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Pre Romantic Poets:
- dissatisfaction with the values of Classicism, they reject the idea that reason was the leading faculty of man’s intellect
- Use of classical form to express romantic themes: role of , exaltation of primitive life, meditative and melancholy tone,
the rediscovery of Middle Age, fascination with death, graveyards and ruins —> unusual themes like the exotic and the sublime. WILLIAM BLAKE
- born in 1757 in Soho
- He was educated mainly at home.
- He had a strong artistic talent.
- He was influenced by the Bible.
- visionary religious feeling
- He worked as an engraver and a painter.
- Illustrated works of Milton, Dante, Shakespeare and
- the Bible.
- He died in 1827.
Main works Poetical Sketches (1783)
- collection of poems and engravings
- illustrations by Blake The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793)
- prose texts
- revolutionary beliefs The French Revolution (1791)
- poetic history of the event America, a Prophecy (1793)
- engraved book
- Blake’s critical interpretation of the American Revolution Jerusalem (1804-1820)
- long, prophetic work Songs of innocence and Experience
- published in 1794, shows the two contrary states of the human soul: innocent, a pastoral world of childhood in contrast
with the adult world of corruption and repression.
- Many of the poems fall into pairs —> the same situation is seen from two different perspectives, through the lens of
innocence first and then experience.
- Songs of innocence: were written from the perspective of children, while others were about children from an adult
perspective. Focus their attention to the positive aspects of natural human understanding prior to the corruption and distortion of experience
- Songs of Experience: describe the way in which the harsh experiences of adult life can destroy what is good in , but
also point out the weakness of the innocent perspective. He was critic on State, Church, Industrial Revolution which had let to poverty, exploitation and prostitution. It has also a satanic effect of the environment
- Supporter of the French Revolution wand of the campaign to abolish slavery.
- Religious man —> in his texts there are so many references to the Bible and Milton.
- In his belief, man holds in himself both love and hate, reason and energy —> they are complementary opposites
- Role of imagination: the man could know the world only through imagination. Only God, children and poet had this
power of imagination which offered a deeper truer understanding of reality: imagination allowed men to see beyond physical , he believe in reason and sensorial experience.
- Style: simple and , but the language and the rhythms are carefully handled and the ideas often very complex, expressed
through symbolism
- Meters of ballad, nursery rhyme d and hymns
- Ambivalence of nature: benign entity and disruptive force. Industrial Revolution cause the rupture of the perfect
balance between Man and Nature. Natural creatures were dominated by contrasting instincts and opposing elements The Lamb
- songs of innocence
- Celebration of the lamb, representing purity and innocence (figure of Jesus Christ)
- Pastoral and idealistic landscape (meed) —> no corruption of nature.
- Rhyme scheme: AA BB CC DD AA EE FF EE AA —> four accents, nursery rhymes,.
- God has made an innocent creature as the lamb
- 2 stanzas, trochee verses used for religion hymns or nursery rhymes.
- Simple language
- The lamb is meek, the lamb is also the symbols of Christ.
- Circular structure
- Semantic field of nature
- Sounds: L/V
- The speaker might be a child or the poet himself
- First stanza: he address the lamb and ask about his origins
- Second : give an answer to his question: the lamb was made by one who is similar to the lamb and to himself. The
creator and his creation, perfectly coincide: the,lamb, the child and their maker are innocent and meek. The Tiger
- songs of experience: the tiger is a symbol of disruptive force and powerful perfection strength
- Set in a mysterious forest, during the night
- “ fearful symmetry” —> sublime
- What that hand: reference to two mythological figures: Prometheus and Icarus —> they steal the fire from God and
they were punished.
- “What” underlines that the speaker doesn’t understand how it was possible that the God who created the lamb is the
same that made the tiger.
- Stars:angels —> throw down the spears as , they cry for the creation of the tiger.
- God smiles during these moments.
- There is the same question:Who made you, there is no answer but q is always God that has also a disruptive force.
