ROMANTICS Major characteristics of the Romantic Movement

ROMANTICS

Major characteristics of the Romantic Movement n n n n regular language focus on emotions and feelings freedom from rules solitary life rather than life in society the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason devotion to beauty love of and worship of nature subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism

Major Romantic Poets Lake poets (first generation of Romantic poets ) William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge second generation of Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats Lord Byron

Dr. John Polidori

n Mary Shelley - Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, published two years later, in 1818. n Dr. Polidori - The Vampyre, which was published in 1819.

Prometheus was a Greek Titan. He's famous for having stolen fire and given it to mortals. n Prometheus - gift of fire, Victor Frankenstein - power of electricity n progenitor of modern science fiction n two major literary devices: epistolary form (North Pole explorer Robert Walton to his sister Margaret Walton Saville) n frame narrative which is essentially just a story narrative within a story. n double frame narrative n

Ann Radcliffe n She never appeared in public, nor mingled in private society, but kept herself apart, like the sweet bird that sings its solitary notes, shrouded and unseen. The 1823 Edinburgh Review

Horatio Walpole (1717 – 1797) The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story -1764 -

Ann Radcliffe n n n was born in 1764 basically a hermit super famous as a writer while she was living the Mother of the Gothic Great Enchantress

she definitely shaped Gothic literature and made it a socially acceptable genre n n n The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne - 1789 A Sicilian Romance The Romance of the Forest in 1791 The Mysteries of Udolpho 1794 The Italian in 1797 Gaston de Blondeville 1826

What Is Gothic Literature?

What Is Gothic Literature? n n n n young, virginal, oppressed heroine - virtuous, inquisitive, but has the unfortunate tendency to faint a lot and need rescuing a villain – must be sinister dashing hero willing to save the heroine and have no expectations mystery, suspense and terror omens, curses, gloom and doom thrilling, dangerous situations passion and high emotions supernatural events

Jane Eyre n n n A female version of the Buildungroman “to develop myself as I am” – to take all that is potential in me and bring it to the full maturation, to actualize my potential 19 th century offered no advancement for women – social horizons are limited The heroine becomes a cultural hero, a transformer of wild nature into smth humane Ghost, elements of fairy-tale

We know little about Austen. She was known only as “a Lady. ” n n n grew up in a house wealthy enough to not be poor, but poor enough not to be wealthy was raised in a respectable clergyman’s family and never really left home started out writing to amuse her friends and family composed her narratives and read aloud early drafts to her family, whose responses, particularly those of her brothers, mattered to her Austen seems not to have held fierce views on the rights of women. She accepted the world into which she had been born and the status of women within it.

n Sense and Sensibility (1811) n Pride and Prejudice (1813) n Mansfield Park (1814) n Emma (1815) n Northanger Abbey (1818, posthumous) n Persuasion (1818, posthumous)

The themes How to get married? n Should a woman marry for love or for interest, prudently, with an eye toward finances? n n But also What is it to be grown up? What is it to be morally mature? How does one become the kind of person who can deal with the complicated issues of life?

n Austen believed that the novel could help readers mature; it could serve as a moral instructor, with a similar role as the weekly sermons the author would have heard in church.

The Victorian Period 1837 -1901

Queen Victoria 1837 -1901 She was a popular queen. She spoke English, French, German, Italian, and Hindustani. She became queen when the monarchy was unpopular with the people, but she won them over with her modesty, practicality, personality, and style. The Victorian Period was an age characterized by high moral purpose. Time of tremendous achievements.

England during her reign Industrial Revolution was at its height n a period of social, economic and technological change. n Population doubled creating a demand for housing, food and clothing. n

The Time of Troubles 1830’s and 1840’s London becomes most important city in Europe Population of London expands from two million to six million Shift from ownership of land to modern urban economy Impact of industrialism Unemployment Poverty Rioting Slums in large cities Working conditions for women and children were terrible

The Mid-Victorian Period 1848 -1870 A time of prosperity A time of improvement A time of stability A time of optimism

The British Empire Between 1853 and 1880, large scale immigration to British colonies In 1857, Parliament took over the government of India and Queen Victoria became empress of India. During Victoria’s reign, 25% of the world’s population, was part of the British Empire. “The sun never sets on the British Empire. ” Many British people saw the expansion of empire as a moral responsibility. Missionaries spread Christianity in India, Asia, and Africa.

The Late Victorian Period 1870 -1901 Decay of Victorian values British imperialism – the Boer War in South Africa Bismarck's Germany became a rival power United States became a rival power Economic depression led to mass immigration Irish question – Home Rule Bill

Literacy, Publication, and Reading By the end of the century, literacy was almost universal. Compulsory national education required to the age of ten. Growth of the periodical, + cheap newspapers aimed at a popular market Novels and short fiction were published in serial form. The reading public expected literature to illuminate social problems.

The Victorian Novel The novel was the dominant form in Victorian literature and a principal form of entertainment. Victorian novels are realistic and seek to represent a large and comprehensive social world, with a variety of classes. Major theme is the place of the individual in society, the aspiration of the hero or heroine for love or social position. For the first time, women were major writers: the Brontes. Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot.

1830 -1840 s social-problem novels: Elizabeth Gaskell - “Manchester” novels - harsh portrait of industrial life Benjamin Disraeli – the Young England trilogy (two Britains: the rich & the poor) Bronte sisters (Charlotte, Emily, Ann) – blend of the Gothic & psychological insight Charles Dickens - comic, social conscience, humanity George Eliot – portrays small-town England, its values and social system Thomas Hardy – poet & novelist William Thackeray – satire on fashionable society Antony Trollope – comic novels Wilkie Collins - mystery

Literature of the 1840 s Europe - a second wave of revolution In England - trade depression threw millions into unemployment a spectacular growth of one branch of English literature, the realistic novel. What direction was the country taking?

