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DEAD POETS SOCIETY
In 1959 , Todd Anderson begins his junior year of high school at Welton Academy, an all-male preparatory boarding school in Vermont. Assigned one of Welton's most promising students, senior Neil Perry, as his roommate, he meets Neil's friends: Knox Overstreet, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, Gerard Pitts and Charlie Dalton. On the first day of classes, the boys are surprised by the unorthodox teaching methods of new English teacher, John Keating. A Welton alumnus himself, Keating encourages his students to “make your lives extraordinary”, a sentiment that summarizes with the Latin expression carpe diem, “seize the day”. Subsequent lessons include Keating having the students take turns standing on his desk to demonstrate ways to look at life differently, telling them to rip out the introduction of thei poetry books which explains a mathematical formula used for rating poetry, and inviting them to make up their own style of walking in a courtyard to encourage their individualism. Keating’s methods attract the attention of strict headmaster, Gale Nolan. Upon learning that Keating was a member of the unsanctioned Dead Poets Society while at Welton, Neil restarts the club, and he and his friends sneak off campus to a cave, where they read poetry.As the school year progresses, Keating's lessons and their involvement with the club encourage them to live their lives on their own terms. Knox pursues Chris Noel, a cheerleader who is dating Chet Danburry, a football player from a local public school, and whose family is friends with his. Neil discovers his love of acting, and gets the role of Puck in a local production of A Midsummer Night's Dream , despite the fact that his domineering father wants him to attend Harvard to study medicine. Meanwhile, Keating helps Todd come out of his shell and realize his potential when he takes him through an exercise in self-expression, resulting in his composing a poem spontaneously in front of the class, making everyone applaud for Todd. Charlie publishes an article in the school newspaper in the club's name suggesting that girls be admitted to Welton. Nolan paddles Charlie to coerce him to reveal who else is in the Dead Poets Society, but he resists. Nolan also speaks with Keating, warning him that he should discourage his students from questioning authority. Keating admonishes the boys, warning them that one must assess all potential consequences of one's actions. Neil becomes devastated after his father discovers his involvement in the play and demands him to quit on the eve of the opening performance. He goes to Keating, who advises him to stand his ground and prove to his father that his love of acting is something he takes seriously. Neil’s father unexpectedly shows up at the performance. He angrily takes Neil home and has him withdrawn from Welton and enrolled in a military academy. Lacking any support from his concerned mother, and unable to explain how he feels to his father, a disraught neil commits suicide. Nolan investigates Neil's death at the request of Neil's parents. Cameron blames Neil’s death on Keating to escape punishment for his own partecipation in the Dead Poets Society, and names the other members. Confronted by Charlie, Cameron urges the rest of them to let Keating take the fall. Charlie punches Cameron and is expelled. Each of the boys is called to Nolan's office to sign a letter attesting to the truth of Cameron’s allegations, even knowing they are false. When Todd’s turn comes, he is reclutant to sign, but does so after seeing that the others have complied and succumbs to his parents’ pressure. Keating is fired and Nolan, who taught English at Welton prior to becoming headmaster, takes over teaching the class, with the intent of adhering to traditional Welton rules. Keating interrupts the class to gather his belongings. As he leaves, Todd reveals to Keating that the boys were intimidated into signing the letter that sealed his fate, and he assures Todd that he believes him. Nolan threatens to expell Todd and anyone else who speaks out of line. Despite this, Todd stands up on his desk and states the words “O Captain! My Captain!”. The other members of the Dead Poets Society, except for Cameron, as weel as several other students in the class, do the same, to Nolan’s fury and Keating pleased surprise. Touched by their support, Keating proudly thanks the boys and departs as Todd looks on.
