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THE AGE OF REASON
A golden age The 18th century in England is usually regarded as a golden age and it was called "Augustan age". It was a period of cultural innovation and public debate. There was a rejection of superstition, fanaticism and verbal violence. The main virtues became politeness, moderation and rationality. The philosopher of politeness was the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury; he thought that man has an innate sense of what is right and wrong and that correct behaviour should be learnt since childhood. Civility and moderation Civility and moderation became the 18th century ideal. This influenced the emerging of the figure of the gentleman, but there was also a counter-culture with his taste for manly sports, such as boxing, racing and fox hunting and for material gain and individual happiness The role of women English women were more independent in their social and cultural life than women in the rest of Europe; they attended the theatres and coffee houses. Women, readers and writers, influenced the novel: they wanted to read stories about ordinary people not about heroes of the past. Anew postal service was created, the London Penny Post, so there were epistolary novels. The circulating libraries and book clubs and the reduction of book's prices, helped the access to books A new view of the natural world Enlightened thinkers wanted to understand the world, but also to improve it. They didn't accept the calvinist idea that everything was controlled by God or Devil. They had an optimistic view of the natural world, that was considered benign and beautiful and not corrupted by sin. There was a new interest for landscape paintings that became a typically english genre. This rational age wanted to improve nature, not only society. The english garden was invented with its values of freedom and simplicity and they were copied all over Europe. Then the uncultivated lands were enclosed and improved. The english gardens represented the harmony between men and nature Explorations Optimism and the belief in reason encouraged explorations. Captain Cook explored the new lands such as Australia, New Zealand and Hawaiian islands and met native peoples uncorrupted by civilisations.
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
The fathers of the english novel Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson e Johnatan Swift are regarded as the fathers of the english novel. The novelist of the 18th century represented the middle class and their message was directed to a bourgeois public. The writer's aim The traditional plots taken from history, legend and mythology were abandoned. They wanted to write in a simple way and to be understood by less educated readers. They were paid by booksellers and not by the patron, so speed and quantity became very important. The message of the novel The story was particularly appealing to the self-made men because of-the sense of reward and punishment, that was the message of the novel, connected to the Puritan's morality of the middle class The characters The writers tried to portray the different human experiences in a realistic way. The subject of the novel was the bourgeois man and his problem, who was the hero of the novel and the reader was expected to sympathise with him. [The characters were usually of two types: one type was represented by people who believe in reason like Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; the second type was formed by people who cannot control their passions. They had contemporary names to reinforce the impression of realism.]
The narrative technique The writer was omnipresent a s an omniscient third person narrator or a first person narrator, who was the main character. There were many references to particular times of the year or of the day. The setting Also the place of the action became very important: time and place were too different aspects of the same reality, there were frequent references to names of the streets and towns to make the situation more realistic
18th CENTURY – THE ROMANTIC AGE (1776-1837)
The Romantic period was related with social and historical context in which it developed. Defined the Age of Revolutions because of the changes which took place in Britain during this time. ● Agricultural and Transport Revolution (Britain, 1760-1820) ● Revolution of the American colonies (1776) led to the War of Secession; the American Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. ● Industrial Revolution(Britain, 1780). Industry and economy flourished, and Adam Smith’s theory of laissez-faire developed ● French Revolution broke out (1789). It destroyed the old social order in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity, beginning the rise of the middle class. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION – AGRICULTURAL AND TRANSPORT Describes the change from agrarian/maritime economy to industrialised economy. Term Industrial Revolution Suggests a sudden and violent event but, on the contrary, changes developed over a number of decades and as a continuing peaceful process ● Technological innovations Steam-power. Coal used as fuel for steam engines (coal mines, great number of workers) ● Factory system Use of iron instead of wood. Factory is the new unit of the system, production in one place. Positive consequences ● more food was being produced ● cheaper production methods ● more people were becoming literate ● better roads and new networks of canals Negative consequences ● very bad and dangerous conditions in coal mines ● pollution ● monotonous life, alienation SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION – TECHNOLOGY ● building of railroads ● use of machinery in manufacturing ● increased use of steam power ● electrical communications The working classes Workers began to form associations, to improve working conditions and higher wages. The ruling classes forced Parliament to declare these associations illegal in 1799-1800.They continued to exist, often in secret, and were finally legalised in 1824. CULTURAL BACKGROUND – THE PRE-ROMANTIC PERIOD Last 30 ● ● ● ● ● years of the 18th century. Return to nature: real and living being. Meditations on man’s unhappy destiny. Cult of the primitive: wild, desolated places in which man lived in communion with nature Love of the strange, the exotic, the sublime Interest in feelings and emotions.
