; strong rules of etiquette. economy: money plays a central role in the novel because the poem talks about the insights of the period of transition from an agrarian society into a mostly industrial one. also women would not inherit the property. the country gentry: 16-19 century in England spread the ownership of the lands, that would be leased to tenants for farming. In the poem the Bennets are members of an educated upper middle class ( the gentry) the novel of manners: Jane Austen is the master of the “novel of manners”, which reflects the changes in social hierarchy of 19th century england; wealth andd influence were passing from aristocracy to the newly middle-class. in fact jane austen’ works are focused on manners, social behavour and class.
the marriage market: marriage was the only real way from a gentlewoman to secure her future, and it raised a woman’s social status. there wasn’t nothing worse for a women to remain single. social mobility: property, decorum, money and marriage were the traditional values of that society, and getting married was seen as the result of growing social mobility.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
PLOT : bennetts family live in longbourn with their 5 daughter in hertfordshire; a rich bachelor, Bingley, arrives in the neighbourhood with his sister and he rents ne netherfield park. After balls and parties, Bingley falls in love with jane an his friend Darcy is attracted to elisabeth, but she has a dislike for him. Darcy declare his love to her but shows the problem about her inferior sociale position. Elizabeth rejects him. Wickam elopes with lidia, then Darcy finds them and organise the marriage to show elizabeth that she’s wrongly prejiudiced. so she accepts darcy proposal. bingley becomes engaged to jane.
- The plot has a linear chronological structure
- The major theme revolves around Elizabeth’s struggle to find a compatible husband despite the obstacles presented by social conventions and her lack of self-awareness. elizabeth bennet: she has intellectual skills, she’s strong an indipendent, rebels. she refuses the role that the society and her family try to impose her because she’s not trapped in the view of marriage of her time, also she doesn’t view women as inferior and dependent on a husband. her attitudes makes her a pioneer for gender equality. darcy: he’s selfish and unsociable, she accuses elisabeth of prejudice pride but he is prejudiced by the vulgar behaviour of elisabeth’s mother and sister. bennet’s family: they provide humor but also show their own failings and inabilities as the novel progresses.
THEMES
- social hierarchy, marriage expectation and gender roles
- modern outlook on social conventions
- exploration of personal prejudices and importance of self-awareness
- love, courtship
- decorum and etiquette
- conflict individuaal desires-individual responsibility. social realism: marriage as a means of social mobility. Austen looks for a balance between social and economic need of securing a marriage and the desire of following one’s feeling and idealism.
STYLE
- 3rd person narrator, use of dialogues
- use of free indirect speech
- witty and ironic style linked to the themes of miscommunication and misunderstanding
- verbal and situational irony
- abundance of manufactured goods needed new markets 2 opium Wars in China→ Bitain achieved the access to 5 chinese ports and the conntrol of Hong Kong India : crisis of 1857 “indian mutiny”: indian soldiers rebelled against British commanders. the uprising was agaoinst the rule of the British East Indian Company. It was dissolved and India was administered directly by the British goveirnment.
THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE
causes
- 1845: population raised
- dependence of potato crops
- distruction of potato crops dyuue to bad weather and plant disease. what happened 1846 : Prime Minister Peel abolished Corn Laws ( taxes imposed on imported corn), so the price of the bread was kept high→ Repeal of corn laws consequences return of free trade
- 1mnl of ppl died
- 8mnl ppl immigrated
- enhanced hatred for Britain
The Railway mania
1825: Stokron and Darlington lines opened 1830: Liverpool and Manchester lines opened originally they were built to transport goods, but it soon became primarily at passenger service, but encouraged by this success entrepreneurs began to submit applications to Parliament to increase railways.
Crystal Palace
it was a giant glass-and-iron exhibition hall in Hyde Park in 1651 it houses Great Exhibition
- 1852-54: the structure was taken down and rebuilt Prince Albert and Queen Victoria participated actively to the exhibition the exhibition: it was organized to show the power of Britain and to promote the progress.
CHARLES DICKENS
LIFE
He was born in Portsmouth in 1812 and he had an unhappy childhood because his father was imprisoned. At the age of 12 he started working and his father was released, so he started attending a school in London. At 15 he got an employment at a lawyer's office. In 1832 he became a shorthand reporter of Parliament debates in the House of Commons. The next year he wrote his first story. Inn 1836 he adopted the name “Boz” by the “Schetchez by Boz”, a collection of articles and tales describing London people and scenes. in 1837 he wrote Oliver Twist and he started his career as a novelist. In 1839 he wrote “Nicholas Nickleby” then he travelled around Canada and USA speaking out in favour of abolition of slavery. In 1844 he wrote one of his most famous novel, The Christmas Carol. In most of his works, Dickens describes some characters who are the representation of events in his childhood and his protagonists were the symbols of an exploited childhood. Some of them instead are a riflection of the condition of the poors working class. In 1970 he died.