LORD BYRON
George Gordon Byron, born the 22 January 1788 in London, and dead the 19 April 1824 in Greece, was a British Romantic poet and satirist, whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. Byron was the son of Captain John Byron and his second wife, Catherine Gordon, a Scots heiress. After her husband had squandered mosto f her fortune, Mrs. Byron took her infant son to Aberdeen, in Scotland, were they lived in lodgings on a meagre income. The Captain died in France in 1791. In 1798, at age 10, he unexpectedly inhertited the title and estates of his great-uncle William, the 5th Baron Byron. His mother proudly took him to England, were the boy fell in love with the gostly halls and spacious ruins of Newstead Abbey. Byron was sent to school in London, and in 1801 he went to Harrow, one of England’s most prestigious school. In 1803 he fell in love with his distant cousin, Mary Chaworth, who was older and already engaged, and when she rejected him, she became the symbol for Byron of idealized and unattainable love. He probably met Augusta Byron, his half sister from his father’s first marriage, that same year. In 1805 Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he piled up debis at an alarming rate and indulged in the conventional vices of undergraduates there. The signs of his incipient sexual ambivalence became more pronounced in what he later described as “a violent, though pure, love and passion” for a young chorister, John Edleston. His attachment to women throughout his life is an indication of the strength of his heterosexual drive. Byron’s first published volume of poetry, “Hours of Idleness”, appeared in 1807. A sarcastic critique of the book in The Edinburgh Review provoked his retaliation in 1809 with a couplet satire, in which he attacked the contemporary literary scene. This work gained him his first recognition. On reaching his majority in 1809, Byron took his seat in the House of Lords, and then embarked with Hobhouse on a grand tour. In Greece Byron began “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, which he continued in Athens. Byron’s sojourn in Greece made a lasting impression on him. He delighted in the sunshine and the moral tolerance of the people. Byron arrived back in London in July 1811. At the beginning of March, the first two cantos of “Childe Harold’s Pigrimage” were published by John Murray, and Byron “woke to find himself famous.” The poem describes the travels and reflections of a young man who looks for distraction in foreign lands. The first two cantos express the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. Byron reflects upon the vanity of ambition, the transitory nature of pleasure, and the futility of the search for perfection in the course of a “pilgrimage” through Portugal, Spain, Albania, and Greece. During the summer of 1813, Byron apparently entered into intimate relations with his half sister Augusta. He then carried on a flirtation with Lady Frances Webster as a diversion from this dangerous liaison. Seeking to escape his love affairs in marriage, Byron proposed in September 1814 to Annie Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke. The marriage took place in January 1815, and Lady Byron gave birth to a daughter, Augusta Ada, in December 1815. In January 1816 Annabella left Byron to live with her parents, amid swirling rumours centring on his relations with Augusta Leigh and his bisexuality. Wounded by the general moral indignation directed at him, Byron went abroad in April 1816, never to return to England. He sailed up the Rhine River into Switzerland and settled at Geneva, near Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley). In Geneva he wrote the third canto of Childe Harold (1816), which follows Harold from Belgium up the Rhine River to Switzerland. It memorably evokes the historical associationsof each place Harold visits.
She walks in beauty (1815) She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! Ella in beltà incede, come la notte Di climi tersi e cieli stellati E tutto quel che v'è di meglio in tenebra e luce S'incontra nel suo aspetto e nei suoi occhi; Sebbene addolciti da quella tenera luce Che il Cielo nega al giorno volgare. Un'ombra in più, un raggio in meno, Avrebbero per metà guastato l'indescrivibile grazia Che ondeggia in ogni ricciolo corvino, O morbidamente riluce sopra il suo viso, Dove pensieri serenamente dolci esprimono, Come pura e cara è la loro dimora. E su quella guancia e sopra quella fronte Così morbido e calmo, seppur eloquente, Il sorriso che conquista, il rossore che brilla Soltanto raccontano di giorni trascorsi in bontà, D'una mente in pace con tutto ciò che è intorno, D'un cuore il cui amore è innocente. "She Walks in Beauty" is a famous poem by British Romantic poet Lord Byron, first published in
