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The Victorian Age
1837-1901 Queen Victoria code of behaviour (moral code) made her very beloved by the middle class Period of great development, material progress, imperial expansion, social reforms=
- 1847-10 hours act= limited the working hours to only 10 hours a day -1862-the mines act= forbade the work of women and children in the mins -1875-trade union act= which legalized the activities of the unions of workers Optimism was due to the scientific progress, economic success and growth of the empire. the working class still lived in poor conditions. That’s why workers demonstrations were quite common→ Movement “Chartism” (comes from chart), asking for a chart focusing on some social reforms, the most important was the right to vote for all male adults. This proposal was rejected and the movement died. Trade→protectionism was abandoned in favor of free trade/ partly because of the prosperity gained from free trading. England did not experience the revolutions which broke out in other parts of Europe in 1848. Social Problems→ didn’t prevent the rise of the middle class and expansion of the trade industry. scientific progress and economic development was symbolised by the great exhibitions of 1851 where good from all over the empire were shown to stress once more the importance of the empire and the new inventions (steam locomotive, telegraph, gas lightening) Due to industrial development a lot of people moved to town which became overcrowded/ (Dickens) mortality rate very high, crime rates high, pollution social reform NO poverty, contradictory society→ on one hand progress, reforms, on the other poverty, injustice, unrest Victorian compromise: the choice by the upper classes to ignore the contradictions (extreme poverty) which was hidden behind a good code of morality, respectability ecc… Moral code of upper classes was based on duty, hardwork and respectability (hypocrisy)- patriarchal but essential family Queen Victoria-model of morality Utilitarianism : (hard times, Dickens), based on the theory of Jeremy Bentham→ what is useful is good. any action is good and correct if it promotes material happiness of the greatest number of people (interest of upper classes) →this gave up the reaction by some artists like Dickens Dickens the first one who denounce exploitation The late Victorian writers (Stevenson,Wilde) denounced the duplicity of Victorian society. Importance of the novels: middle class was a consumer of literature women borrowed and bought books instalments → most books were published in instalments on magazines before being published as books, as clone contact between writer and reader→ the public followed the story from week to week. There were advantages such as building narrative tension and forcing writer to stay in touch with the outside world. disadvantages→ the difficult to keep a coherent plot.
Novels became the most popular form of literature, novelists portrayed society as it was (mild realism) and wanted to make the reader aware of socialism classes. The narrator was generally omniscient. It was not easy for women to publish books so they did it with man pseudonym writing=man activity
Charles Dickens
Unhappy childhood→whole family (father) in prison Charles worked in a factory as a child 10 h/d 6 day/w This experience was traumatizing worked in office as a reporter “David Copperfield” was autobiographical published 15 novels which first appeared on magazines and then were published in books form Inscription of the tomb “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed, and by his death, one of england’s greatest writers is lost to the world” Themes -he was deeply conscious of social injustice, political incompetence, poverty and suffering and the class conflict→ critical attitude towards contemporary society
- used fiction to denounce the evils of society. He doesn’t want people to rebel but he wants a moral change because he thought that the origin of all evils is hypocrisy, lack of love,... He had a considerable influence on the social reforms by showing in his novels the exploitation of children, the brutality of some schools,the dirt of the slums and the vices of the criminal world. -he deals with the sufferings of the factory system and the harm done by utilitarianism
- He insisted on the Victorian moral code even because editors imposed censorship (cesura). The publications forced Dickens to satisfy the taste of the readers.
- most of adults are evils, children were forced to work. By giving example of good children and negative adults he reverses natural order, and makes children moral teachers
- He tries to show to the upper classes the condition of lower classes so they can alleviate other people one consequence → too much sentimentalism, sensationalism and melodrama, so the readers would follow the destiny of the characters. If one of them didn’t satisfy the readers, Dickens dropped him and replaced it. Style was described as mild (delicato) realism. Used a lot of exaggeration and didn’t show reality as it was, but as the public expected it. The public wanted to escape from reality and wanted to be reassured that in the end good and justice would win. In his novels the good is always rewarded and the evils are always punished.