The city of London
London becomes a setting of a lot of Dickens. He has a radical social view but he’s not revolutionary thinker. He has an increasingly critical attitude towards his society.
Characters
In 18 century the upper middle class was replaced by the lower orders ; Dickens creates characters and caricatures who survived immortally in the english immagination, so he highlites and exagerates the character’s habits. Dickens is always on the side of the poors , the outcasts and the working class. One of the most importats categories of characters he describes are children : the author achieves to make his readers love the children describing and putting them as models of behavours between all the wars.
Didactic aim
The author doesn’t want to invite to rebellion or encourage discounts, instead he tries to describe the social problems without offending the middle class. It allows the acquisition of knowledge of the situation of lower classes.
Style
Louisa , once become an adult got married with a father’s old friend, Mrs Bounderby, a banker; they have 30 years of differences. She accepts the marriage to help his brother who works to him. Tom instead becomes selfish and he left his work. After it he started throwing suspition on an honest workman and he’s obliged to leave the country. Meanwhile Mrs Bounderby died and Mrs Grandgrind understood the mistake he had made on the education of his children, so he gave up with his materialistic education. Tom died in America, while Louisa never married again and decided to live a life of Charity and kindness with her friend Sissy.
Structure
We can divide the book in 3 sections: Book the first sowing Book the second reaping Book the third garnering introduces us into the seeds planted by the Grandring education. reveals us the negative of this seeds: Louisa’s unhappy marriage and Tom’s selfishness and criminality. it reveals the details of the epilogue.
COKETOWN
The setting is not London, but the fictional city of Coketown, during the age of Victorian England. The city is a kind of a brick jungle : factory machines are mad elephants and the smoke is represented by serpents. It’s a place of hard lives , but it seems to have changed into a magical world. The mill owners seem to be proud of the polluted enviroment they created.
CARICATURES
Dickens uses a particular technique to connect the features of his characters’ peronality: the game of world. For example Gradegrind is the fusion of the words “grade” and “grind” (crush into powders), and it highlithts the education in which he believed, and through which he destroys his pupills’ immaginayion and creativity. An other example is mrs Choakchild , and his name reflects how he “chockes” the children’s minds and immagination.
THEMES
This is the most polemic novel because it denounces industrialisation and the negative consequences of progress : for Dickens it’s the cause of the gap between classes and between owners and workers.
An other critic is on the materialism and utilitarianism ideals that claims that human nature is motivated by self-interests and through education it supports and encourages the individual interests.
BRONTE SISTERS
LIFE
They are 3 of 6 children of an anglican mum of irish origin: they’re called Charlotte, Emlily and Anne. Most of their lives are in isolation in Haworth, on the Yorkshire moors, England. In 1821 her mother died , so their aunt took care of the family. In 1824 they attended the COmmon Birdge school, which was in terrible conditions , so they turned home annd started self education. The sisters started writing fantasy stories and chronicles of imaginary countries, Then they ended their studies in Roe Head School and they started working as governesses. In 1849 Charllotte published Poems by currer, ellis and action bell. After Emily, or with the pseudonyms “Ellis Bell”, got an ilness due to pregnancy; Charlotte (Currer Bell) and Anne (Action Belle) died of tubercolosis.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE- JANE EYRE
The Plot: Jane Eyre is an orphan grown up at Gateshead by her aunt. SHe was sent to
Lowood institute, an harsh boarding school where there was no food and clothing sufficiency. Jane became a teacher, but then she is assumed as a governess at Thornfield Haal, and there she falls in love with Mrd Rochester. Her staying at the Hall is disturbed by frightening events , and after some time her aunt died. Jane has to come back to his home, but soon she turns back to Thornfielf and Rochester proposes to her. Twp nights before the wedding she wakes up and she sees a figure standing by her bed wedding veil in 2 pieces. In facts the marriage was interrupted by Richard Mason becaus Rochester is already married to her sister Bertha Mason who lives in the attic of the house. Jane leaves Thornfield and goes to live with her cousins at Moor House. She meets St John Rivvers who proposes to her; she refused him and returns to Thornfield Hall, but it’s destroyed but Bertha.