- The poem praises and seeks to capture a sense of the beauty of a particular woman. The speaker compares this woman to a lovely night with a clear starry sky, and goes on to convey her beauty as a harmonious "meeting" between darkness and light. After its discussion of physical attractiveness, the poem then portrays this outer beauty as representative of inner goodness and virtue. Summary The speaker compares a beautiful woman - who is walking - to a clear night sky full of bright stars. The finest light and darkness come together in harmony in this woman's appearance, particularly within her eyes. This gentle and delicate play of light is heavenly—indeed, heaven usually refuses to grant this supernatural light to the showy daytime. A touch more shade or even one ray of light would have greatly diminished the woman's beauty. This beauty, which is hard to put into words, shows itself in every strand of the woman's hair, and gently falls on her face. Her sweet, angelic emotions play out on her face, revealing how pure and precious this woman is. On the woman's cheek and forehead—softly and calmly, but noticeably—appear winning smiles and a glowing skin tone. These features reveal that the woman spends her days virtuously, that she possesses a peaceful mind, and that she has an innocent, loving heart. Beauty and Harmony As its title might suggest, “She Walks in Beauty” is a poem that praises a woman’s beauty. More specifically, it presents that beauty as a kind of harmony that is as perfect as it is rare. Indeed,
that’s the main point of the poem—that this particular woman’s beauty is practically unparalleled because of the exquisite harmony and visual balance of her looks. Beauty, the poem thus suggests, is perfection achieved through harmony. And as the poem progresses, it makes clear that this harmony is delicate and fragile—potentially altered by even the smallest of changes. The poem begins by establishing a sense of the speaker’s wonder at the woman’s majestic beauty. The speaker doesn’t say that the woman walks beautifully—but that she walks in beauty. This unusual construction helps with the sense that the woman’s beauty is truly remarkable, so vast and impressive that it seems to surround this woman like an aura or cloud. The poem quickly reveals what it believes to be the source of such beauty: the woman’s physical appearance brings together “all that’s best of dark and bright.” This suggests that beauty is a harmony between distinct elements—darkness and light. Beauty takes the “best” of these elements and places them in a delicate balance. The poem then expands on this marriage of light and dark in stanza 2. Here, beauty is presented as almost beyond language, a “nameless grace.” The complex and intensely beautiful interplay between light (“ray[s]”) and dark (“shade”) is made possible only by the shape and contours of the woman’s physical appearance. This reinforces the idea that beauty is a kind of perfection achieved through harmony. Part of the power of beauty is in its rarity. As lines 5 and 6 make clear, the woman’s harmonious beauty is not an everyday occurrence—this interplay of light and dark is the exclusive preserve of “heaven,” not the “gaudy day[s]” of life on earth. Beauty, then, also has an air of the divine or supernatural that contributes to this sense of rarity—comparable to sighting a comet or eclipse, perhaps. Furthermore, beauty is all-the-rarer because the harmony required for it to exist is so fragile. In the second stanza, the speaker outlines how even one shade—or one ray—out of place in the interplay of light and dark on the woman’s hair would upset her beauty; indeed, it would be “half impaired.” It’s also worth noting that the common literary associations of darkness tend to be mystery and fear (in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, for example). Contrastingly, light is often linked to purity, beauty, and love. The beauty in “She Walks in Beauty” depends on both light and dark, bringing them together in harmony. Accordingly, the woman’s beauty is all the more powerful and uncommon. “She Walks in Beauty,” then, is a poem that cherishes physical beauty and perfection. In the figure of the woman that it addresses, it sees an unparalleled example of perfect beauty and seeks to explain it, even though it may prove impossible to characterize its “nameless grace,” as a type of rare harmony that brings together light and dark. Inner beauty vs. Outer beauty While “She walks in Beauty” primarily focuses on physical beauty, it also explores the relationship between inner beauty and outer beauty. It portrays these concepts as closely interconnected. Indeed, the woman’s outer appearance is read as a sign of her inner serenity, peacefulness, and innocence. The poem develops a sense of physical beauty before introducing the idea that this type of beauty is linked to a person’s interior state. Lines 1-10 help the reader grasp just how rare and powerful this woman’s beauty is, which is further presented as a delicate—near impossible—balance between light and dark. The poem then shifts, however, and begins to discuss the relationship between this outer loveliness and the woman's inner self. The woman’s face is portrayed as the site on which her thoughts are “expressed.” These thoughts, in turn, are characterized as “serenely sweet”; the