- describes the setting and the boys hunger vv..1-
- focuses on the main event of the passage→ Oliver asking for more food vv.21-
- deals with the consequences of Oliver’s request vv.34- Atmosphere compared to a religious ceremony v.3 “festive composition”(by naming this group of people eating) gloomy atmosphere, silence irony lies in the solemnity of the scene. The idea we get is that is an inospital place, cold atmosphere reflected even by the detached behaviour of the people working there and the lack of affection experienced by the children Setting: workhouse- it mainly denounce children hunger On that evening the boys decide that one of them should ask for more food→ lots were cast who should walk up to the master and ask and it fell out to Oliver Oliver is terrified but he’s hungry and miserable, he’s no choice. He go to the master ask for more food Oliver is compared to mr. Bumble: Oliver→ small, pure, weak.. Mr. Bumble→ tall, strong, pale after oliver’s request The master can’t believe Oliver has dared to ask for more food. He goes to the board, members are shocked too and they consider him as a criminal and a rebel and he has to be punished. Recluded in his room, 5 pounds are offered to anyone taking him away→ he’s sold. Language He uses an a alternation of dialogues, descriptions and narration description= are uses to pity the readers, they tend to side with boys narration= steady comparison between the world of the boys and the institution one dialogues= contribute to the increase of the reader’s interest
“Hard times”
Plot: very short set in coketown: industrial town in the north of England Main character is Mr. Grandgrind, an educator who runs schools, believes in the importance of facts and statistics. In the school he puts in act his believes, children are taught nothing but facts. Mr. G. educates his own children, Luisa and Tom, in the same way. He doesn’t care about feelings or imagination. A different figure, Cece, is adopted by Mr. G., she is his opposite because she comes from the world of circus, she stands for fancy and imagination. Mr. G. wants Luisa to marry a rich man, for material reasons, but she’s unhappy
One day a man tries to seduce her and she realizes that the way her father has brought her up has made her unhappy. While she tells that to his father she faints (sviene) and mr. G. for the first time realizes the imperfections of his philosophy based on facts and rationality. At the end mr. G. will give up his philosophy and devote himself to help the poor. Exception→ evil character turns good (mr. Gradgrind), the names came from ‘Grade’ → simbolic name Tom has to leave England because he’s accused of stealing and he hides him in a circus Novel focuses on industrialisation and education based on facts. Mr G. school tries to turn children into little machines, Dickens first aim is to show the risk of turning human beings into machines without imagination. Without imagination life is unbearable. Mr. G. children should stick to facts, Mr. G. represents utilitarianism Dickens' second aim is criticizing living conditions in english industrial cities. Towns like Manchester that produces wealth, that made England the first industrial power in the 19th century, but the cost as far as humor happiness was very high. As a matter of fact is the needs of factories dominate everything else. The inhumanity of factories’ system, and denounces the application of utilitarianism philosophy to school. towns as innatural place and the workers live in dangerous conditions oppositions facts and imagination: -parallelism children on his fam and children of the school
“A classroom definition of a Horse”
Set in a school where Mr G. is giving lessons At first Mr. G. objects to the girl’s nickname, then to her father’s job, he says that her father shouldn't call her Sissy because Cecilia is her real name. He thinks father should never show affection for their children, not to spoil them→ this feeling is normally associated with a nickname He also objets to Cecilia’s father humble job in the circus. He pretends he doesn’t want to speak about it but he goes on asking her questions, so he has a contradictory attitude showing he despises his job. Then he asks the girl to provide the definition of a horse, and when she is not able to do it, he calls a boy whose name is Bitzer who gives pseudoscientific definition of the horse based on scientific lifeless term, which obviously comply with Mr. G. mentality. Differences between Sissy and Bitzer it is also stressed by their physical appearance. Bitzer is pale, Cecilia has dark colors, which maybe stand for her vivid imagination, while Bitzer pallor stand for his passive attitude and acceptance of facts and of his teacher’s system→ he stands for utilitarianism, rationality and materialism. On the other hand mr. G. stands for the typical man of facts and this is also evident in his physical description. pag