The madness of a woman is the only way to explain to a patriarchal society the freedom of women to be herself: Bertha doesn’t follow the rules ad it makes her free. Bertha in wide Sagasso Sea : her real name is Antoinette and she marries an English man, Rochester, but she lives an unhappy marriage and he forces her to rename as Bertha. The rename is a symbol of control over the identity of someone else. Initially she doen’t understand that Rochester took her in England to lock her. Because of her prisoning she becomes menthal insane. The book is divided in **3 parts:
- Sugar pllantations** in Giamaica: Antoinette is a child and she’s the narrator. She belongs to a wealthy family but in 1833 in Giamaica the slavery was abolited. Due to this event the estate belonged to the family goes down and the family becomes poor. This novel is considered a post colonial novel.
Post colonialist novels
It represent the consequences of coloniallism and imperialism: the explotation of colonized and the literature. The features are the attention to the marginalized, the balance between the center of the empire and the periphery, finally the difference btw the europeans and the other countries.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE- THE LETTER A
The Plot : Hester Prynne, a young woman of the 17th century in the Puritan England. Her
husband, Roger Chlinguart, sent her to Bostonn, where she lives a love affair whith the Reverend Arthur Dimesdale , from who he has a daughter called Pearl. She’s pubblicy disgraced for adultery (A stands for adultery). Hester always refuses to reveal the father’s name. When Roger arrives to Boston, he wants his revenge : he pretends to be a doctor and he torments Dimesdale. Meanwhile Hester and Pearl live a solitary life in a cottage; Hester becomes a neddlewoman and she develops skills winning the respect of the community. Now the letter A stands for able. Moreover Dimesdale is haunted by his guilt and he becomes ill , so he pubblicy confesses and he shows Hester the letter A on his chest. He dies on Hester’s hand. Roger dies and he leaves his fortune to Pearl. Pearl goes to Europe and marriage with european aristocratic. At the end Hester comes back to the town and she offers to charitable work. Then she dies and she was buried near his husband, whith the tombstone with the letter “A” wrigten on it.
STEVENSON
LIFE
He’s born in Edimburgh, but he spends in bed because pf his poor healty. He received a calvinist education. He attended Edimburgh university and he studied law and engeneering, but only to satisfy his father. Thanks to his travels he rejected the life expected and became one of the examples of bohemian in Britain: he started wearing long hair and eccentric manners. In 1880 he married with an american woman. In 1894 he died because of brain haemortage.
Calvinist upbringing
He has a very strict moral code : he focuses on sacrifice and work ( if you’re poor it’s your fault ). Stevenson rejected this values he lived a duality. BOHEMIANS DANDY They belongs to lower/middle class. They wore long hair, unconventionals habits as a protest against the rules of middle class. They rejected some dinamies of society such as money. They belong from the aristocracy and they focuses on elegance. Their unconventional element is the feelinf og superiority on middle class.
Dott. Jeckyll and Mrs Hyde
The novels is structured with 3 narrators : 1) Mrs Utterson: not omniscent, 3rd person narrator; 2) Dr Layon : he’s the doctor and he’s an old firend of Jeckyll; 3) Dr Jeckyll: he pronounces his final confession in a form of a letter.
Features of the fiction genre
- Detective: Mrs Utterson follows clues and hypothesis; - A “strange case”: strange relationship between dr Jeckyll and Mrs Hyde; - Jeckylle’s house: on a side it’s a respectable victorian house (on the west side), on the east side instead it’s a sinister block of buildings. We can see the theme of duplicity.
- most of the scenes take place at night.
Victorian Compromise
Jeckyll is a respectable scientist with a double life. This character shocked victorian people; it snloghtes the ethical problems raised by the great progresses of science in Victorian age.
Darwinism
In 1870 a philosofer called Spencer applied Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human society. Races, nations and classes are subjects to the principle of the survival of the fittest ; the poor and oppressed doesn’t deserve compassion.
AMERICA IN THE SECOND HALF OF 19TH CENTURY
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
In America in 19th century spread political tension due to the economic differences between North and South: North It was industrialized and rapidly urbanized with a growing white population due to european immigration; South instead was a territory of planations of cotton and tobacco. The producing was based on black slavery. By 1830 the northen states had abolished slavery while the south economy still depended on it. The abolitionists , writers, intellectuals, religious exc formed the Political movement leading to the first rise of the repubblican party. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as President of USA; in responsse 11 states seceded forming the Confederate state of America under the power of Jefferson Davis. So Lincoln refuses to recognize the secession, loading the civil war (1851-56) The civil war was winned by the northern states, but after 5 days Lincoln was assassinated : the poet Withman wrote Captain, my captain. The war’s outcome ensured that
- the USA remained united under sovereing national governaiment;
- Slavery was abolished with the 13th emendament in 1865.
GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
It’s a speech delivered by Lincoln during the civil war in 1863. It represent one of the most famous speeches in the american history. Lincoln in the speech involv ed the principle of human equality contained in the Declaration of Indipendence. He also claimed the civil war as a struggle not merely for the union but a new birth of freedom that would bring true equality. Lincoln also began with the reference of the Declaration of indipendence and ended hoonouring those who had died and encouraging his listeners to a new restart.
LATE VICTORIAN NOVEL
- Novel for children : Alice and the Adventure of Wonderland→ question on Victorian certains.
- Crime novel: figure of the detective able to solve mystery and restore order; - Pessimism: Thomas Hardly, novels between tradition and modernity. He uses realistic description, modern psicological penetrationn and the characters are in constrast with the society. - Colonial licterature : Eduard Kiplings. Descritpion of the colonised lands in Britain.
AESTHETICISM
It’s a cultural movement that represent the absence of a didactic aim in the world of art. As we can see the content of every work of art is the pursuit of the beauty , different by the traditional Victorian values of strict morality, materialism and utilitarism. Art for Art’s sake is the principle of this era: it symbolizes the ammiration or the sensual qualities of art against the victorian beliefs that though tant icterature and art should provide for the ethical rules of society. The artist’s task develops and become the capability to feel sensations and to express the dethachment from the contemporary society trhough the use of the language of sense. In sithesis the purpose of art is to have no purpose.
The Dandy: the figure of the dandy is the model of aestheticism. He doesn’t havve noble
blood or any of the innate characteristic of aristocraticy but the has time and money that he devotes to live extravangant. Many of them were beneficiaries of a large inheritage, but they never sought to earn or gain more wealth. Moreover they lived in the constant risk of loosing their richness. Finally Dandy were comparate to the bohemiens and they attended the same cafè; they were different but both rejected the borgeouse way of life.
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
OSCAR WILDE
He was born in Dublin and he gained in Oxford the first class ddegree in classic. Moreover he became a diciple of Walter Peter accepting the theory of “art for art’s sake”. He moved to London and became a fashionable dandy. In 1891 he published The Picture of Dorian Gray , and thene he developed an insteres in drama. However both the novles and the tragedies damaged his reputation and he was defined as immoral.
THE PREFACE
In the Preface he inderectly adress the criticism in a series of epigrams ; thhe content, the syle and the structure of the preface made it famous as a licteray and artistic manifesto in support of artists’ rights.
During this time, percisely in 1903, the suffragettes movement was created: the traditional political method wasn’t workink, and the only way to change it was protesting. The movement moved to London and in 1908 it organised a mass march. But the politics still ignore the suffraggettes request, loading it to adopt more radical actions. In 1909 the suffraggetes were marching to the Parliament to demand the vote for women ; In 19110 the WSPU set a deputation to the House of Commons and the proterters were assalted (the Black friday). In 1914 Emily Dewidson throw herself in front of the king’s horse an suicides.
WORLD WAR 1
casus belli: Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo (june 1914) It was fought between the Central Powers VS Allies (or Triple Entente ). The war started in 1914 and Italy joined in it in 1915. It started with the attack of Germany in Belgium. So Britain joined to help Belgium, with the idea of fighting for democracy and freedom. Germany had better military force and it expected a quick victory. Britain was prepared also because it never fought in a European war. The war was not a movement war but a position war. The brutality of the war trench warfares was out the battle of the somme. Moreover the United States entered the war in 1917 with the Allies. It accelerates the german defeat, which was officially done with the armistice of 1918. It follows the peace treaty at Versailles 1919, where president Wilson proposed the 14 points. The shell shock caused by the after effects of shell explosion: psychological disorders among soldiers. BRITAIN IN THE TWENTIES It was a place of contrasts: the Victory in the first world war brought peace and prosperity for a little elite. Further on also women had gained a certain degree of economic independence, and this aspect is visible in fashion. After the war, as the other countries, Britain had lived a time of decline :
- interests rates grew higher
- exports became more expensive
- labour party grew rapidly
- trade union became to be more active
Also the UK's economy was loaded with poverty and unemployment that affected Northern Ireland, Central Scotland, South Wales. The political and social tension was at the (apice) with the strike of 1926 , where families spent the time on the street corners waiting for food. The repression spread further after the wall street clash of 1929. THE MODERNIST REVOLUTION background of modernism : it was a movement that spread over art and licterature. It imponed a break with naturalism and aestheticism in favour of introspection and technicalism. Modernist artists intentionally distorted shapes and they broke the limitation of space and time : they were conscious that any interpretation of reality is possibile because the interpretationn of reality is uncertain. They felt they need to reflect modern urban life in artistic forms to highlitht the complexity of human existence. They create shorth meaningfull immages. Moreover the past was seen as something remouvable through a personal and original way. FREUD’S DISCOVERIES Freud developed the analythical theories about the power of the unconciuous. His discoveres shows that man’s action could be determined by irrational forces. Freud’s thinks that the inconscious part of men is divided in
- ego
- io
- superego: it’s the constraints imposed by society. He places an importance demands of libido and his theory of the Oedipus complex. He also provided a new method of investigation through the analysis of dreams and the concept of free association. He inspired authors to look and research the irrational. THE CONCEPT OF TIME This topic was questioned by the American philosopher William James , influenced by Henry Bergson. Bergson made a distruction between historical time (so called linear) and psychological time (subjective). For William james our mind records every single experience as a continous flow and the time of human consciousness is a continous flow in the past, present and future. MODERNISM It’s an age of uncertainity: in poetry they experimented the free verse mixing different levels of languages.