Sybil, or the Two Nations n n n social problem novel. Young England trilogy outlined his political philosophy the industrial north, the great Chartist rebellion the need for radical change in the British class structure Disraeli used the novel to define the necessity of political reforms

Mary Barton: A Manchester Story n deals with the events of 1840 s (trade depression hits) from the working class point of view n John Barton is a mill worker thrown out of work and his wife dies. joins a trade union and goes on the Chartist demonstration to London. returns to Manchester embittered. He takes to opium and, finally, murders the son of a factory owner, an act of class revenge. Melodramatic, powerful depictions of poverty. It’s not a bad man, but a good man made bad by hardships. n n

Vanity Fair the title refers to all of England the century up to the mid-1840 s n a satirical portrait of England permeated with snobbery: “Ours is a ready money society. ” But it is also one that is distorted by the class system. n n The novel is not merely entertaining; it instructs us in how to live our lives well.

Dickens’ mission, “the Great Inimitable” the novel as an instrument of political and social reform - to make England a better England: n to cast light on current abuses, hardheartedness, and the epidemic malaise of the time n to focus on changing hearts, make readers aware of the pain and needs of others, penetrate the minds of his readers and change them n

Dickens’ Biography • • • Born February 7, 1812 1824 - Dickens worked at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse 1824 - Mr. Dickens (Charles’ father) taken to debtors’ prison; family joins him Imprisoned from February – May Charles, 15, becomes law clerk and freelance writer

1836 -- Sketches by Boz 1837 -- The Pickwick Papers 1837 -- Oliver Twist 1843 -- A Christmas Carol 1844 -- Martin Chuzzlewit 1844 -- The Chimes 1845 -- The Cricket on the Hearth 1846 -- The Battle of Life 1846 -- Dombey and Son 1850 -- David Copperfield 1853 -- Bleak House 1853 -- A Child’s History of England 1854 -- Hard Times 1857 -- Little Dorrit 1859 -- A Tale of Two Cities 1861 -- Great Expectations 1865 -- Our Mutual Friends 1869 -- The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished)

o o o Dickens wrote 15 major novels in a career spanning 33 years. His peak of creativity and literary prowess was in mid - late career from 1848 - 1865. He crusaded for children’s rights. He was an advocate of child labor laws to protect children. He opposed cruelty, deprivation, and corporal punishment of children. He believed in and lobbied for just treatment of criminals.

Oliver Twist or The Parish Boy’s Progress Dickens wrote, “I wished to show in little Oliver, the principle of Good surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last. ” serialized in a monthly magazine

Oliver Twist The hero of his novel is a child (suffering child). The Victorians were unaccustomed to fiction that inhabited the child’s universe or showed the world from the child’s perspective. pure melodrama, (Victorians loved it!! particularly melodramatic death scenes)

In addition, He protested against the greedy, uncaring, materialistic society through such work as A Christmas Carol, which Dickens called “a sledgehammer” he used figuratively to wake up the reading public He repeatedly used satire to highlight problems in his society

n Eliot: novels could, like religion, make us better n mission of fiction - higher than mere entertainment - to engage in moral reflection people, and for this reason, they were necessary. Fiction has the power to dissolve egotism and make us more sympathetic to our fellow human beings.

George Eliot n n n born and brought up in the environs of Coventry, Warwickshire Eliot’s father was an estate manager access to a good library self-taught, became the leading woman intellectual of her time taught herself foreign languages and entered theological disputes of the time, notably what was called “higher criticism, ” theory that the Bible was metaphorically rather than literally true leading journalist London

George Eliot short stories, Scenes of Clerical Life n novel Adam Bede n n Middlemarch: a study of provincial life Felix Holt, the Radical Romola Daniel Deronda The Mill on the Floss n Focus on realism and rural life n n

n “Grand Old Man of English literature, towering over his fellow writers” n n a great novelist and a great poet 1860 s - late 1890 s – fiction (quintessentially of the 19 th century, not Victorian though, not in pursuit of the standards of morality) The Return of the Native Tess of the d’Urbervilles Jude the Obscure n n From the turn of the century until his death, he was principally a poet (poetry properly belongs in the Modern period )

Thomas Hardy n Ah, are you digging on my grave My loved one? --planting rue? " --"No; yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. 'It cannot hurt her now, ' he said, That I 'should not be true. '"

n Then who is digging on my grave? My nearest dearest kin? " --"Ah, no; they sit and think, 'What use! What good will planting flowers produce? No tendance of her mound can loose Her spirit from Death's gin. '"

n But someone digs upon my grave? My enemy? --prodding sly? " --"Nay; when she heard you had passed the Gate That shuts on all flesh soon or late, She thought you no more worth her hate, And cares not where you lie. "

n Then, who is digging on my grave? Say--since I have not guessed!" --"0 it is I, my mistress dear, Your little dog, who still lives near, And much I hope my movements here Have not disturbed your rest? "

n Ah, yes! You dig upon my grave. . . Why flashed it not on me That one true heart was left behind! What feeling do we ever find To equal among humankind A dog's fidelity!"

n Mistress, I dug upon your grave To bury a bone, in case I should be hungry near this spot When passing on my daily trot. I am sorry, but I quite forgot It was your resting-place. "

Lewis Carroll n an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. n Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass, n acute representation of childhood without a trace of moralism (characteristic of much of Victorian writing) n the poems “The Hunting of the Snark" and “Jabberwocky" n examples of the genre of literary nonsense. n

n “You used to be much more. . . "muchier. " You've lost your muchness. ” n “I don't think. . . " then you shouldn't talk” n ““If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does. ”