the most important poets were Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake (who uses the figure of the child as a pure being) According to Wordsworth poetry was a solitary act that originated in the ordinary rather than in the extraordinary. He was part of the first generation of poets, so he values the importance of nature and he believes that man and nature are inseparable, since nature is a source of joy and pleasure that is able to comfort man when he is in sorrow and is able to teach man how to love and how to act in a moral way. Wordsworth had a pantheistic view of nature so he saw nature as the seat of the spirit of the universe.According to Wordsworth the poet has to become a sort of a teacher to men that, thanks to the power of imagination, is able to share his knowledge on how to understand their feelings and improve their moral being. His job is also that of drawing attention to the ordinary things of life because it's there that the deepest emotions lie. Coleridge thought that memories weren't really creative and that they were inferior to imagination. Unlike Wordsworth, Coleridge didn't view nature as a moral guide or as a sorce of consolation, and for him it wasn't either an expression of God in the universe. For Coleridge nature represented the awareness of the presence of the ideal in the real and it had an essential role for the creativity of the poet, since it stimulated him to find natural symbols that could reflect his emotions and his feelings. The colours and the shapes that nature took symbolized the emotional and mental states of the poet. The second generation of poets: Shelley and Byron
- • • -they valued moral revolts over the values of the first generation of poets -they criticise the new society, their innovation and their progress the most important poets are Shelley, Byron, Keats (who is also the first one to use the iambic pentameter) Shelley used imagination to change the reality of the real world and ,therefore, to create poetry. She wanted to change reality by sharing her thoughts but, of course,it was not possible. She isolated herself from the rest of the world because she preferred to live in her imagination. She viewed imagination as some sort of alienation. Reality can be disappointing that is why she chooses to live in her imagination where she is in control of everything. Shelley is an ardent lover and worshipper of Nature. Nature is to Shelley a spiritual reality. Shelley looks upon Nature as a never-ending source of solace and inspiration. She believes that there is in Nature a capability for communicating with the mind and emotions of man. Shelley considers Nature to be a companion endowed with the power of ridding human beings of their pain and agonies. This view of Nature has its origin in Shelley’s personal experience. Whenever she is sad, she turns to Nature and succeeds in drawing comfort from it. She finds in Nature a never-ending source of delightful images. Shelley frequently goes outdoors to look for symbols to give concrete shapes to her abstract thought and emotions. According to her , nature represents the favourite and the better refuge from the injustice of the real world and it also represents the interlocutor of his melancholy dreams and his hopes for a better future. Byron firmly believed in individual liberty, he wanted all men to be free and he wished to be himself without compromises. He denounces the evils of society. In his works nature is not a source of joy and consolation but it represents men’s feelings ( men are always isolated and their state of mind is represented by exotic landscapes).
THE ROMANTIC NOVEL: JANE AUSTEN Jane Austen is regarded as the master of the novel of manners. She owes so much to the 18th- century novelist, from whom she learned the psychology of the characters and the subtleties of the ordinary events of life, like balls, walks and tea parties. Jane’s real concern was with people, and the analysis of character and conduct. She remained committed to the moral principles of the previous generation (ex. Henry Fielding for the omniscient narrator) but checked them through her own direct observation and spontaneous feeling. Her work is very amusing and, at the same time, deals with serious matters of love, marriage and parenthood. Her main features: o happy ending o use of dialogue o all her novels are settled in her countryside, the place she knew better o description of middle class o theme of marriage!! (for different reasons: for love, for money and social positions, for sexual attraction like Mr and Mrs Bennet) + (women couldn’t work at the time so they waited for marriage) o private reflection (to fulfil a social obligation) The theme of MARRIAGE : the traditional values of country families, such as property, money and marriage, provided the basis of the plots and setting of Jane’s novels. They take place in England. She writes about the oldest England, based on the possession of land and country houses. In her stories people from different countries get married as a result of the growing social mobility. The marriage market takes place in London and Bath, where also gossip, flirtations and seductions can be founded.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
The plot of Pride and Prejudice is that of a romantic comedy: it deals with the fortunes of young loves, their trials and ends in happy marriages. It is set in Longbourn, a small country village in Hertfordshire, where Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their 5 daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Lydia and Kitty. One day a rich bachelor, Charles Bingley, rent a large estate in the neighbourhood. After a series of balls and parties, Mr Bingley falls in love with Jane, and his best friend, Mr Darcy, begins to feel attracted to Elizabeth, but she dislikes him because of his snobbish behaviour. When Mr Darcy declares his love, he shows contempt for Elizabeth’s inferior social position and criticises her family. Elizabeth refuses him and accuses him of separating her sister and Mr Bingley and of ill-treating George Wickham, a young officer who betrayed the trust of Mr Darcy. Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter where he reveals Wickham’s real nature: he is just an unscrupulous adventurer. Meanwhile Wickham elopes with Lydia. Darcy finds them and provides for their marriage. Elizabeth realises that she was mistaken about Darcy and, when he proposes to her for the second time, she accepts. Bingley becomes engaged to Jane, so the novel ends with the happy marriage of the two couples.