bank account of the respectable dottor Jekyll. Utterson plays the role of the detective who follows clues. A year later a maid witnesses Mr Hyde beating with a stick a member of the parliament to death, but when police arrive at his house he is already left. After a year Mr Lenyon dies in mysterious circumstances and leaves a letter where he writes that he witnesses the transformation of Hyde in Dr jekyll. Lenion stands for rationality so he decided to die rather than living in an upset world. After a while Hyde’s body was found dead in Dr Jekyll lab with a letter written by Dr Jekyll where he explained the story→ Dr Jekyll, a highly-reputed scientist who leads a quiet and sober life, is obsessed with the idea that his evil tendencies can be separated from his good side, by giving birth to two beings: one totally good and the other totally bad. So by discovering a drug that causes this division, he takes it and he finds out that it turns him into a new person/creature; Mr Hyde, who is physically deformed and of an evil nature. To return back into Jekyll all he has to do is to take the drug again. By doing this several time Hyde’s evil nature grows to the point he commits murder and is ready to do more. Jekyll tries to fight his evil part and to get rid of it forever but Hyde has already taken control of Jekyll’s body without needing drugs anymore! Since Jeckyll has no way out of this situation so he decide to close himself in his laboratory and commits suicide. He leaves a letter in which he explains his case. Narrators : ● third person narrator (=Utterson) who tells most of the story but is not omniscient ● Mr. Enfield= tells to Utterson about the girl and the existence of two different doors completely different. (Dr.Jekyll good side, and Mr Hyde evil side. - duality of the victorian age) ● Dr. Lanyon (letter), who writes his version of the story ● Dr Jekyll (narrates his final confession with the letter before killing himself) In the way we get the truth Stevenson achieves suspence In the end Dr Jekyll has two different choices: living a life of crimes being mr Hyde, or committ suicide and eliminate mr Hyde. Stevenson may be implying that men’s salvation is based on the destruction of a part of themselves. Theme of the double→ which strikes at the core of the Victorian compromise and the fundamental duplicity of the age’s moral standards. The Duality= good and evil, divided self ● of the same person ● of the same period ● of the same city door of the house- stands for good, what the victorian society wants to see door of the lab- ugly, repulsion, evil. symbolically the faces of the two opposite sides of the same man physical appearance
- hyde is ugly and deformed
- small and hairy, and this physical deformity and ugliness symbolizes his moral evil for the 19th century the connection between ugliness and evil was more than symbolic. Most of them thought that a criminal could be identified by his appearance. Hyde’s small stature may indicate that Jackyll’s dark side has been repressed for years preventing it from
growing, and his hairiness may indicates he embodies jackyll’s animal part, making reference to Darwin’s theory. Respectable man but we get to know he also has secret instincts he wants to hide. And when he decides not to be Hyde anymore he regrets this secret pleasures, but in the past the victorian respectability made him hide his pleasures. Duplicity of the moral standards of victorian age and the fact that Jackill was obliged to reflect his secret pleasures onto Hyde Epistolary - lots of letters and documents. Whenever a letter appears it creates a Mysterious atmosphere because the reader immediately knows the letter hides something is a clue. Obviously this creates suspense because we don’t know what the letter says and the reader thinks it contains something bad. Another characteristic of the novel is the darkness. Most of the crimes and terrible events take place at night, and not in the sunlight. The scene is quite sterile and symbolized by the fact there are no women as main characters, but only men. Patriarchal world of victorian society. Both London or Edinburgh have two natures (london - west respectable, east slums; Edinburgh - new elegant town, old criminal town). Some questions at the