- Tiger was made into a secret office
- Tiger represents evil
- Action of the heart; strength
- D T C D—> sounds referred to the batter metal
- Circular structure
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
1770– He was born in the Lake District area.
- He studied at Cambridge University.
- He supported the French Revolution.
- 1795– He became a full-time writer and poet.
- He became friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
- 1843 – He became England’s poet laureate.
- He died in 1850. THE LAKE DISTRICT Natural area in Cumbria, in the north-west of England.
- Became a national park in 1951.
- Many of Wordsworth’s poems are set in this area. Lyrical Ballads
- collection of poems
- published anonymously in 1798
- The 1800 edition contained the famous Preface. Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1800)
- Manifesto of English Romantic poetry
- Written with his friend Coleridge. Poems, in Two Volume (1807) Prelude (1808)
- 13 volumes
- detailed exploration of the Poet’s self The Excursion (1814)
- philosophical reflection on man, nature and society RECOLLECTION IN TRANQUILLITY
- one of the first English romantics: he emphasises the importance of feelings, instinct and pleasure rather than formality.
- Poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech, language usually used by men,
- Scenes from everyday life
- Poetry as visionary figure with a heightened and imagination which allowed him to respond to experiences that other
men might have failed to understand.
- Golden: yellow that seems golden
- Daffodils are flattering and dancing beneath the trees. —> personification
- Rhyme scheme: ABABA CC DEDE FF—> final half rhyme, couplet.
- Stars and flowers —> they are part of the same universal order,they both follows the law of nature.
- Flower were humanised and they were associated to dance, because they move harmoniously and they are also graceful.
- Also waves dance near to them —> waves of the Lake District
- Sparkle: waves were connected with breeze, that moves both daffodils and waves. Breeze is paragonised to the creative
activity of the poet
- A poet could not to be gay, he is more sensitive to landscapes —> has a special ability, he is the unknoledge legislator
of the world
- Gazed: look with so much attention
- Vacant / pensive —> wander of the mind from a thought to another
- Bliss of solitude —> the creation is something that has to be done alone
- Tranquillity: necessary to recreate the experience
- Lonely and solitude: the poet is destinate to be alone
- Scheme: tetrametro giambico, regular scheme slower than Blake
- Sounds: L M N S P
- Commonplace experience = extraordinary experience.
PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS
- lyrical ballads: is collection of poem published jointly and anonymously by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798
- In his preface to the second edition Wordsworth presented a new concept of poetry as a spontaneous expressed in
common language
- Most famous documents of literary criticism in England Literature
- First paragraph: low and rustic life, essential passion of the heart find the most maturity
- Under restraint
- In order to understand nature, we have to get back to rustic life (contemplation and communication)
- More easily comprended—>
- Beauty and life unified
- The role of the poet: more sensibility, more enthusiast and comprehensive, is like a child. —> is superior to the general
mankind
- Impelled: he has the necessity to share his emotions in poetry
- Poetry: is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings —> emotions recollected in tranquillity,in this mood the mind
will be in a state of enjoyment COLERIDGE He was born in Devon in 1772.
- He studied at Jesus College at Cambridge University but never graduated.
- He became interested in the political situation of his time: uncertain about the French Revolution, but convinced about the idea of freedom.
- 1794 – He went to to America to create a “utopian community” called “Pantisocracy” and based on the equal distribution of work and rewards: the project collapsed; they tried to move it to Wales; the project collapsed again. He published his first volume of poems in 1796.
- He became a friend of William Wordsworth’s.
- He went to Germany in 1798. Interest in idealistic philosophy.
- He returned to England in 1800 and settled in the Lake District area.
- He lectured and wrote extensively on literature, politics, religion, and philosophy.
- He was considered a “prophet” by many intellectuals of his time.