The main characters are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. They both have positive qualities, but
also weaknesses. Darcy knows the principles of how to behave in his social world, but is arrogant and unsociable. Elizabeth has a lively mind, one of the qualities that attracts Darcy to her. She is intelligent, full of ideas, independent and refuses to take on the roles which her family try to impose on her. Both Elizabeth and Darcy show an imperfect understanding of themselves and each other. She accuses him of pride and he accuses her of prejudice (these accusations are partly well-founded). But they also work in reverse: she is proud and he is prejudiced by his upbringing and is disgusted by the vulgar behaviour of Elizabeth’s mother and sisters.
There was always a comment on the plot, thanks to an omniscient narrator who erected a barrier between right and wrong. The setting chosen by most Victorian novelists was the city, because it was a symbol of industrial civilisation. It is important to underline that a lot of Victorian novels were published by women who used fake names (Jane Austen or George Elliot ).
CHARLES DICKENS
Dickens was born in Portsmouth (Southern cost of England) in 1812. He had an unhappy childhood because he had to work in a factory and his father went to prison for some debts. When he was 15 he found employment as an office boy and he became a newspaper reporter with the pen name Boz. He got a lot of success with some autobiographical novels: Oliver Twist or David Copperfield. He was regarded as the novelist of cities, such as London and he described different social levels ( lower middle class, the criminal world with murderers or pickpockets and respectable people ). His characters were those of the lower classes and he was always on the side of the poor, especially children, who were innocent or corrupted by adults. The main themes were: poverty, family and childhood. His aim was to make the ruling classes aware of the social problems He used a very rich and original style, with a lot of adjectives and details. He is regarded as the greatest novelist in the English language. His most important novel is OLIVER TWIST.
OLIVER TWIST
The protagonist is Oliver, he is an innocent and pure child who was born from unknown parents. At the end of the novel he is saved by a well to do family from the life of a villain, in fact he receives kindness and affection. The novel is set in London, where Dickens presents three worlds: that of the Victorian middle class(made of respectable people) , the world of workhouses and the criminal world( where poverty drives people into crime ).
THE BRONTË SISTERS
Charlotte, Emily and Anne were the Brontë sisters. They spent most of their life in isolation in Yorkshire and they were self educated. To express their emotions, they began to write some stories of imaginary countries, they started to publish them by using some pseudonyms. For example Charlotte published JANE EYRE.
JANE EYRE
Jane is an orphan who grew up with her hostile aunt, Mrs Reed. Jane is sent to a very strict school, where she is not given enough food. When she grows up she becomes a teacher there, but she decides to accept a job as governess and she falls in love with her boss, Mr Rochester. When he proposes her she agrees to marry him, but the wedding is interrupted by a strangers who declares that Rochester has already a wife Bertha Mason. Jane leaves the country and goes to live with her cousins at More House. One night she hears Rochester s voice and she returns to Thornfield Hall, but the house has been destroyed by a fire caused by Bertha. Rochester lost his sight and a hand. Now Jane agrees to marry him, and when they have their first child Rochester has his sight back. The story is structured around five separate locations and every house or place has a symbolical name. Thornfield means “ a field of thorns”, the place of mystery and temptation. Moor House represents the place where she tries to give a sense to her life again. JANE is intense, passionate, rebellious and independent. She undergoes many struggles such as the conflict between duty and desire. Jane Eyre is the novel of growing up, and the most important themes are : education, childhood and marriage ( it is not seen as a social compromise but as a true relationship with equals). Everything is seen from Jane s point of view, so there is a first person narration.
