Victorian Literature: Dickens, Stevenson and the Anti-Victorian Writers, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Italiano

Scarica Victorian Literature: Dickens, Stevenson and the Anti-Victorian Writers e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Italiano solo su Docsity! Paolo Russo Inglese Appunti interrogazione ( Età Vittoriana). The Victorian age The reign of queen Victoria was a very long reign, she became queen in 1837 at the age of 18. She, in 1840, married her cousin Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha who became the Prince Consort. Her time was a period of great contradiction: on the one hand there were an incredible scientifical and technological progress and the English Empire reached an incredible dimension. On the other hand lower class lived in a terrible conditions and there were a lot of social problems (use of opium, alcoholism, prostitution). The British government reacted in a particular way, they covered the problems with a bail of optimism and hypocrisy, they looked at the progress achieved and they hid reality ignoring problems. This in know as “Victorian Compromise”. It was also a period of great prudery: they adopted several moral codes. In her reign, women began to emerge as a political force and the first feminist began to campaign for a better education for middle-class women and eventually the vote. In literary, field writers reached to Victorian Compromise in two different ways: on the one hand there were the Victorian writers, on the other hand there were the anti-Victorian writers. The Victorian writers accepted the Victorian standard, for example Dickens, treat a lot of social problems but he used literally solution, as happy ending, in order to avoid to shock the readers. The second group is the group of anti-Victorian writers composed for example by Stevenson and Oscar Wild, they denounced the falsity and hypocrisy of the English society. Charles Dickens -A Life Like a Novel Charles Dickens when was nine was sent to school but his formal education proved to be short. Three years later his father was imprisoned for debs. Charles himself was forced to work ten-hour days in a ‘blacking’ factory (making shoe polish). The young Charles suffered three years of terrible loneliness the experiences he had, the places he went to and the people he met would all serve as material for him in his future work. He began his writing career as a journalist. He published a series of sketches using the pseudonym ‘Boz’, they were soon followed by the very successful Pickwick Papers (1836), his first novel and the start of his brilliant, prolific career. He died on 9 June 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. -Major Works and Themes Charles Dickens’ novels range from the lively and entertaining humor of the Pickwick Papers (published in instalments from 1836 to 1837) to the flowing tears of Little Nell’s death in The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-41). His great gift was inventiveness. He created whole worlds of characters, exaggerated but unforgettable. His sympathy with the oppressed, his indignation against social injustice, made him one of the most significant voices in the Victorian Age. Pickwick Papers is a series of tales and was a typical example of Dickens’ humor. His next novel, Oliver Twist, is perhaps his most famous and most popular and marks the beginning of social criticism. Through the story of an orphaned boy, the novelist touched upon the exploitation of children and the cruelty of the workhouses; A Christmas Carol (1843) is a ghost story featuring the conversion of a miser to the spirit of Christmas; Dombey and Son (1846) attacks the greed for money and power. David Copperfield, a coming-of-age novel and the most explicitly autobiographical; Bleak House (1852- 53), a satire on the English administration of justice and Hard Times (1854), bearing on education and on the hardships of the working class during the Industrial Revolution. Great Expectations was another coming-of-age novel about the influence that sudden wealth can have on a young man’s moral growth. -Dickens’ Plots The episodic nature of his novels always guaranteed a succession of moments of great tension. The effect of serial publication on the structure of the novels. Technically, Dickens needed to maintain interest from one episode to another. He did so by ending each episode with a dramatic turn of events that provoked suspense in the reader, who would naturally buy the next issue to learn how the story continued. Dickens also had to answer his readers’ tastes (often inclined to sentimentality) which accounts for Dickens’ indulgence in melodrama in many of his works. -Dickens’ Characters Dickens’ novels are peopled by a host of typical characters, often portrayed as caricatures embodying particular vices or virtues. Dickens’ characters are among the Robert Louis Stevenson Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, he is an anti-Victorian writer because he didn’t adopt Victoria’s standards. -The split self Dr. Jekyll appears to be the embodiment of the respectable Victorian gentleman: reserved, formal and known for his charitable works. Physically, he is a handsome and agreeable man. Hyde, on the other hand, is the embodiment of the uncivilized part of humanity. He is small and pale, and extremely ugly. The character’s duality can be interpreted as a critique of Victorian morals, in which appearances were all important and everything was fine as long as corruption and vice remained in the private sphere and unknown to the world outside. The dual relationship between Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde seems to be a direct reference to the literary theory of the so- called ‘doppelgänger’. Hyde can be actually considered Dr Jekyll’s evil ‘double’: the two are perceived as two discrete entities, but belong to the same individual and embody two opposite sides of it. Their relationship is mutually dependent and very ambiguous: Jekyll is deeply, which gives visibility to an aspect of the self that Jekyll and the entire Victorian society have always tried to hide or repress. -The narrative technique The story is told from different perspectives. The first is Mr. Utterson’s. -Appunti scritti He belonged to a high social class and he couldn’t be evil: only the lower class was evil because they were similar to animal. Dr. Jekyll was an appreciate doctor in London or Edinburgh. He was, according to the Victorian standards a good man. He wanted to demonstrate that in every man there is an evil man and this doesn’t depend on social class. He was treating a poor person in the throes of nervous breakdowns. He is able, by mixing particular chemical ingredients, to create a potion that can separate the two natures of the human soul: the good and the bad. He begins to take a drug that transform him into a evil person, at the beginning he had no effects but he becomes addicted. He went out from the black door of his house, he went around in the night committing a lot of crimes. Every night he transform himself. Thus his personality is split into two halves that are opposed both in the way of appearing and in that of being: 1) Dr. Jekyll, the good side, is tall, respectable, polite, of moral principles and with "Clean" hands; 2) Hyde, the bad side, is evil, short, with short arms and hairy, stubby hands. Mr. Hyde's fame grows and reaches its peak when he kills his father-in-law. Dr. Jekyll realize that he had to stop Mr. Hyde. The only way was to kill himself. Jekyll commits suicide. In this way Stevenson wants to emphasize that the salvation of man is based on the annihilation of a part of his nature, if he lives in a civilized society. In this way, Stevenson wanted to critic English aristocracy and this caused a scandal. The ending is not happy, as in Dickens, but terrible: Jekyll, in fact, commits suicide. In the end Dr. Lanyon find Jekyll in the laboratory with a letter in which he explains what he did. The moral is if you commit crimes or if you disobey God, you will be punished. Stevenson use symbolism: the transformation of Dr. Jekyll it means, symbolically, that the evil side is winning over the good side and the color of the black door. The black door represent the darkness because Dr. Jekyll used door always as a doctor, only lather he became Mr. Hyde. The themes are: -the theme of the “double” ( Dr. Jekyll represent the good side, Mr. Hyde the evil side). - the theme of incommunicability, because Dr. Jekyll never speak about his experiment, only after his death in the letter he explains what he did. -The eternal struggle between good and evil. -The limits of science In this novel there are three narrator: Dr. Jekyll, Dr, Lanyon and an external narrator. The female role: The only important female characters is a maiden: she is socially inferior, the female role is secondary in this novel. Some critics says that this novel can be seen as a sort of reaction to the scientific progress, a sort of anti-trust. Stevenson wanted to demonstrate the weak side of science progress. Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin. Oscar was immediately recognized as a brilliant student, he went to study at Trinity College, Dublin. He became a leading figure in the aesthetic movement. In 1884 he married a wealthy English woman. He published The Happy Prince and Other tales and his most important work is The picture of Dorian Gray. His success was confirmed by a series of successful, satirical comedies. His theatrical masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde had an affair with the young Lord Alfred Douglas, whose father accused him of homosexuality, Wilde was sentenced to two-year imprisonment and hard labor in Reading Gaol. His one significant production of this period was The Ballad of Reading Gaol and The Profundis, which recounted his terrible prison experience. Wilde died on 30 November 1900. -Stile and narrative technique The novel is told by an unobtrusive 3rd person narrator. Wilde uses dialogue to reveal his characters’ personalities. The settings are described in great detail. The main symbolic element is the portrait. -Appunti scritti Oscar Wild gave origin to the figure of dandy, a rich man who lives a life of an aristocratic