- He died in 1834. Coleridge is remembered for 3 main poetic works: Christabel (1797)
- nightmare situation
- remote medieval setting The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798)
- mysterious visions and events
- act of “hybris” (= arrogance) against nature
- style: old ballads Kubla Kahn (1798)
- distant, oriental setting
- role of magic
- influence of opium Coleridge’s contribution to Romanticism:
- return to the MAGICAL and the SUPERNATURAL;
- importance of the MARVELLOUS over the natural as opposed to Wordsworth’s interest in nature and the commonplace. THE RIME OF AN ANCIENT MARINER
- geographical element: the story has to be realistic
- Killing of the albatross —> bad luck, this act is against God
- The breeze stops
- The crew accused the Mariner
- The weather is getting better, the crew changes his mind
- The ship entered in a Pacific Ocean —> reaches the line
- The sails dropped down
- They talked to break the silence of the sea —> alliteration.
- Artificial image: sky of the color of the copper, and bloody —> prophetic element: anticipate what will come after, it
stands for the crew’s death
- The albatross is started to be revenged
- They are near the equator. Humid and hot, not wind. Too hot and they don’t have water
- Invoked to Christ —> there are sea monsters in the water —> willy suspicion of disbelief
- Spirits followed the ship, that persecuted them also into nightmares
- Every tongue was dry, they can’t speak, they are choked with soot
- The crew throw the entire guilt to the ancient mariner: they put the dead albatross on his shoulder.
- Cross: symbol off guilt —> mariner paragonized to Jesus Christ —> consider guilty and hang on a cross.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Biography:
- Born on 4 August 1792 in Sussex, England, in a wealthy, aristocratic family
- Radical non-conformist in every aspect of his life
- He studied at the Eton College —> he was unhappy, rebellion student known as Mad Shelley
- Oxford university
- 1811: radical pamphlet “the Necessity of Atheism”—> expelled from university and estranged from his father—> financial difficulties.
- Married with Harriet Westbrook—> they travelled a lot
- 1813, first serious work: Queen mab: a Philosophical Poem —> revolutionary vision of society
- Fell in love with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin —> eloped together to europe and married in 1818
- In Switzerland—> meeting with Byron, in Lake Geneva they discuss about poetry, Mary, wrote Frankestein there.
- Harriet suicide, and Shelley lost custody of his two children because of his adherence to the notion of free love —> immoral figure
- 1818 “The revolt of Islam”—> attacks on religion
- Last years, spent in Italian cities, —> “ode to the West Wind”, “the Cenci” “To a Skylark”, “Adonais”
- Lyrical drama “prometheus unbound”
- 1821 a critica essay “A defense of Poetry”
- He died in 1822, he was drowned in a storm. His ashes were interred in the portestant cemetery in Rome. Main works The Revolt of Islam (1818)
- a 12-canto romance epic poem on the bloody repression of a peaceful revolution against the despotic ruler of the fictional state of Argolis. Ozymandias (1818)
- sonnet with political significance, highlights the impermanence of empires and men of power. The Cenci (1819)
- a verse tragedy based on the horrific true story of incest, and patricide in the Cenci family in late 17th century Rome. The Mask of Anarchy (1819)
- 1820—> third and best volume of poetry “Lamia; Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems + 3 Odes.