end are left unanswered. Stevenson never specifies what immoral behaviour Jackyill is involved with. No details, because of the → oppressive morality of Victorian society. Vices had to be hidden. Others think that leaving these details unexplained → increases the fascination and power of evil, more unsettling than what we know. The message he wanted to convey is that although we have evil inside of us,it's better to keep it hidden SInce otherwise they might become distractive. Complexity is presented by a combination of realism and symbolism (as in the scene of Jekyll’s transformation into Hyde or when Jekyll realise that his evil side is gradually becoming stronger, in a physical sense: Hyde has been growing in stature. Also on a moral level evil is triumphing over good) Mix of - scientific tale / gothic novel / detective crime story Novel
- Scientifiction
- Psychological
- Crime → the title (“case” points to “police case”) → the setting (deserted street of London, most scene take place at night) → the scattered clues (that may lead to the solution of the story) Jekyll turns into hyde Passage taken from the end of the novel, Jekyll tells his story in a letter that he has left to be opened after his death. The two separate sides of the same self are described and Hyde is portrayed as totally evil and not, like any other human beings, a mixture of good and evil.
attempt to get rid of the moral prejudices of Victorian society to which it opposed new hedonism→ sort of pleasure Supposed to recreate life il Wilde’s world → In contrast with victorian materialism, the aesthetic had as a supreme value beauty, not morality → The search for sensation pleasure → Aesthetic refused to subordinate art to moral social and religious aims → art has no other aim but itself A new hero who with his unconventional behavior was as different as possible from the middle class men To unmask the victorian convention and hypocrisy So the hero was a very elegant man , importance to appearance and eccentric lifestyle→ the dandy dandyism was a way of life Life which imitate art and artists should create a reality to be imitated by life → The father and theorist of english aestheticism was Walter Peter, who was Wilde’s teacher (at Oxford University) and friend and he wrote an important book “studies in the history of the renaissance” The basic principles of his philosophy is individualism and the idea that personals experience is the only criterion of judgement He promotes life based on sensation and the supreme slogan is “ art for art’s sake ” Which is the phrase which best explains the aesthetic movement Art is totally independent from social or moral issues , should have no moral or social purpose Aesthetic movement includes many forms of art literature, painting, music since all of them could create delicious sensations And had forerunner in the pre-raphaelite movements (gabriele rosseti) Oscar Wilde 1854 Dublin, studied at Oxford where he got a first class degree in classics and began being known for his eccentricity. There, he was immediately attracted by the aesthetic movement, and even by Walter pater’s ideas and theories. Even Raskin’s theory of the sublime influenced it. Then moved to London and became a celebrity for his wit and eccentric type dressing as a dandy (the perfection in dress was as important as perfection in art). He became the leader of the aesthetic movement and around 1881 he went to Usa for some lectures on the aesthetic movement and he had great success. Became famous for his irony and personality. At first his presence as a speaker became a social event. Before his return to England he married and had two children. In the late 1880s he published a series of short stories, the most famous is “the Canterville Ghost” and in 1881 the novel “The picture of dorian gray”. Also wrote a series of very successful plays, kinda comedies of manners ( “The importance of being Earnest'' ). However, “the picture of Dorian Gray” and “salomè”