LEWIS CARROLL
Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of Charles Dodgson.
He was born in Cheshire in a numerous family with artistic and literary interests, in fact his
childhood was very happy, and he described it as a “wonderland”.
He started to write books for children such as ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.
He is the creator of the “nonsense world” where he shows the absurdity of the world
ALICE S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND
The story is set in Wonderland, a crazy world. It takes place in a “real world”, in fact she falls asleep next to her sister, and she starts to dream. Alice enters here by following a rabbit, and there animals act as normal people. Wonderland is not really another world, but it is our own world seen with the eyes of a child. The main themes of the novel are : growing up and children trying to survive in adults’ world. At the end of the story Alice loses most of her imagination, she has grown up and she can’t stay in Wonderland any longer, in fact she wakes up back in the real world. The other characters are : the Mad Hatter, the King, the Queen of Hearts. ROBERT LEWIS STEVENSON
He was born in Edinburgh in a poor family and he spent most of his childhood in bed,
terrified of the dark room he was kept in and tutored at home.
He travelled a lot, looking for a better climate ( Italy, Germany, France..)
He graduated in law and decided to dedicate his life to writing and he married an
American woman. He died of a brain haemorrhage.
His masterpiece is THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE.
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
The story takes place in London and it’s about Dr Henry Jekyll who creates a position
able to release his evil side, Mr.Hyde. These two beings are in a perpetual struggle, also
because Hyde always tries to archive domination over the Jekyll aspect. At the end of the
story he must eliminate Hyde in the only way left, by killing him. But to do that he must kill
himself, so suicide is the only choice.
The novel represents the faces of the two opposite sides of the same man. Stevenson did
that in order to represent the differences between the respectable West of England and
the poverty of the East of England.
He is influenced by Darwin’s theories, such as man’s kinship to the animal world or the
evolution theory who explains Hyde s small stature ( his body had never been exercised).
OSCAR WILDE
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin and he attended Trinity College in his home city.
He was sent to Oxford where he gained a degree in Classics, after his graduation he
moved to London where he became a celebrity for his “dandy” figure, someone ho really
likes a rich and expensive lifestyle. He thought Aestheticism was a search for the
beautiful, men looked for a relationship between painting, sculpture and poetry thanks to
this science. He affirmed that his life was a work of art, and his elegance was symbol of
the superiority of his spirit.
His most important novel is THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY
The SUFFRAGETTES protested that women should be able to vote. In 1903 Mrs
Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), which
began to break the law to gain publicity and support.
They held large protest marches in London, chained themselves to railings, broke
windows, hit and spat at policemen. Several militants were sent to prison and went on
hunger strike to draw attention to their campaign. Suffrage would be granted to women
over 21 in 1928.
THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (war of position)
The DOMINO EFFECT:
- In 1914 a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-
Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo. • Austria began bombing Belgrade, the
capital of Serbia.
- The German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, declared war on Russia and then on France.
- Germany invaded Belgium in order to attack France from an unexpected front before
Russia or Britain could intervene.
Britain had participated in the creation of Belgium in 1831 and had guaranteed its
neutrality → so when Germany violated Belgium neutrality, Britain declared war on
Germany on 4th August 1914.
Britain in war:
- Britain relied on volunteers until 1916.
- The Empire sent troops from the dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand).
- Conscription was introduced in 1916.
- Women replaced men in their civilian jobs (with reliability and competence, which
contributed to bringing about women’s suffrage).
The Easter Rising → The fight for Irish independence. The Commons had voted Home
Rule for Ireland in 1914 but it had been suspended until the end of the war. In April 1916
there was a rebellion in Dublin. The leaders of the insurrection were supported by
Germany. The rebels seized the General Post Office and other buildings in the centre of
the city. The rebellion was repressed and the leaders executed.
A war of attrition:
- 1914 September → Great battle on the River Marne in France which stopped the
German advance.
- 1915 May → The British passenger liner Lusitania was sunk by a German Uboat; Italy
joined France and Britain; London was bombed by the German Zeppelin airship.
- 1916 April → Easter Rising in Dublin regarding the fight for Irish independence. July
Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest battle in British history and a perfect example of the
war of attrition.
- 1917 April → The USA joined the war. October → The Bolsheviks seized power in
Russia; the Italian army collapsed at the Battle of Caporetto.