- Keats died in Rome on 23 February at the age of 25 —> on his gravestone was written “A young English poet” followed by “Here lies one whose name was written in water”—> central theme of Keats’ poetry: brevity and sorrow of life. Through his works, his name would become immortal. Poems by John Keats (1817)
- his first published collection Endymion (1818)
- erotic/allegorical romance based on Greek myth ➢ early works attacked by critics but favourably reviewed by Shelley Hyperion (1818 published 1820)
- blank verse epic of the Greek creation myth La Belle Dame sans Merci (1819)
- ballad recounting the folk tale of a mortal man who falls in love with a supernatural ‘femme fatale’ Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820)
- Keats’ third and last collection of poems, includes his famous odes: considered his finest works and highly praised by critic Ode on a Grecian Urn Ode on Melancholy KEATS’ NEGATIVE CAPABILITY
- second generation of romantic poets —> being affected by the political and social upheavals of his time
- Keat’s works —> universal and eternal, evocative force of the subjects handled in his poetry
- Negative capability —> poet’s ability to put reason aside lose himself in a imaginative experience in order to create great poetry. —> notion of impersonality: a poet has the power tu subdue self consciousness (as reason and logic), imagination is more powerful than reason, trough it, poet can see beauty in things TRUTH THROUGH BEAUTY
- Keats was strongly attacked to art and nature and to Greek and medieval culture —> represented immortal beauty in contrast with a fleeting, sorrowful present
- Precursor of aestheticism —>description of beauty of nature and of art works involved all senses
- Beauty is truth NATURE AND THE DOUBLE MEANING OF BEAUTY Nature—> source of images and reflections on the essence of human beings and on universal values such as art, beauty and the truth. By contemplating beauty of natural creatures, Keats discovers that beauty isn’t eternal, but only the power of art can eternise it and make it immortal. ODE ON A GRECIAN URN Five ten-line stanzas
- Regular rhyme scheme for first seven verses (ABABCDE)
- Variable rhyme scheme in last three verses (CDE invarying order)
- Precise iambic pentameter
- Ode to a greek urn that the poet has imaged, he tried to imagine what story each of its illustrated side tells.
- Keats recognises the brevity of “breathing human passion”, but finds in ancient Greek culture a Symbol of beauty that inspires the poet and rises to the eternal value of truth.
- Main themes:
- Difference between eternal perfection of at and mutability and suffering of human existence
- Art is the only way to overcome death
- Life is fleeting and sorrowful, instead of the picture: nothing can change into an image—> the young lover will always
be in love
- The urn, represents Art, that is a refuge from time
First stanza
- The ode starts addressing to the Urn, and also with a personification—> bride of quietness: immutability of art.
- Foster child of silence and slow time —> urn usually represents imagines that last with the passing of the time.
- Parallelism historian - urn: both tell stories about common people or Gods
- Flowery: detailed stories about nature
- Which is the story that fill that urn? Second stanza
- The unheard melodies are sweetener than heard ones —> silence is sweetener than music. Music represents real life, instead of silence that makes reference to the eternity of arts.
- Pipes are playing for more precious ears, they are playing silence music.
- A fair youth is represents with an instrument in his hands. He ’s froze, his music never ends
- Nature is at its maximum of expression: trees will never loose their leaves.
- There is a bold lover, that is going to kiss his girl—> he won’t kiss her but she won’t loose her beauty. This moment is frozen, feelings are at the highest point during the moment before the act of kissing. This moment will rest in eternity Third Stanza
- Boughs will never loose their leaves and they don’t have to say goodbye to spring.
- Melodist are happy and unwarnearied —> songs are always new
- Last verses: if you lived love, inevitably it will ends. So, love represented in this urn is at the maximum grade and better of the real life’s one. Fourth Stanza
- The other side of the urn shows people from a nearby town going to a sacrifice to the Gods —> the town they hav eleft will be forever empty
- No one can returns —> sad and desolate Fifth stanza
- attic—> peninsula attica
- With intertwined designs of man and women of marble —> sculptures subtracts people form their thought
- Cold pastoral —> poetry with pastoral themes
- Referente to the urn for his whole, the urn symbolizes art, a refuge from time, but also a way to preserve tijme.
- Beauty represent truth
- Arte i s what can make life eternal, MARY SHELLEY
- Mary Shelley was bor on 30 August 1797
- Daughter of a philosopher and political writer —> William Godwin
- Famed feminist Mary Wollstonecraft died after her birth
- 1801 —> her father married Jane Clairmont
- Godwing household had a number of guests — > William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and iliaco Wordsworth
- 1814 Mary met Percy Bysshe Shelley (still married with another woman) —> fled to England together, they travelled
in europe for a long time
- Summer of 1816 they were in Switzerland with Jane Clairmont, Lord Byron and John Polidori. Byron suggest that
they should all try to write a horror story. Mary won this friendly competition and her contribution marked the beginning of work on what would become her most famous novel “ Frankestein, or the modern Prometheus”, published in 1818, as a novel by an anonymous author
- Suffered the loss of her step sister fanny who committed suicide.
