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QUENN VICTORIA REIGN
When Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837, she was only 18 years old. She was to rule for almost 64 years and gave her name to an era of economic and scientific progress and social reform. Her own sense of duty made her the ideal leader of a constitutional monarchy: she remained separated from politics and yet gave stability. AN AGE OF REFORM The 1830s had seen the beginning of what would be called an era of reform. The First Reform Act (1832), also called the Great Reform Act, had transferred voting privileges from small districts, controlled by the nobility and nobility, to large industrial cities, such as Birmingham and Manchester. The Factory Act (1833) had prevented children between the ages of 9 and 13 from being employed more than forty-eight hours a week, and no person between the ages of 13 and 18 could work more than seventy- two hours a week. The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) had reformed the old Poor Laws, dating back to Elizabeth I. WORKHOUSES Life in the workhouses was frightening due to their regimentation system, hard work and a monotonous diet. The idea behind the workhouses was that the awareness of such a terrible life would inspire the poor to try to improve their conditions. TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS In the mid-19th century, England experienced a second wave of industrialization that brought about economic, cultural and architectural changes. As the European monarchies were overthrown by revolutions in 1848, England avoided the revolutionary wave. In 1851 a Great Exhibition, organized by Prince Albert, showed the industrial and economic power of Great Britain in the world. Construction of the London Underground began in 1860 and the railways began to transform the landscape and people's lives FOREIGN POLICY In the mid-19th century, England was involved in the two opium wars (1839-42; 1856-
- against China, which was trying to suppress the opium trade. England gained access to five Chinese ports and control of Hong Kong. The most profitable colony in the British Empire was India. In 1857, a widespread rebellion, known as the Indian Mutiny, against British rule began, after which the Indian administration was given less responsibility. Britain also supported some liberal causes like Italian independence from the Austrians. When Russia became too powerful against the weak Turkish empire, the Crimean War (1853-56) was fought. the politica panorama was changing with the regrouping of the parties. The Liberal Party, included formar Whigs, some radicals, and a large minority of businessmen; the party was led by William Gladstone (1809 98). The Conservative Party, which had evolved from the Tories, reaffirmed its position under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli. BENJAMIN DISRAELI Disraeli governments passed an Artisans 'and Laborers' Dwellings Act (1875), which allowed local public authorities to clear slums and provide housing for the poor; “a public health act” (1875), which provided sanitation and running water; and a Factory Act (1878), which limited weekly working hours. IMPERIALISM In 1877 Queen Victoria received a new title, Empress of India. more over 400 million people were ruled by the British. The Empire, however, was becoming more difficult to control. There was a growing sense of the 'white man's burden’, a difficult combination of the duty to spread Christian civilization while promoting commercial
interests. India was economically important as a market for British goods and strategically necessary for British control of Asia from the Persian Gulf to Shanghai. THE END OF AN ERA The Victorian age ended with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For nearly a century it had embodied decorum, stability and continuity. RESPECTABILITY More emphasis was placed on education and hygiene was encouraged to improve health care. Self-control, good manners and self-help have joined with respectability, a concept shared by both the center and the word-to-work classroom. There was general agreement on the virtues of asserting social status, keeping up appearances and caring for a family. These things were "respectable". However, respectability was a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, as the unpleasant aspects of society - dissolution, poverty, social unrest - were hidden under external respectability. There was a growing emphasis on men's duty to respect and protect women, The women controlled the family budget and raised the children. General attitudes towards sex were a crucial aspect of respectability, with an intense concern for female chastity, and single women with one child were marginalized as "fallen women". Sexuality was generally repressed in both its public and private forms. READERS AND WRITER During the Victorian age, for the first time, there was a communion of interests and opinions between writers and their readers. One of the reasons for this close relationship was the enormous growth of the middle classes. Furthermore, the Victorian writers themselves often belonged to the middle class. THE PUBLISHING WORLD a grate deal of Victorian literature was first published in serial form. This allowed the writer to feel in constant contact with his audience. He could always alter the story, depending on its success or failure. THE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE The voice of the omniscient narrator provided a commentary on the plot and erected a rigid barrier between "right" and "wrong" behaviors, light and dark. The punishment and punishment were to be found in the final chapter of the novel, where the whole plot of events, adventures and incidents had to be explained and justified. SETTING AND CHATACTERS The setting chosen by most Victorian novelists was the city, which was the main symbol of industrial civilization as well as of expression. Victorian writers focused on creating realistic characters that audiences could easily identify.