(tragedy in french) damaged his reputation, the novel because it was considered immoral, and the tragedy because it was prevented from being performed due to obscenity. His triumph ended in 1891 when he was accused of the relationship with the young poet lord Alfred Dauglas, whose nickname was Bosie. He was sentenced to two years in prison, with hard labour. When he was in prison he wrote a couple of works among which “the profundis” , an epistolary important for the message conveyed with “The picture of Dorian Gray” which is: “if you indulge in a life of pleasure you must then pay a price of it”, and both Wilde and Dorian paid the price: Dorian dies and Oscar suffers in prison and physically decays. In prison his physical and mental state deteriorated and when he was released from prison he was very old, broken and weak. His wife refuses to see him and moves into exile to Paris where he dies of meningitis completely alone in 1900. For a long time Wilde’s name was associated with scandal, but then he gradually got remember for his uniques contributions to literature as a genius of witt (humorism, intelligence) Oscar Wilde is a writer of the late victorian age but belong to the aesthetic movement, which is a little bit contradictory because the aesthetic movement represents the reaction against victorian materialism and middle class morality Since it stood for freedom from ordinary moral standards In this way he had many poems in common with decadentism and symbolism Dorian Gray 1881 At first was published in a magazine, larger numbers of readers and it immediately became a scandal Originally on the magazine the novel was shorter because the prephase was added later as a bouncer to the critics Plot Set in London, Dorian Gray, a young man, whose beauty affascinate a printer, Basil, decides to paint his portrait. A brilliant and corrupted man, Lord Henry Wotton, introduces Dorian to the philosophy of new hedonism (life of pleasure founded on Youth and Beauty). To seduce dorian Henry gives him a yellow book, a key text of the aesthetic movement, and he was influenced→ Dorian starts to enjoy life of pleasure Basil paints a portrait of him that captures the young man’s extraordinary beauty and when it is finished dorian expresses the wish to never grow old. His wish is granted: his immoral life ( he causes the suicide of his fiancèe Sibyl and murders his friend Basil) leaves no sign on his face but gradually disfigures the painting which shows the marks of Dorian’s moral decay (for exemple when dorian falls in love with Sibil and he breaks the engagement she commited suicide and he sees on the picture a new expression of cruelty so dorian repens and return to her, but when he arrives it’s too late) (Sibil is the typical romantic victorian girl, her beauty contrast with dorian attitude) Then he decides to lock the picture in a room
⇒ Mr.hyde and Dorian have a lot of points in common because they are horror stories, theme of duality and the portrait of the city which is divided in two differents parts in both novels Dorian lives in the respectable west but makes night expeditions to the dark east The transformation is physical and there are two identities , so good and evil are specifically personified. Human nature is made up of good and evil and there should be a balance between them Both Stevenson and Wilde's characters decide to live following the pleausre They have to face the consequences and can’t be free
DORIAN KILLS THE PORTRAIT p95-
A passage from the end of the book It starts in a positive way, Dorian is walking home, He thinks about the fact that he hasn’t corrupted but he has spared an innocent girl, but after that he could only see on the portrait a sign of hypocrisy because of his action. For his present situation he blames his own pride and passions than he blames the fact he has received no punishment to purify him, and finally he blames his own beauty and youth. He doesn’t blame himself for the deaths of Basil and Alan Campbel, the chemist who helped Dorian to destroy basil’s corpse. He doesn’t blame himself for two reasons:
- he describes Basil’s death as a moment of madness, as a result of a fit of rage
- Campbell commited suicide so Dorian doesn’t feel guilty, of his act to He refuses a confession because he doesn’t think people will believe he has committed such crimes since he has been very careful to get rid of evidence. Considers the portrait awful and he sees it as a mirror of his soul. The passage may be divided into three parts.
- 1 - 36 Deals with Dorian's thoughts about his past, present and future. Dorian’s mind is changing and he wishes his life could take a different course. He’s aware of the terrible actions he has committed but at the same time he still tries to find an excuse for them.
- 37 - 74 Deals with Dorian’s troubled mind when he looked at the portrait. Dorian calls the portrait, the “hideous thing” in line 43, because its image deformed and this deformity reflects his immoral life. The image is deformed and this deformity is the mirror of his immoral soul and life. In the first paragraph he has expressed some hopes for the future but they fade when he looks at the pictures because of his bad habits.