- After the suicide of Percy’s wife, Mary and Percy got married in December 1816
- 1822 Percy dead
- She has to surviving alone, she wrote severals novels including Valperga, the science fiction “The Last Man”
- Mary Shelley died of brain tumor on 1 February 1851, aged 53, in London
- Buried in St.Peter’s Church in London.
FRANKESTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
- published anonymously in 1818
- Gothic, dramatical settings : dark laboratories, mountain landscapes and icy wastes of the North Pole
- Grim atmosphere
- Episodes of horror and violence
- Features that reflect 19th century novel of purpose: h ighly original examination of the question of scientific research
and ethical sensibility and of the essence of human nature
- The work is technically an epistolary novel, told through the letters of an English arctic explorer , Walton
PLOT
- introduction: series of letters written by Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, to his sister in
England
- Walton finds a dying man Victor Frankstein, traveling across the ice, he tells him his strange story
- Dr. Frankestein studied science at university of Ingolstadt in Germany.
- He discover the secret of giving life to inanimate matter —> using body parts from corpses, assembled a monstrous
creature and gave it life
- The creature’s horrible appearance inspired fear and loathing everybody it met
- Endowed also with human feelings —> became lonely and miserable
- The monster learn to hate men —> killed Frankestein’s brother, and Justine a Servan girl) was incriminate and
executed for murder
- The creature persuade the reluctant Frankestein to create a female companion for him. He does it, but he was
horrified by his second monster so he destroyed it.
- The monster took revenge killing his good friend Henry Clerval and Elizabeth , his girlfriend.
- Frankestein pursued his creature as far as the arctic —> this bring us to the beginning of the novel and Frankestein's
rescue by Captain Walton
- Frankestein has finished his creature and he looks on it —> he fells disgusted after looked at his own work
- Setting: dreary night of November ( month of the death), night (gothic element). Frankestein is doing something illegal, he can’t do it during the day.
- Is is already one In the morning —> he didn’t”sleep or eat, no normal lifestyle
- The rain pattern dismally —> it makes noise
- Candle almost burnout —> half extinguished light
- Eyes symbol of personality and soul —> if eyes are alive the person is alive
- Toils —-> fatiche
- Lay on feet —> the creature is inferior, there’s a distance between frankestein and his creature
- Frankestein represents God , and his creature represented mankind (ugly and disgusting)
- Limbs (membra e organi)
- Description of emotion —> catastrophe, wretch, negatively connotated
- Monster —> negative, expression of the period, progression of the science
- Limits of human science —> when a man tries to overcome limits of nature, is more likely to be punished
- It is a gothic novel but also a novel of purpose
- The creature is not considered a person because it is an experiment and it is awful. It is like an aborted project, it is artificial, not made by men.
- Frankestein looses control over his creature , instead of nature that doesn’t loose control
- His individual parts are beautiful, but the whole part is awful —> all the parts are taking from different bodies , the entire figure , the outcome is not beautiful in itself. it is impossible creating something harmonic from different bodies.
- Flowing —> fluenti in contrast with eyes (watery: without life) —> yellow
- Straight black lips —> doesn’t expressive
- Past perfect —> reference to the past
- Purpose: give life to an inanimate body , no health.
- Gap/discrepancy between expectations and outcomes —> use of the word dream
- unable of endure the aspects of the being (endure: sopportare; bear) —> non riesce a sopportare gli aspetti fisici della sua creatura.
- He walked across his room , he can’t sleep. Compose his mind to sleep —> non riesce a calmarsi
- Lay on the bed endeavouring to seek few moments of forgetfulness (sforzo)
- Endeavour —> Frankestein wants to overcome human limits , as the romantic spirit
- Modern Prometheus
- He slept but he was disturbed by nightmares —>wildest dreams
- He saw Elizabeth (the woman he love) —> wife to be (she would be killed before). When he kissed her lips, her lips became of the color of death.