CHARLES DICKENS
CHARACTERS
the 18th century was replaced by that of the lower orders. He was the creator of characters and caricatures that live immortal in the English imagination. His aim was to arouse the reader's interest by exaggerating the habits of his characters and the language of London's middle and lower class. Children are often the most important characters in Dickens' novels. he changed the natural order of things: children become the moral teachers rather than the educated, the examples instead of the
by Reverend Rivers, who helps her regain her serenity and offers her a job as a teacher in a girls' school. When Jane is on the verge of marrying the Reverend before he leaves for India as a missionary, she seeks him out and learns that his wife Bertha has started a fire that has destroyed everything: she has died in the flames, while Mr. Rochester remained Czech. Jane finally marries Rochester and together they have a son. At the end of the novel, Rochester thanks to jane's help and love regains sight in one eye, thus being able to see their child. THEMES Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman, a novel about growing up, so the theme of childhood and education plays an important role. Jane wants to be loved, not just in a romantic sense, but as a human being who deserves love and value. Growing up, Jane gains autonomy and economic independence and twice rejects a marriage proposal so as not to sacrifice her moral integrity. Marriage is presented as a relationship between equals, not as a social compromise. The most important issue is perhaps the analysis of the social position of a governess in Victorian society. Jane is refined and polite; however, she is treated like a servant. Charlotte clearly criticizes the strict Victorian social class system and gender relations. If Jane had been a man, she might have tried to improve her position on her. Being a woman in her social class, the only option she had was to work as a governess. The traditional "gothic" convention is also used, from infantile terrors to all those mysterious and threatening sounds and images that reveal the presence of a malevolent force and that anticipate the tragedy of Thornfield. But Charlotte's symbolic use of Gothic requires a more complicated answer than the mere momentary intensity of sentiment sought by early Gothic novelists. WUTHERING HEIGHTS PLOT The novel revolves around two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, inhabited by the Earnshaw and Lintons respectively. At the beginning of the story Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, in Wuthering Heights. Forced to stay overnight due to a snowstorm, Mr. Lockwood has a strange dream about a girl, Catherine, who is knocking on the window, asking to be let in after 20 years of wandering the moors. The next day Mr. Lockwood returns to Thrushcross Grange and the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, tells him the whole story of the family from the high ground. Mr. Earnshaw, the father of Hindley and Catherine, came back from Liverpool one day with a foundling, whom he named Heathcliff. Hindley mistreated Heathcliff while Catherine got along very well with him. They wandered across the moors together and promised that they would stay together forever. One day W Catherine was bitten by one of the Lintons' dogs and forced not to spend five weeks at Thrushcross st Grange to recover, which gave her the opportunity to get to know Edgar and Isabella, as well as their quiet and refined way of life. So, when a few years after her Edgar proposed to marry her, she accepted her. She told Nelly Dean that she wasn't going to marry Heathcliff because she was socially inferior. Heathcliff overheard part of the conversation and disappeared only to return three years later, handsome, rich and determined to take revenge. He won possession of Wuthering Heights by gambling with Hindley, now a drunkard; then he fled with Edgar's sister Isabella, married her and treated her like a servant. Catherine fell ill and died giving birth to a daughter, Cathy. Years later, Heathcliff kidnapped Cathy and forced her to marry her weak and spoiled son, Linton. His revenge was so complete that he also became the owner of Thrushcross Grange. Nelly's story ends here. Mr. Lockwood leaves Yorkshire and returns after a year to find that both Linton and the Heathcliff ant are dead and that Cathy and Hareton, Hindley's son, will marry, live in peace and happiness. Nelly tells Lockwood that
there are rumors in the neighborhood that figures of a young man and woman have been seen wandering the moors together. CHARACTERS The hero, Heathcliff, is described as a sort of 'Byronic hero', driven by an irresistible passion. Heathcliff also appears as a gothic villain in the inhuman treatment of his wife and even his son. Catherine is driven in part by her social ambitions, which ultimately lead to her marrying Edgar. She embodies a wild and romantic nature. THEMES In the novel, basic human emotions, such as love and hate, are presented in a state of purity and focus. Death is an important issue. Unlike other Victorian novels, where death is a moment of forgiveness or the moment when all conflicts are resolved, in Wuthering Heights death is not an end, but a liberation of the spirit. The novel ends with the vision of the cemetery where Catherine and Heathcliff are buried, but the author is careful to say that they are sleeping, they are not dead. The novel's gothic elements are used to convey the struggle between the two opposing principles of love and hate, of order and chaos. STRUCTURE AND STYLE The narrative mode is a 'concentric' system of narratives. There are two main narrators, male and female, outsiders and insiders. Mr. Lockwood, is the outsider; he simply writes, in the form of a diary, what Nelly tells him. Nelly Dean is the second narrator entirely reliable. The narration does not proceed according to chronological time; begins near the end of the story and develops a narrative within the narrative, including the use of flashbacks. This complex structure creates a sense of verisimilitude and, at the same time, a feeling of suspense. Wuthering Heights represents a unique achievement in Victorian literature. Often likened to a Shakespearean tragedy for its rendition of turbulent passions, unnatural crimes and cruelty, the novel marked a departure from the observation of society towards the description of the individual personality. I’M HEATHCLIFF: Cathrine is speaking with Nelly about her decision to merry Edgar Linton. Catherine loves Heathcliff more than Edgar (because she is more myself than I. Whatever our soul is made of hers and mine is the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire). however catherine can’t marry Heathcliff because he is in a lower social status, instead she is rich.