Childe Harold’s pilgrimage (1812/1818)
Canto III – stanza 1- 2 I Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child! ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart? When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled, And then we parted, -- not as now we part, But with a hope. -- Awaking with a start, The waters heave around me; and on high The winds lift up their voices: I depart, Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by, When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye. II Once more upon the waters! yet once more! And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar! Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead! Though the strain'd mast should quiver as a reed, And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale, Still must I on; for I am as a weed, Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail. Summary Childe Harold misses his daughter Ada. He is sailing in a ship again and ready to go wherever they lead. He has thought about the past and the things he has done and feels that he is changed, but the chains of his past will stay with him forever. He arrives in Belgium and visits Waterloo. He imagines a festival during the night before the battle and the men of the town leaving to fight. He reflects on conquerors and kings and calls them fools. Nature is better than man and anything that man can build or conquer. Childe Harold loves one woman with a pure love that cannot be broken. They are not married, but he misses her while on his journey. He sends her lilies but knows that they are wilted before she receives them. He visits the grave of a French soldier in Coblentz, Germany, and reflects on the war again before traveling to the Alps in Switzerland. He feels that the mountains are a haven that he cannot find in cities and contrasts their beauty and peace to the busy torture of the cities. Childe Harold describes the mountains during a storm at night and the lakes and rivers of the Alps in detail. He thinks that a person who has never loved would learn to love in the mountains around Lake Geneva. Childe Harold ends Canto 4 by lamenting his separation from his daughter Ada. He thinks that she will love him even if no one else does and notes that she is a child of love even though she was born in bitterness. Analysis Lord Byron wrote Canto 3 in 1816 shortly after beginning his own self-inflicted exile from England. He left England due to public disapproval of his affairs and divorce. Literary critics believe that Canto 3 begins a more autobiographical part of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and blurs the line
between the fictional Childe Harold and the writer Lord Byron. Ada Byron is Lord Byron's daughter. He misses her and hopes that she does not forget him. Childe Harold thinks that he has changed, but no one will forget his actions. The narrator states, "His had been quaffed too quickly, and he found / The dregs were wormwood; but he filled again, / And from a purer found, on holier ground, / And deemed its spring perpetual; but in vain!" Childe Harold wants to be a better person than he was when he lived in England, and he believes that he has reinvented himself. His rebirth is in vain. Waterloo is the site of the final battle with Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821). Napoleon was a French emperor who wanted a vast empire. He attacked many countries in Europe and built an empire before his final defeat on June 18, 1815 near Waterloo. Childe Harold remarks on the bloody war and the beautiful scenery that has replaced the battlefield. Childe Harold feels at peace in Switzerland. The Alps give him comfort. He describes Lake Leman which is also called Lake Geneva, "Which feeds it as a mother who doth make / A fair but froward infant her own care, / Kissing its cries away as these awake." Canto III – stanza 113- 114 CXIII I have not loved the World, nor the World me; I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed To its idolatries a patient knee, Nor coined my cheek to smiles, - nor cried aloud In worship of an echo: in the crowd They could not deem me one of such - I stood Among them, but not of them - in a shroud Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, and still could, Had I not filed my mind, which thus itself subdued. CXIV I have not loved the World, nor the World me, - But let us part fair foes; I do believe, Though I have found them not, that there may be Words which are things, - hopes which will not deceive, And Virtues which are merciful, nor weave Snares for the failing; I would also deem O'er others' griefs that some sincerely grieve - That two, or one, are almost what they seem, - That Goodness is no name - and Happiness no dream.