- He thought that he has hold the corpse of his death mother, bitten by grave - worms.
- Every part of his body trembles.
- Dim —> light of the moon
- Miserable —>. Very sad, desperate
- The monster t hrew the curtains of the bed and looks at Frankestein
- The monster doesn’t know the language —> Frankestein senses are confused
- an hand stretch out —> a way to communicate with his creator, to enstablished a relation
- The creature sees his symbolic father rejected him.
- He walked up and down in the greatest agitation
- Creature —> demoniacal corpse
- No humans could support the vision of his aspect
- Joints:tendini
- Even Dante couldn’t have conceived
- I felt the palpitation of every artery
- Bitterness of disappointed —> amarezza della delusione
- Overthrow: ribaltamento. The situation has changed so quickly. He started to reject what he has done.
- The creature isn’t a person, because he uses the pronouns he/him but he talks about him as an inanimate thing —> he’s confused. VICTORIAN AGE Queen Victoria: 1837-
- Ascended to the Throne at the age of 18 on the death of her uncle William IV
- She was inexperienced but she found support in Lord Melbourn , her prime minister
- 1840: married her cousin, Albert of Saxecoburg - Gotha. She was devoted to her husband and they had nine children
- Restored the reputation of the Monarchy , profound understanding of her constitutional role.
Social Reform
- Britain became the workshop of the world thanks to the abundant supply of cheap coal and iron
- Prosperity was accompanied by increasing urban poverty and social injustice
- Reform bill 1832 : vote to middle class
- 1839 : The Charist Movement presented parliament with a six point petition —> “ The People’s Charter” : universal
male suffrage and parliamentary reform.
- 1867 : extended suffrage to workers in towns
- 1884 another reform bill: vote to miners and agricultural workers
- Factory Acts: reduced working hours and regulated child and female labour
- Education Act 1870: made education compulsory
Industrial and technological advance
- first team locomotive of 1803 was succeeded by George Stephenson’s steam locomotives for a coal mine.
- 1829: was opened th e first permanent rail passenger service —> beginning of railway age —> industrial prosperity
- Shipbuilding grew thanks the construction of iron ships powered by steam
- Metropolitan Railway (first underground railway), 1863
- Invention of telegraph 1837
- Introduction of penny postal system 1840 , —> great contribution to communication
The rich and the poor
- age of optimism , peace, prosperity and technological progress: growing middle class , metal aspects of their family
life and in moral aspects, with ostentatious displays of religious observance and strict public morality.
- Poorer working classes : paid the price of development. They paid in brutal, unsanitary conditions. They don’t have
access to clean water, health food or decent clothing and education. Victorian workhouses were separated from their families. Forced to perform too many hours with no pay, no freedom and no dignity. The year of optimism
- victorians were aware of the social costs of industrialization but they are firmly convinced that the nation’problem
could be solved thanks to their achievements in the fields of science and technology
- Upper and middle class —> enjoy this century as a period of wealth, status and comfort
- Wealth and poverty were considered indicators of moral value
- Wealthier classes —> rigid standards of respectability, virtue, ethics and religion
Free trade
- 1839: a nti Corn Law League f ounded in Manchester in 1839 —> fighting for free trade and cheaper food
- 1846. Repeal of corn Laws—> shift from and agricultural to an industrial economy
- Free trade formed the basis of a long economic boom
New political parties
- whigs evolved into Liberal Party —> William E. Gladston (prime minister for four times), he tries to give Ireland
home Rule
- Tories evolved into Conservative Party —> Benjamin Disraeli, firm believer in British Empire , crowned Victoria as
Empress of India. Responsible for the second reform bill —> suffrage to working class, and legalizing trade unions in
- The independent labour party was formed out of the trade unions in 1892.
Empire and foreign policy
- the optimism and confidence of the first 40 years were confirmed by e conomic political and military success of
Britain and the Empire.