- 1918 September → Attack of British artillery on the German Hindenburg Line. October
The Germans began to retreat along the Western Front. On 11th November → Armistice
Day: the guns fell silent and that was the end of the war.
- 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty, which stipulated the Allied occupation of the Rhineland,
unilateral disarmament and heavy financial reparation of ‘war guilt’ for Germany. American
president Wilson proposed 14 Points to work out the peace treaty and prevent future
wars. He also presented a plan to set up the League of Nations (international
organisation).
New technology: poison gas, tanks, airplanes, submarines.
Life in the trenches: stressful because of mud, lack of hygiene, boredom, fear of gas →
soldiers relieved the stress by means of superstition, religion, poetry, letters and drink. →
“SHELL SHOCK”= Psychological effect of shell explosions
THE AGE OF ANXIETY
WW1 left a disillusioned and cynical mood due to the loss of many lives. When soldiers
returned back home, some of them celebrated with a frantic search of pleasure, others
had a sense of guilt for the horrors of trench warfare. There was an increasing feeling of
rootlessness and frustration, due to the slow dissolution of the Empire into the
Commonwealth, which led to a transformation of the notions of imperial hegemony and
white superiority.
Sigmund Freud → The power of the unconscious to affect behaviour; the importance of
infantile sexuality; the interpretation of dreams; the concept of free associations.
Albert Einstein → Theory of relativity: time and space are seen as subjective
dimensions. Relativity affected even art and literature, and the more relativity they are, the
more they become subjective.
William James → Was a psychologist, and for him our mind it’s not a linear sequence of
thoughts. Our mind is a complex system made of so many psychological factors, our
mind works according to the stream of consciousness. He theorised the expression
‘’stream of consciousness’’, that’s the complex flow of emotions, feelings, moods,
thoughts that rounds on our mind simultaneously without an apparent logical sense.
Henri Bergson → Distinction between historical time, which is external, linear and
measured in terms of the spatial distance travelled by a pendulum or the hands of a
clock, and psychological time, which is internal, subjective and measured by the relative
emotional intensity of a moment.
Friedrich W. Nietzsche → ‘God is dead’ and therefore people are free to create their own
values; belief in human power and perfectibility.
The Second World War
The war began in 1939 and people in Britain had to leave towns and release beds in
hospitals so underground station became their shelters (refuge).
The United Kingdom sent British troops in defence of France.
In 1940 Hitler invaded Norway and Denmark by sea and by air and the next month
German attacked Holland and Belgium , while their tanks were heading from Paris.
British Prime Minister Chamberlain was succeeded by Churchill.
The British ordered the retreat of the troops to Dunkirk, where they had to be taken by
Royal Navy and private boots.
Japan invaded Hong Kong and Burma and began to intimidate Singapore and India.
America kept the distance for the war even if Churchill was asking for help.
Operation Sea Lion
The Operation Sea Lion was the plan of Hitler to invade Britain.
The German Air Force put Britain’s defence out of action to start the sea invasion.
When in 1940 Britain bombers were winning against Germans, Hitler change his plans
and started the “Blitz”, that was a series of bombs on the population to weak the enemy.
King George VI and Elizabeth stayed in Buckingham palace, symbols of resistance.
Even if the Britain had lots of deaths, it showed no signs of submission.
The New Deal was the set of FEDERAL PROGRAMMES launched by President Franklin
D. Roosevelt in response to the calamity of the Great Depression. It had four major goals
and achievements:
● ECONOMIC RECOVERY: The New Deal stabilized the banks and cleaned up the
financial mess left over from the Stock Market crash of 1929. It stabilized prices for
industry and agriculture.
● JOB CREATION: One in four Americans was out of work by 1933. The New Deal
created a number of special agencies that provided jobs for millions of workers and
wages that saved millions more in their desperate families.
● INVESTMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS: The New Deal built hundreds of thousands of
highways, bridges, hospitals, schools, theaters, libraries, city halls, homes, post offices,
airports, and parks across America--most of which are still in use today.
● CIVIC UPLIFT: The New Deal touched every state, city, and town, improving the lives of
ordinary people and reshaping the public sphere. New Dealers and the men and women
who worked on New Deal programs believed they were not only serving their families and
communities, but building the foundation for a great and caring society.
In less than a decade, the New Deal changed the face of America and laid the foundation
for success in World War Il and the prosperity of the postwar era - the greatest and fairest
epoch in American history.