- 36 - Dorian steps into the portrait and kills himself. The ending is consistent with Wilde’s theories according to which art is more important than life. Art wins over life since Dorian dies and the picture recovers all his past perfection
Video
10 things you should know about Oscar Wilde “The picture of Dorian Gray”:
- About the author= born in Dublin, Ireland in 1854, he was exposed to the world of medicine and culture by his parents. He joined artistic and literary movement, he became known for his poems, then after being in prison, Wilde’s come to illness
- Influences and inspirations= Wilde’s aesthetic ideas grows in the picture of Dorian Gray he contrast the art’s beauty with the beauty of real life. Element of gothic fiction
- Setting and Era= is set in 1800 his ideas were in contrast with the Victorian society
- plot= told from the third person point of view of an anonymous narrator The book follow the transformation of Dorian from a beautiful young man to a selfish criminal, at the end the portrait of him reveals the real nature of him
- Dorian= in his youth Dorian is good looking but when he was introduced to Lord Henry world he became focused only in pleasure, his immorality starts to increase and he discovers that only his painting pay for his crime, at the end when he destroy the painting he destroy himself
- Basil= is an artist that made the painting, unlike Gray he has strong moraitly and he is worried for Dorian, he was killed by Dorian
- Lord Henry= is Basil’s friend, when he met Dorian he introduced him to a life made of pleasure instead of pain, as a member of the decadent movement, he is in contrast with the victorian ideals
- Values and themes= one of the novel main themes revolves around aestheticism and Dorian double life, other themes are good and evil and the corruption of innocence
- Modern popularity= the picture of Dorian is consider a classic of Urban gothic fiction and has strong message 1.adaptations= many of the novel themes have been a human preopation for centuries, the novel has inspired novels ballads, opera and music Rudyard Kipling 1865 in India, Worked as part-time story writer, England 1907 became the first Englishman to win the Nobel Prize for literature 1936 in London Best novels:
- The jungle Book 1894
- Kim → the story of a orphan living in Victorian India 1901
novel represents the transition between the typical victorian novel and the true modernist novel.) Conrad, who is a transition poet, was born in Ukraine in 1857 but was polish. This influenced the language he used. He chose to write in english since he thought it offered him the ideal means to express his complex vision of life. The use of english gave him a deeper awareness. The language he uses is linear and correct, learnt when he was a sailor. His life is important to understand his work and his ideals. Conrad disapproved of politics since his father had been politically involved, and he had been only disappointed by it. He disapproved of both Kipling Imperialistic ideas and the russian revolution, because he thought that any attempt made by men on a large scale of change was doomed to fail. He grew up in France but decided to escape to sea, which plays a fundamental role in all of his poems. He became a deckboy, sailor and captain. He spent most of his life at sea and he learnt english on board and the sea always appears in his novels. The sea along with far distant places is a natural element putting man to test. Although during his voyages he visited a lot of exotic places, like malaysia, congo and so on, his descriptions are never exotic, they are not associate, evocative descriptions like Kipling’s. He shows suffering and corruption, his description of these places are pervaded by a general sense of squallor. So his novels are quite pessimistic and are much more than just adventures at sea, and voyages to unknown lands. By using a traditional type of novel, which is adventurous, he explores the deepest instincts of man, revealing a lot about modern society, which is primitive. By using the old form of the traveller tale, (crusoe and gulliver’s travels), explores the deep anxiety of modern civilization. He emphasises the struggle of man against natural elements, but specifically focuses on the inner life and conflicts of the characters, so there’s a deep sense of pessimism, resulting from his vision of modern society, where power and wealth, are very important, and behind the triumphant imperialism, and trade he sees a corruptive power. Men have few possibilities of escaping his destiny because society corrupts him, and out of society there’s no life. In Conrad stories there is no room for morality, moreover, Conrad’s characters have no sense of their roots, which may offer them a kind of help or strength. They are dislocated individuals who lie in a cruel world,and who are not part of a community. Conrad himself was an outsider, a polish sailor,with no home during his life at sea, and settled in