- Victorians —>convinced of their superiority, moral duty to export their language, culture and traditions to the
“uncivilised land” —> they exploit peoples, lands and resources. The opium wars
- 1840 Chinese government —> put and end to the East India company’s illegal exportation of opium from india to China —> serious social and economic problems in China, war broke out.
- Britain won the war and China was obliged to cede Hong Kong and Shangai
- the second opium war —> continue of the first: England allied with Greece to open up the Chinese market to commerce and to allow free access to christian missionaries Ireland
- suffered a devastating famine in 1845-47 caused by a failure of the potato crop among a population dependent on
potatoes for survival. —> many irish emigrate to americas and Australia The great Exhibition of Works and Industry - 1851
- Prince Albert promote this International exhibition held in 1851, in a revolutionary glass and iron structure know as
“Crystal Palace”, displayed some 100,000 exhibits from 15000 contributors and it was an immense success. The Expanding Empire
- greatest extension of the British empire
- I mperial expansion —> access to raw materials and new markets for Britain
- 1800-1914 —> milions of British people emigrated to Canada and Australia to seek their fortunes
- 1887: 50th anniversary of Victorian Reign —> representatives from all the Queen’s overseas possession
The crimean War
- Britain and France against the Russian empire
- Britain fired that Russia might threaten Turkish and British, control of the dardanelles
- General Ulysses Grant took over the command of the union forces in 1864 and war finally came to an end in 1865
with the surrender of the Confederate forces
- Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and the new president Andrew Johnson had to attempt to reconcile former enemies
- Reconstruction acts of 1867 the Southern states were readmitted to the Union
- 14th Amendement of 1868 gave American citizenship to former slaves and in 1870 black men were given the right to
vote under the 15th amendment After the war 1866
- many southerners joined organizations like the Ku klux Klan founded in 1866—> restore the white control over the
southern states ‘ government
- The native Americans were being dispossessed of their ancestral lands in the west
- Thousand of settlers moved west to the Great Plains of grassland lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky
Mountains
- Thousand of freed slaves moved to Great Plains to begin a new life. The areas were inhabited from native
Americans who had lived there before the arrival of Europeans
- The American west was settled in the years between 1840-
The “Gilded Age”
- united states enjoyed a period of peace and entered a Gilded Age: saw industry flourish and immigration continue
- Steel and iron production flourished
- Gold and silver mining led to the need for an improved transport system
- American railroad system developed and great fortunes were won by men like John D. Rockefeller and Andrea
Carnegie who exploited the oil and steel industries respectively LITERARY BACKGROUND
- pervaded by the triumph of the novel and characterized by
- The victorian compromise: intellectuals wanted to instruct and entertain their readers without bitterly criticizing the
world they belong to —> realism + moral aim
- Anti-victorian reaction: exposes all the contradiction of their era. Influenced by the birth of realism (realist
representation of the world without personal or moral judgments and by the spread of Darwin’s revolutionary theory of natural selection. Were also influenced by writers of positivism they tended to see life from a pessimistic point of view and aimed at representing in a objective and non idealized way Why novel?
- increasing of number of readers
- People could borrow books from libraries
- Novels were portable objects
- Published in instalments in newspapers: made novels extremely popular and engaging
Common features of novels:
- complex but not embarrassing issues —> what readers want o read
- Clear moral aim
- Human conditions in a realist way
- Adevnturous plot rich in characters, unexpected events, surprise and subplots
- 3rd- coscient omnisciente narrador —> spokeperson of the author
- Structured into three volumes
First phase: represented society in which they lived a realistic way —> conscious of the contradictions that characterized Victorian moral values and society but never criticized them —> stands at the core of the victorian compromise —> Charles Dickens most important of this phase Second phase: criticism became stronger and realism more evident. They used prose to denounce the veils of society without anreticence
- representation of the divided self. Duality of the human nature (Dr Jekill and Mr Hide Robert Stevenson)
- Pessimistic point of view
- Aesteticism (demonstrated by Oscar Wilde)—> picture of Dorian Gray: manifesto of English aestheticism—> art don’t
need to have a teaching or moral values
- Revalutation of nonsense: Alice in the wonderland —< demastifies the strict moral and behavioral rules of vict0orian
age
- Colonial novels (Kipling)
Victorian Poetry
- Alfred Tennyson and Robert Brownin —> use of dramatic monologue
- Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood: took inspiration from the pure style of medieval art and wrote poems that celebrate
mysticism, sensuality ad nostalgia.