So we’ll go no more on a roving (1830)
So, we'll go no more a roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright. For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And love itself have rest. Though the night was made for loving, And the day returns too soon, Yet we'll go no more a roving By the light of the moon. “So We’ll Go No More A-Roving” is nothing quite like the epics and long displays of emotion that made Byron so famous in his day, but there’s a lot of meaning within these three simple stanzas. “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” is designed to be easily read and to flow off the tongue — its ABAB format is one of the most pleasant to read and understand, and it uses metaphorical imagery often. Byron evokes images of the heart and the soul, as well as a sword and sheath. This is a clever choice on his part; by pairing the metaphorical images with the literal one, it is easier to understand his meaning without it being lost entirely in non-literal exclamations. To “rove” is to wander aimlessly, a luxury commonly afforded to young people who do not have or need a particular direction in life just yet, and this makes sense in light of the rest of “So We’ll Go No More a Roving”. The narrator is describing a situation in which they are no longer free to rove around, even though they feel that the nights are made for that particular purpose. Even today, it is common to see those who stay awake through all hours of the night to do the things that they want to do, rather than what they have to do. For the narrator it is the same — except that nothing has changed about the night itself. Their heart still desires this nightlife, and the night itself is there, but still, the time for roving has ended. During the second, metaphorical stanza, the narrator is describing the process of aging. Eventually, a sheath that is used too often becomes worn out; it is the same, they claim, with a heart and soul that desires the night, but exist within a body that is losing its ability to enjoy itself — it too is becoming worn out. They still believe that the night itself exists for the kind of aimless wandering they’ve been enjoying, but it doesn’t matter — that period in their life is ended. It’s time to grow up, whether they want to or not, because they now need rest more than they need to rove all night. Another interpretation could be that “So We’ll Go No More a Roving” describes a romance ended early. To describe that the heart remains “as loving” and that the night is made for that purpose could be to suggest a one-night stand between the narrator and another person, the “we” of “yet we’ll go no more a-roving.” Now that the day has returned, the narrator may be suggesting, the romance is ended, and they must both return to their lives, for he does not have it in him to continue the romance beyond that one night together.
Historical context “So We’ll Go No More A-Roving” was written by Lord Byron in early 1817, though it was not published until thirteen years later. It is included in a letter written by Byron to his close friend Thomas Moore. In the letter, Byron describes that he is not feeling very well and describes nights of celebration; he writes about the carnival season, and how he has stayed up the past several night to enjoy himself and is now feeling the ill effects of it. He then explains that the Lenten season — the Christian tradition of preparing for the symbolic anniversary of the death of Jesus — has begun, and the nights have been replaced by “abstinence and sacred music.” Afterward, he describes feeling as though his sword is wearing out its scabbard, and laments that this is happening to him, even though he is only twenty-nine years old. He follows this with “So We’ll Go No More a Roving”. The letter is dated February 28, 1817 , and was published by Moore, along with the poem it contained in his 1830 work, along with other letters he received from the then-late Lord Byron, and was republished some years later, in The works of Lord Byron: in verse and prose. Including his letters, journals, etc., with a sketch of his life. By this point in his life, Lord Byron had been living in exile for nearly a year. He spent much of 1817 in Italy, particularly Venice and Rome. This, along with the contents of the letter, suggest that it is written more as a lament to his growing up than for any one person in particular. For someone who spends so much of his youth sleeping around, taking personal liberties, and enjoying the expressions of his own emotion, to discover at the age of twenty-nine that he was beginning to feel tired must have come as a surprise. This poem was meant for Moore as a way of expressing how he was feeling, perhaps in a way that he felt could not be conveyed as well through unadorned words. It seems likely that his intention was not for the poem to be published at all, and yet reading is still provides fascinating insight on the life and in the mind of Lord George Gordon Byron at the age of twenty-nine.
OSCAR WILDE