In 1910 he moved to Paris to study at La Sorbonne, where he attended lectures of Henry Bergson. During WW1 he settled in London , where he married a British dancer that suffered of menthal instability. He became the director of an editorial company. Due to a nervous breakdown in 1941 he was ammitted into an asylum. On the asylum he wrote Murder in the cathedral of thomas beckett arcibishop, but his most important poem is The Waste Land, that is a sort of sequel of “The Hallow man”. Then he joined the Curch of England to find answers of life. THE WASTE LAND the traduction is “La terra desolata o la terra dei rifiuti”. Esra Pound reused this poem to bring it tho fhe final form. The Waste Land is a collection of states of mind and impressions. The work is divided in 5 books (as the epic poems) because he speaks about the mythical method. The first section is based on the opposition of life and death. The style is various and the author uses many languages , as we see in the epigraph. He thinks quotation is meaningless since modern life has no meaning. He synthetises the concept of the poem by including the quotation of the Satyricon. Analysis
- April : remind of a positive immage, seen as the cruelest month and a month of death. It’s considered cruel because it generates illusions but it brought death - Roots: are considered dull - Winter : seen as positive in opposition of the conventional idea of winter. THE MYTHICAL METHODS Since the 20th century is an age of anxiety, the knowledge of ppl is very fragmentary. In fact in his poems there are lots of references about ancient history. In facts for Eliot history is a repetition of the same events. For Eliot it is necessary to put the fragmentation of modern knowledge in comparison with the classical knowledge that has the function to give consistency to the modern knowledge. EPIGRAPH There is a Sybil, That has received eternal life by Apollo but not the eternal youth that symbolizes that immortality is a curse and not a blessing. INNOVATIVE STYLE Eliot uses a mixture of different poetic styles, so the style is fragmentary : he wants to represent the fragmentation on the consciousness by the theory of Freud
FREUD VS MONTALE
In the essay “ hamlet and his problems” Eliot explain the use of the Objective correlative which is a literary technique that describes the reality through the correlations between images and emotions. Eugenio Montale , a famous 900 writer in Italy and nobel prize for literacy uses this method. The similarities btw the two authors are many:
- both have a urban setting of they works;
- they both think of a desert as the waste land , but for Eliot is american while for Montale is a Puglia desert. STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS- INTERIOR MONOLOGUE The interior monologue is used by the authors to represent the irrational activity of the mind. So they order it into a speech. Sometimes interior monologue is confused with stream of consciousness but there is a difference: the interior monologue is the use of stream conscious while the stream is the phenomenon itself. So this speech as some main features:
- lack of chronological order
- narration may be **present
- logical order** may be lost or lacking
- actions take place in the character mind
- the narration is without the narrator’s judging. There are two types of interior monologues: Indirect interior monologue Direct interior monologue
- narrator never lets the character’s flow of thoughts without control;
- the narration maintains logical organisation;
- The character thoughts are put next to the descriptions. The indirect interior monologue is present in Virginia Woolf in To the lighthouse 1927
- narration seems not existent;
- no control on thoughts; Moreover the direct interior monologue is visible in Joyce ’s essays, in which he uses 2 levels of narrations :
- external to the characters
- internal to the character Joyce, in facts, was interested in experimenting, for example in Finnegas wake. Aestheticism