- American Literature: Emily Dickinson
Victorian Drama
- Oscar Wilde —> sparkling, witty, jokes e irony, criticized society and its absurd social conventions
- George Bernard shaw —> social criticism and moral awareness, exposed the hypocrisy and superficiality of victorian
society, Pygmaleon
American Renaissance
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Herman Melville —> Moby dick
- Marc twain
- Henry James
ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION
- preservation of favored races in the struggle for life
- Stirred controversy and hostility in religious, went against some religious principles contained into the Bible
- All living creatures to tiny variations over the generations
- Preservation of the favorite races in the struggle for life
- Tree like structure: branches can be traced in the struggle for life
CHARLES DICKENS
Biography:
- 7 February 1812, Portsmouth
- Nine years old, was sent to school
- Three years later the father was imprisoned for outstanding debts
- Forced to work ten-hour days in a blacking factory —> material for him in his future work
- 1833 parliamentary reporter for The Morning Chronicle
- Published series of sketches with the pseudonym “Boz”
- Marriage with Catherine Hogart
- Produced an immense number of novels (before they were published in magazines and then as complete books)
HARD TIMES
- Last phase production
- Criticism of Victorian values and morality
- Depit the contrast between the life of the poor and if the rich and the power of education as an instrument for
promouting emancipation
- Criticism towards utilitarism
- Set in an artificial place —> coketown (inspired by Preston, in the north of England)
- Tomas Gradgrind: advocate of utilitarianism: bring up Louisa and Tom to belief in Hard Facts, rejecting any form of
imagination and enjoyment
- Love: useless feeling, marriage shouldn’t be based on love but on convenience —> her daughter has to marry a factory
owner Joshua Bounderby, 30 years older than her.
- Louisa accept in order to help the brother Tom, who is employed into his factory ——> unhappy marriage, she returns
back to her family.
- Gradigrind started to understand his mistakes.
- Tom steals money from Bounderby, another innocent man Stephen was accused and killed.
- Louisa and Mr Grandgrind realised that he was guilt and succeed to bring him away from justice
- Mr Grandgrind is a changed man, devotes himself to help the poor
- Tom repents for his actions but he didn’t see his family anymore
- Bounderby dies alone in the streets of Coketown
- Louisa finds love in her friend and family
- Even if some people die, there is an happy ending
Themes:
- criticism of the veils of Victorian England
- Plight of young characters growing up in a hostile adult world
- Hardships of the working class: contrast between conditions of the life of poor and rich
- Critic of Utilitarianism: a materialistic philosophy that encouraged reform and struggled to extend education to all, but
at the same time exclude imagination and the full development of individual
- Huge schools
- Students became numbers instead of people, forced into conformity and harsh discipline. They can’t express their
personality
- Education can rescue poor and working classes, protecting them from ignorance and degradation
- When schools are badly run, they became an instruments of slavery and dehumanisation
NOTHING BUT FACTS —> an educational path, the way teaching students is in conformity to utilitarism
- Mr Gradgrind is the owner of the school, they referred to students with number
- Description of square forms —> symbol of staying into rigid rules, equal sides (all are equals)
- Firm voice
- Gradgrind asks for the definition of a Horse. A new student, called Sissy (comes from a circus family). She uses the
imagination, but Gradgrind cuts off the conversation. She doesn’t know what to say.
- Pfizer gives an objective definition (tells a lot of facts), the narrator cuts of the description.