England when he stopped sailing, and where he died. As a writer he lived in England, using a language different from his native language. Once Conrd called himself homo duplex, indeed duplicity characterised both his fascinating life and his work. Evidence of this could be found in his double nationality and his two different professions, sailor and writer, and in the extensive use of the theme of the double. The presence of the double, represents the hidden side of the hero’s personality. So Kurz is the dark side of Marlow. marlow at the same time is the alter ego of Conrad. The Nigger of the Narcisus, represents the pattern of the reality as he saw it, exploring the meanimng of the moral condition. The exotic places he chose as the settings of his novels, enabled him to isolate the characters so that conflicts came up with particular force. He often deals with extreme situations and violence and mystery. His heroes are solitary figures, with no past and uncertain future. Novels:
- Pessimistic
- travelers story (traditional)
He reveals the primitive instincts of human being, by using the old form of the travelers tale he explores the deep anxiety of modern civilization He focuses on the inner life of the characters Deep sense of pessimist resulting from his vision of modern society where power and wealth are very important and behind the triumphal imperialism and trade he sees a corruptive power Man has few possibility to escape his destiny, There is no room for moral behavior Themes: The theme of the double, he has a double nationality and profession. This theme helps him depict the hidden parts of the characters. Kurtz is the bad side of Marlow, who is Conrad’s alter ego. Conrad makes use of a ‘double character’ → unlike Stevenson with ‘the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ who splits one personality into two, Conrad puts two characters alongside each other: Kurtz represents the dark, or unconscious side of the other. He uses a lot of time shifts as flashbacks and flash forwards. The tale within the tale, the narrator is presented by another character. He looks for the truth in man’s life. He deals with civilized Europeans, far from their own country, and confronted with an alien environment, and this shows the european men’s real character. In the Hour of the struggle against these unknown forces and people, men’s characters morally degradetes. The confidence fails when the man is lonely and surrounded with a wild and hostile environment. HEART OF DARKNESS It’s a novel, 1902. The main narrator is Marlow but it begins and finishes with someone else, this technique is called the tale within the tale (Where the narration is presented by a fictional narrator, anonymous who presents the main narrator that is marlow). This gives Conrad the possibility to be outside of the novel and give different points of view on the same person. The first narrator is a passenger of Nelly. The story is a series of stories embodied with each other. The frame is given by the anonymous narrator but he introduces the real narrator marlow, there are other minor characters who tell their own story. In the novel there are continuous shifts backward and forward. The ship sails from London to Congo, and the expedition has the aim to bring Kurtz back to civilization because he is seriously ill. Kurtz is the best agent of the country, who was able to supply a lot of avory and was also seen by the natives as an idol/god. Marlow finds out that kurtz has been asked by the international society for the suppression of savage customs to write a report, in which he put down of the nobel ideal that brought him to africa but which ended with the postscript exterminated the brouds, but this postscript is the result of his experience in africa finally marlow find kurtz and bring him on board, but before he can interrogate him about the rights that he has taken part, he dies whispering “the horror, the horror” what. Most of the action takes place in congo, belgium colony, king leopold’s reign.
In the second paragraph (line 8-26) the author focuses on self-centeredness, and this is evident because of the repetition of my for 5 times. The evil and darkness are often associated, Conrad also focuses on the idea that a civilized man cannot understand him (line 14-16). The last paragraph (line 27-end) Kurtz is described as a mixture of european backgrounds his mother was half english and his father was half french, one line is autobiographical, only Europe contributed to his identity and this is significant because it implies that all Europe contributed to colonial exploitation. Marlow at the end of the passage suggests that Kurtz's report was rhetorical out of touch with reality and was not giving any practical information about the place and the people, the only practical indication that Kurtz reports is the final sterminatio of the groups. Colonialism is justified as a moral mission to civilize the native people considered as inferior.