Parallel development of the 1930s: growing influence and militancy of the labor
movement, as reflected in the proliferation of strikes.
When we talk about Modernism, we can talk about a movement which involved literature,
music and arts. The modernists expressed their desire to break with the past.
- Firstly, authors didn’t used anymore the traditional genres and plots,
because they wanted to focus on the continuous flow of human
thought, consequently abandoning the traditional ides of time and
place;
- Authors didn’t use anymore a simple language, as Dickens and Wilde
did, but they preferred a complex language and so they used the free
verse instead of the traditional metres;
-Authors wanted to focus on the psychological truth instead of the
objective one;
Just like the Romantic Age, authors can be divided in First-Generation and Second-
Generation:
-The First-Generation authors are characterized by the use of the “stream of
consciousness technique” and the division of time, in real time and time of the mind;
moreover, these authors wanted to show people’s disillusionment and fear, caused by
World War I. The most important authors are Eliot, Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
The stream of consciousness defines the continuous flow of sensations that characterise
human mind.
THE INTERIOR MONOLOGUE
At the beginning of the 20th century writers gave more importance to subjective
consciousness, it was impossible to reproduce the complexity of human mind by using
traditional techniques.
It is the representation of a psychic phenomenon, the stream of consciousness.
It often lacks chronological order and the narrator may be present.
There is no introduction and speech may be immediate.
There are two types of monologues: direct and indirect.
In the indirect interior monologue the narrator never lets the character s thoughts flow
without control. Their thoughts are presented by using descriptions and other
explanations to guide the reader through the narration.
In the direct interior monologue, the narrator seems not to exist and the character s inner
self is given directly.
JAMES JOYCE
He was born in Dublin in 1882, he was the eldest brother of 10 children. He was
educated at Jesuit schools and then he enrolled t University College in Dublin
where he gained a Bachelor of Arts genre with a focus on modern languages in
1902. He was interested in the political movements which had as their objective
the freeing of Ireland from English dominance. He focused more on the European
culture that led him to think of himself as a European rather than an Irishman. His
attitude contrasted with his contemporary W.B. Yeats, who was trying to
rediscover the Irish Celtic identity by referring back to the past. Joyce, on the
contrary, believed that the only way to increase Irland’s awareness was by offering
a realistic portrait from a cosmopolitan point of view. He spent some time in Paris
where he intended to pursue his literary career, but his mother’s illness brought him
back to Dublin. He published his first short story, “The sisters”, in the ‘Evening
telegraph’. This story would serve as the opening story in his “Dubliners”
collection. In 1904 he felt in love with Nora Barnacle, a 20 year old girl who was
working as a chambermaid in a hotel. They had their first dance on 16th June,
which was to become the ‘Bloomsday’ of “Ulysses.
He called himself an ‘international eyesore’ having had 25 eye operations in 13
years (he became almost blind). This physical problem was compensated by his
sense of ear, and the sound of words was very important to him.
DUBLINERS
“Dubliners” consists of 15 short storied: they all lack obvious action but they lead
to a moral revelation.
The opening stories deal with childhood and youth in Dublin, the others concern
with the middle years of characters and their social, political or religious affair.
Joyce was hostile to city life, finding that it degraded its citizens. In fact, his Dublin
is a place where true feelings and compassion for others do not exist, where
cruelty and selfishness lie just below the surface. He stated that he choose this city
because is the centre of paralysis.
The stories are arranged into 4 groups: childhood, adolescence, maturity and
public life.
The last story, “The Dead”, can be considered his masterpiece as it summaries
themes and motifs of the other 13 stories and it functions as an epilogue.
modern city of London produces in and on her. Clarissa’s counterpart is
represented by Septimus Smith, a shell-shocked veteran of the war.
His voyage through London is towards self-destruction; in fact the novel ends with
Septimus’ suicide. The news of his death reaches Clarissa while she is at her party.
Clarissa realises that Septimus’ death was essential for her to stay alive.
Clarissa Dalloway is a complex and frustrated woman: she lives her being a “wife”
and a “mother” as a limitation to her freedom, but she is not able to express her
feelings spontaneously and self- imposes strong restrictions on her liberty.
Her mind is constantly pervaded by her past memories, which the reader can
follow thanks to the stream of consciousness technique used by Woolf.
Clarissa’s male counterpart is Septimus Warren Smith, who has panic attacks and
terrible visions. He has been ruined by the experience of war. Clarissa and
Septimus are attracted to died and consider suicide as a form of liberation.