ROBERT STVENSON
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
PLOT
Mr. Utterson is a respected London lawyer and a friend of the brilliant scientist Dr Henry Jekyll. After telling a disturbing story of a sinister man attacking a young girl, Utterson begins to question his friend's strange behavior. As he investigates Dr. Jekyll's life further, he uncovers a story so horrifying, so terrifying, that he can barely believe it. In fact, his friend has created a potion capable of freeing the evil side of him, Mr. Hyde. These two beings are in a perpetual struggle; once Hyde is released from hiding, he gains dominance over the Jekyll aspect, so that the individual has only two choices. On the one hand, the man can choose a life of crime and depravity or, on the other hand, Jekyll must eliminate Hyde in the only way left, by killing him. So Jekyll's suicide is the last and only choice THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE dr. jekyll and Mr Hyde has a multi-narrative structure. there are four narrator: Utterson, his distant relative Enfield, Dr Lanyon and finally Dr Jekyll himself.
THE DOUBLE, THE PACT WITH DEVIL, BEAUTY
This story is deeply allegorical; is a version of the legend of Faust, the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil so that all of his wishes can be fulfilled. In the novel, this soul is the painting, which records the signs Dorian’s. The painting is not an autonomous self: it represents the dark side of Dorian's personality, the double of him, which he tries to forget by locking him in a room. The moral of this novel is that any excess must be punished and there is no escape from reality. When Dorian destroys the image, he cannot avoid the punishment for all of his sins, namely death. The hideous and corrupt image could be seen as a symbol of the immorality and bad conscience of the Victorian middle class, while Dorian and the pure and innocent aspect of him are symbols of bourgeois hypocrisy. Finally, the painting, restored to its original beauty, illustrates Wilde's theory of art: art survives people, art is eternal Beauty and youth have caused his ruin and the mirror became the symbol of his double personality.
CONTEMPORARY DRAMA
THE THEATRE PF THE ABSURDE:
The rejection of traditional values and the attempt to overcome apathy tound expression on the British Drama. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is considered as the starting point of Absurd drama. The term absurd' was applied to the works of a group of dramatists who emerged in the 1950s. Beckett, Adamov, Ionesco They did not form a school, since each regarded his personal approach to form and subject matter. Ionesco defined absurd' as 'that which is devoid of purpose. sense of metaphysical anguish lack of purpose and inaction is the theme of the plays of Samuel Beckett. simply present its concrete situations on the stage, The 'Theatre of the Absurd tends to debase language; what happens on the stage often contradicts, the words spoken by the characters; pauses, silences, miming are also common. 'The plays have no real story or plot to speak of and seem to be the reflection of dreams and nightmares; time and place are Vague. WAITING FOR GODOT The two-act play starts medias eres in the midst of circular and pointless repetitions. In Act 1 two trumps Vindimir and Estragon, or 'Didi' and 'Gogo' as they call each other, are Waiting on a country for a mysterious Godot, who eventually sends a boy to inform them he is not coming but will surely come the following day. 'The tramps are continually aware of cold hunger and pain they quarel and think about separation and ven suicide in each act, yet remain dependent on each other and never do anything. As opposed to the two protagonists, the other characters, in the play - Pozzo and Lucky - make continuous purposless journeys to fill their existence. Act 2 differs only apparenty from the first, and the play ends with the two tramps still waiting for Godot. SETTING The play has no development in time, since there seems to be no past or future, just a repetitive meaningless present. The play has no setting but a country road and a bare tree which stand for the inner world of the characters. STRUCTURE
The two acts are symmetrically built. The play its symmetry: the stage is divided into two halves by the tree. The characters' actions are also symmetrical. Both tramps need to take off their hat to think, whereas Lucky and Pozzo need to do the opposite. CHARACTERS The play has no characters in the traditional sense, Its protagonists, are two human beings perpetually concerned with questions about the nature of the self, the world and God. They are complementary, since they are different aspects of a single whole. Vladimir is more practical, he never dreams and he keeps waiting; Estragon is a dreamer, sceptical about Godot. The difficulty for Beckett of keeping a dialogue so long is overcome by making his characters forget everything. Estragon cannot remember anything Vladimir distrusts what he remembers. Pozzo and Lucky are physically linked to cach other by a rope as well as by a tyrannical relationship of master and servant; Lucky is slavish and stands for the power of the mind, while Pozzo is the oppressor and represents the power of the body. THEMES A grotesque humour pervades the daily routine of the two tramps, whereas tragic and desperate tones express Beckett's assumption: man's increased knowledge has only made him aware of the uselessness of his learning, Beckett'3 pessimism is intensifed by his perception of the meaninglessness and dreariness of human life. STYLE The language of the play is informal, but it dialogue is only sketched and the characters are unable to provide each other with any information their situation, or about their recent experiences Another device used to show the lack of communication is the use of para verbal language, such as pauses, silences and gaps. are used to signify the senseless repetition and relentless flow of time in human existence.