War s
When the first world war broke out, thousands of young men volunteered for military service, viewing the war as an adventure, undertaken as a novel purpose. On the western front, life in the trenches was terrible because of the rain, the mud, the cold,the decaying bodies, the rats, the bombings and the use of posoned gasses. From the beginning of the war some common soldiers wrote verses, which were the genuine expression of lives in the trances, and usually didn't reach the literate people living comfortably at home, however among the soldiers quite a few were well educated in the classics and in english literature. So there was a group of poets who actually experienced the fighting, some of them lost their lives, and managed to represent it in an unconventional way, in order to awaken the conscience of the reader to the horror of the world. These poets were known as war poets, and their poetry might be considered as modern poetry, because its main subject couldn’t be included in 19th century poetic conventions, and that's why they had to find new and different modes of expression. Of course the theme of the war was not new to the literary world, indeed the first main english literary work Beowulf was about a hero fighting to defend his people against supernatural creatures. Until 1914-1918 war literature had been written by civilians, who observed the war and wrote about it from a distance or visited the battlefield after the battle was over. The novelty in war poets is that it was written by soldiers experiencing the war first-hand, and being affected by its horrors. Some of them survived (Sassoon) but were physically and psychologically damaged for the rest of their lives. Although the poets show different attitudes to the war, and their themes and the styles they use are quite different. The reaction to the war passed through three different steps:
- The enthusiasm of Rupert Brooke
- The phase of the anger and protest of sigfried Sassoon
- The phase of compassion expressed by Owen While war progressed, the style and the tone of poetry changed, initially Brooke was strongly influenced by the conservatism, the romanticism and the sentimentality of the “georgian poets” who wrote around 1910 under George the fifth, they had a romantic and adventurou
way of viewing and feeling. In a more innovative style, the british seem more brutal in their description to fully express the brutality of their experience. themes:their poems are similar to Ungaretti’s ones, so the main themes are the brutality of war, the brotherhood among the soldiers, the suffering, and the shift from the romantic view of war to antimilitarism anger. The attitude towards the war changes: from the romantic exaltation and enthusiasm of war, to anti-militarism and anger. By reading 3 different poems (Brooke,Sassoon and Owen) we understand the shift from the initial enthusiasm and romantic exaltation of the war to the anger against militarism. Rupert Brooke He was born in 1887 in Rugby (England) in a wealthy family where he was well educated.He was a good student and an athlete, he was informed about literature and politics before the war, actually he didn’t fight much because he contracted the blood poisoning and he died in April 1915 and he was buried on a Greek island. As a war poet his reputation is based on 5 war sonnets in which he introduces the idea that the war is clean and purifying, he tries the safeness of the war, even death is seen as a reward so he expresses idealism. His poems are traditional not only in the form, they have the same structure of Petrarca’s sonnets (one octave and one sestet) they are similar even in the attitude towards the war which could change in the turn that war poetry took in the works of other war poets who witnessed the horror of war in the trenches. The publication of Brook’s poems fell together with his death and it made him very popular turning him into a kind of young romantic hero inspiring patriotism. The soldier (pag 188) Is a Sonnet made of 14 lines, divided in Two parts: -in the first one he talks about his death and the happiness England gave him -In the second one he speaks about life after death, and about what he can return of the joys England gave him. there is a frequent use of punctuation which slows down the rhythm of the reading. This slowness contributes to the nostalgic peacefulness conveyed by the poem. there’s the frequent use of alliteration. The tone of the poem is patriotic and heroic, the sense of sacrifice for the own native land is considered sweet because it was written at the beginning of the war when the true horrors of the war weren’t known yet. The word England is repeated a lot of times, it is viewed with nostalgia. The poem is also very personal, the poetic first person is present in the first line (I and Me) the poet expresses his attachment to England and the satisfaction of serving his country. He is proud to be English and says that the country in which he will die will have a piece of himself forever and his body will enrich its soil, by this sentence we can understand how patriotic he was and how much he romanticized England.