They wander through London and share the same fears, preoccupations and
morbid attractions, but at the end of the day only Clarissa is able to survive.
GEORGE ORWELL
He was born in India in 1903, he was the son of a minor colonial official. As a small
child, he was taken to England by his mother, and was educated first at a
preparatory school. He could not stand the lack of privacy, the humiliating
punishments, the pressure to conform to the values of the English public school
tradition and to the prevailing moral code. At Eton he began to develop an
independent-minded personality, indifference to accepted values, and he
professed atheism and socialism.
After school, he passed the India Office examinations for the Indian Imperial
Police. In 1927 he went on leave and decided not to return; it was not simply that
he wished to break away from British imperialism in India: he wished to “escape
from every form of man's dominion over man”.
When he returned in London he started a social experiment: living in poverty, in
fact he started wearing second-hand clothes and living in common lodging-
houses. In this way he learned how institutions for the poor worked. After a period
in Paris, he returned in England where he devoted himself to writing full time and
he published his works with the pseudonym of George Orwell. He chose George
because it had an Englishness about it, suggesting plain speaking and common
sense and Orwell because of a river in Suffolk that he loved.
1984
The novel describes a future world divided into three blocks: Oceania, Eurasia and
Eastasia. The regimented, oppressive world of Oceania is ruled by the Party, which is led
by a figure called 'Big Brother’, and is continuously at war with the other two States.
In order to control people's lives, the Party is implementing "Newspeak”, an invented
language with a limited number of words, and threatening them through the "Thought
Police”: Free thought, sex and any expression of individuality are forbidden, but the
protagonist, Winston Smith, illegally buys a diary in which he begins to write his thoughts
and memories, addressing them to the future generations.
At the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to suit the needs of the Party,
Winston notices an attractive dark-haired girl staring at him, and is afraid she might be an
informant who will prove him guilty of 'thoughtcrime’. The girl's name is Julia; she proves
to also have a rebellious attitude, and they begin a secret affair. One day O'Brien, a
member of the powerful 'Inner Party, summons them to his luxury flat and tells them that
he too hates the Party and works against it as a member of the Brotherhood' led by
Emmanuel Goldstein. This mysterious group is trying to overthrow the Party. O'Brien
gives Winston a copy of Goldstein's book, the manifesto of the Brotherhood.
Winston is reading it to Julia in their room when some soldiers suddenly break in and
arrest them. He is taken to the Ministry of Love, where he finds out that O'Brien is a Party
spy. O'Brien tortures and brainwashes Winston for months, but he struggles to resist. At
last O'Brien sends him to Room 101, the final destination for those who oppose the Party.
Here Winston is forced to confront his worst fear: rats on his head, ready to eat his face.
Winston's will is broken and he is released to the outside world. He meets Julia, but no
longer loves her. He has completely given up his identity and has learned to love Big
Brother.
The novel is set in a state of perpetual war reminiscent of World War. The society,
although fictional, reflects the political atmosphere of the tyrannies in Spain, Germany and
the Soviet Union. That is why the novel is pervaded by descriptions of hunger, forced
labour, mass torture and imprisonment, and perpetual monitoring by the authorities. The
'character' of Big Brother is both Stalin and Hitler, both real and terrifying leaders, though
on opposite sides. So Orwell made clear that he was against any form of totalitarianism.
The setting of the novel is Oceania, a large country including the Americas, the Atlantic
Islands, Australia and the southern portion of Africa as well as Airstrip One, previously
England.
The story takes place in a terrifying London in the year 1984. Orwell's aim was to work on
a memory that every reader was likely to have. Oceania's political structure is divided into
three segments: the Inner Party, the ruling class; the Outer Party, that is, the population;
and the Proles, or the proletariat, the working class. The Party does not see these
divisions as true distinctions. For a socialist such as Orwell, class distinctions meant the
existence of conflict and class struggle.
The most important themes are:
- Importance of memory and trust.
- Abolishment of individuality and reality.
- Satire against hierarchical societies. - The theater of the Absurd
The term didn't refer to an official movement of or groups of artists but to the rather
heterogeneous works of artists such as Samuel Beckett or Ionesco whose plays
expressed the idea of man's life as characterised by a lack of meaning and
communication. The language is fragmented, dialogues are illogical, plots are not logical,
there's a mix between comedy and tragedy, ends are open, actions are pointless,
relationships among characters are inconsistent.