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 , as the son of a famous doctor. He was a brilliant student and studied at Trinity college in Dublin, Ireland most prestigious university. His excellent results won him a scolarship to continue his studies at Oxford, were he studied Classics and graduated brilliantly. He left for London, were he composed poetry, publishing his firts collection in 1881. In 1884 married a wealthy English woman, Constance Lloyd, who gave him two sons. In 1888 he published “The Happy Prince and Other Tales”, a set of stories for Children. In 1890 he published his only novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The novel was attacked as an immoral work, though Wilde defended himself in a preface to the work, stating that “vice and virtue are to the artista materials for an art”. In his preface, he outlines his phylosophy of art, base don the principles of Aestheticism: art is neither moral nor inmoral, it has no moral purpose, but beauty in itself as a supreme value. Aestheticism was an art movement of the late 19th century. It claimed that art exist for the sake of beauty and does not have to serve any moral, political or didactic purpose. In the moment of his greatest succes and popularity in London, Oscar Wilde became involved in a legal case that would lead to his ruin. He had an affair with the young Lord Alfred Douglas, whose father accused him of homosexuality, wich at the time was a criminal offence. Wilde decided to accuse the man of libel and took him to court. The libel case was rejected, but Wilde himself was put on trial for “gross indecency” and sentenced to two year imprisonment and hard labour in Reading Gaol. When he came out of prison in 1897, he was physically and psycologically a broken man. He lived in exile in France and wrote very Little. Wilde died on november 1900, at 46 years old. THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1890) This novel tells the story of a rich, beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, who has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward. The portrait turns out as a masterpiece. At Basil’s studio, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a man who talks about the transcience of youth and beauty. Dorian, struck by this thought, sacrifice his soul to mantain his youth and beauty, while the portrait will bear all the signs of time. Under Lord Henry influence, Dorian lives a life of pleasure, sin, crime and corruption. The image of the portrait, while he remains young and beautiful, becomes old and bear all the signs of Dorian’s sins. At the end of the story, responsable of the death o fan actress and the murder of Basil Hallward, killed because he discovered Dorian’s secret, Dorian stabs the portrait. He is found dead, transformed into an horrible old man beside the portrait, which has returned to his original beauty. The theme of the double The novel came as a shock for most Victorian readers, who believed that the purpose of art was education and moral enlightenment. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” proclaimed beauty as the unique purpose of art and life. However, the novel does teach a moral lesson in the end, as Dorian’s sins and his lifestyle lead to his own destruction. Dorian lives a double life: while his appearance remains beautiful and innocent, he his not like this inside. His double life is only a sign of his hypocrisy: he uses his appearance to be accepted in society and fulfill all his desires without paying any consequences. Style and narrative technique The novel combines supernatural elements of the Gothic novels with French decadent fiction. It’s told by a 3rd person narrator and uses dialogues to reveal his charachter’s personalities. The settings are described in great detail, with words appealing to the senses.
All art is quite useless (preface)
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. The nineteenth-century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth-century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital. When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.
windows, the house was all dark. After a time, he went away and stood in an adjoining portico and watched. “Whose house is that, Constable?” asked the elder of the two gentlemen. “Mr. Dorian Gray’s, sir,” answered the policeman. They looked at each other, as they walked away, and sneered. One of them was Sir Henry Ashton’s uncle. Inside, in the servants’ part of the house, the half-clad domestics were talking in low whispers to each other. Old Mrs. Leaf was crying and wringing her hands. Francis was as pale as death. After about a quarter of an hour, he got the coachman and one of the footmen and crept upstairs. They knocked, but there was no reply. They called out. Everything was still. Finally, after vainly trying to force the door, they got on the roof and dropped down on to the balcony. The windows yielded easily—their bolts were old. When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edimburgh in 1850. As a child his poor health forced him to spend much of his time at home and he developed a love of reading. His father wanted him to became an engineer, but he understood that this was not his future. To satisfy his father he took a degree in law. He spent four years travelling in Europe and wrote essays and articles about his experience. He married Fanny Osbourne, a woman ten years older tan him that he met in France. He returned with his new family to Britain and continued to write. He produced some of his most famous Works: “Treasure Island” (1883), “A Childe Garden of Verses” (1885) and “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” (1886). His Works were popular and succesfull. Troubled by his poor health and depressed by the tought that he was no longer capable of producing great Works, he died don 3 December 1894. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1886) In this era of scientific and technological progress and of the rapid expansion of the British empire, many writers began to doubt the ideals of progress and civilisation. A sense of pessimism and anxiety developed: the creation of wealth, the spread of civilisation that came with imperial expansion, was accompanied by desperate poverty, criminality and double moral standards. Good and evil, civilisation and savagery, are presented in the story’s protagonist, Dr Jekyll. He escapes from his rational, moral identity with a potion that transforms him into the depraved, irrational, evil Mr Hyde, allowing him to taste the fascination of a world of instinct and sensuality. Hyde is responsible for a series of heinous crimes, but escapes detenction as a second doce of potions transforms him back in Jekyll. Jekyll’s growing remorse can do Little, as he find increasingly difficoult to free himself from Mr Hyde. This story ends with the suicide of Jekyll and the discovery of a letter written by him to his friend a lawyer, Utterson, wich finally reveals the whole mistery of the double identity. The split self Jekyll appears to be the embodiment of the respectable Victorian gentleman. Physically, he is a handsome and agreeable man. Hyde is the embodiment of the uncivilised part of humanity. He is small and pale and extremely ugly. Hyde is Jekyll secret alter ego. The character’s duality can be interpreted as a critique of Victorian morals, in wich appearances were all that matter and all was fine as long as corruption and vice remained private. Even though Jekyll is disgusted by Hyde’s actions, he is deeply attached to his dark side, wich gives visibility to an aspecto of the self that Jekyll and the Victorian society have always tried to hide or repress. The narrative technique The story has three main narrators: Mr Utterson, that he’s the one who suspect about Mr Hyde, a new friendo f Jekyll; the second and the third are Jekyll and Hyde themselves. For most of the novel we follow Mr Utterson’s point of view and we learn the story only when he does. The story of the man of science who tries to separate the evil in himself from the good draws inspirations from certain aspect of the gothic tradition. Stevenson combines Gotich motifs with elements of the emerging genre of the detective fiction. Setting as symbol The setting is London, its grimy alleys and dark corners in the fog. Most of the actions occurs at night, the time when Hyde operates. Night and fog are symbols of oscurity. Even Jekyll’s house has a symbolic meaning. The front door wich Jekyll uses has an elegant facade, while the rear door used by Hyde is in a sinister building with no Windows. The passageway bleading to Jekyll’s laboratory is a passage between two worlds: respectability and evil.
about my house in the square; and to parry mishaps, I even called and made myself a familiar object, in my second character. I next drew up that will to which you so much objected; so that if anything befell me in the person of Dr. Jekyll, I could enter on that of Edward Hyde without pecuniary loss. And thus fortified, as I supposed, on every side, I began to profit by the strange immunities of my position.
LITERARY BACKGROUND
The beginning of the 20th century were marked by one of the most productive and shocking literary and artistic revolutions of all time. All the aspects that were traditionally associated with Victorian literature, were swept away by the spread of new theories and ideas that revolutionised the very concept of life and of the world. The spread of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which destroyed the faith in objective reality, the influence of Freud’s psychoanalysis, which unveiled the world of the unconscious and of the inner self, the experience of the First World War, are all causes of the final blow to Victorian optimism and inaguarated an era of anxiety and uncentainty. THE BREAK WITH THE 19TH CENTURY AND THE OUTBURST OF MODERNISM The literature and the arts were marked by the birth of MODERNISM. Modernism included and was influenced by different artistic movements, all of which were united in their attempt to rebel against the past and create new forms and styles. The main movements were:
- Futurism : an artistic and literary movement which rebelled against the past and decomposed the subject to create a sense of dynamism in painting;
- Cubism : fragmented the subject into geometrical and abstract shapes;
- Expressionism : was characterised by distorted forms and by radical experimentation in the use of colours to convey an idea of anxiety;
- Surrealism : it gave the importance to the world of the unconscious and used art to represent it. It is posible to point out some common recurring features in modernists’ works:
- Fragmentation of the narrative point of view, in favour of a multi-layered and complex narration;
- Redefinition of the traditional concepts of time and place;
- Use of experimental narrative techniques;
- Rejection of traditional gramar and punctuation in favour of unorthodox forms of expression;
- Use of free verse and rejection of traditional verse forms in poetry;
- Use of complex vocabulary and concepts. The general idea is that the human mind is at the centre of the writer’s scrutiny: the writer tries to render its complexity and to express subjective, rather than objective truths. Britain and Modernism In Britain, the group of Modernist writers included: T. S. ELIOT, VIRGINIA WOOLF, JAMES JOYCE. Their main works came to light between 1922 and 1925 , and dealt with the representation of the unconscious. Many of these writers used the “Stream of Consciousness” technique as a means of expressing the complex workings of the human mind. The writers who were active in the 1930s were deeply influenced by the historical events of these years, such as the Spanish Civil War, the economic depression of the 1929 and the expansion of Nazi power. The main author belonging to this generation were W. H. AUDEN and DYLAN THOMAS. THE RADICAL EXPERIMENTATIONS OF EARLY 20TH-CENTURY POETS The political scenario of the period saw many threats to the stability of the world. It comes as no surprise that the first half of the 20th century was a period of great instability and radical experimentation in poetry.