but he wasn’t aristocratic, he has good manners, he can speak kindly, he is elegant, he is very refined but he didn’t know the origin of his richness. Dorian is appreciate in English society because is very rich and handsome. This novel was an attack to the Victorian falsity and hypocrisy. The most important theme is hedonism, the research of pleasure, Dorian is influenced by Lord Henry, who lives a life of pleasure and convince him that this is the best way to live. Dorian at the beginning is naive, sensitive but Lord Henry represent the Devil, who in the end win. Difference between Wilde and Dickens The first victim of Dorian is a young girl, a 17 years old actress, who fall in love with Dorian, who refuse her after a night of love, so the girl commit suicide. From that moment on, Dorian begin a life of sins and crimes. Narcissism is another theme, The theme of the double The good and the bad is found in the interposition between Dorian and the painting. Dorian’s innocent appearance is the symbol of the middle and upper class hypocrisy. The theme of art as a mirror The picture represents the mirror of Dorian’s soul because reflects his bad conscience, but also the bad conscience and the immorality of the Victorian society. The theme of immortality given by art It is represented in the final scene when the painting is miraculously restored to its original beauty while Dorian dies changed by the signs of corruption and aging. Art has an eternal function and can impress beauty over time: only art can give immortality, in fact Dorian and Basyl, the painter, will be remembered forever. The theme of Hedonism It is present both in Dorian and Lord Henry, in fact they live a life of pleasures regardless the harm they can cause. Both of them consider life as” the best form of art” and pursue sensations and impressions of beauty with the amorality of an artist. The theme of Narcissism Dorian, like Narcissus, falls in love with his own image and he is destroyed by it in the end. The theme of the eternal struggle between good and evil Basil and lord Henry are the symbols of the eternal struggle between “ good and evil”. This novel is considered a “Faustian story” because Dorian seems to sign a pact with the devil. He desires to remain young forever, so he is an overreacher. The moral of this story is the usual:” If you live a life of sins, in the end you will be punished”. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE TWO NOVELS 1. THE DOUBLE The most important theme of these two novels is the theme of the double, or the continuous struggle between good and evil. While in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde the two parts that personify good and evil are two real entities (infact Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde represent two sides of the same medal: Dr Jekyll is the good part and Mr Hyde is the bad one) , with Dorian Gray this conflict is on an internal level. In fact, Dorian masks his evil under the guise of good (his beauty), which is evident in the moments in which he observes his portrait, the magical mirror of his soul. 2. Both novels are Faustian stories Doctor Faustus was a man who wanted forbidden knowledge. In order to get it, he signed a pact with the devil: in exchange to this knowledge he sold his soul to the devil. After 24 years, during which he had an incredible power and knowledge, the devil comes and Faustus is damned forever. Dr Faustus is considered an over-reacher because he wanted to go beyond the boundaries of reality. In line with this myth, Dr Jekyll wanted to go beyond the limits of science by discovering a serum that changed his physique and his mentality. Dorian Gray made a pact with the devil, albeit unknowingly, so that his portrait aged in his place. 3. THE ROLE OF WOMEN The role of the woman in both novellas is subordinate to the man: in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde the characters are all men with the exception of one and only woman who has a secondary role as she represents a servant. In the portrait of Dorian Gray, the character of Sibyl Vane (the woman in love with the protagonist) is subordinate to the man: Dorian's promise of marriage and his consequent refusal can be contextualized within that society, which was a patriarchal society. 4. THE THEME OF INCOMMUNICABILITY Both the protagonists despite having people around them, in reality they are alone: they cannot confess what is happening in their life and they cannot ask for help, thus leading to suicide. 5. THE NARRATOR The narrator in both novels is external and hidden, so the story is told in the third person. The focus used is the external one that takes the point of view of an external observer who reports the facts and discovers the course of events together with the reader. 6. THE TIME AND THE SPACE. The time within the two novels is not well defined, in fact the authors do not specify the exact year in which the events take place. As for the space, however, the places are not described in detail, but they somehow reflect the mood of the characters. 7. THE SAME ENDING In the end both protagonists die with a suicide: Dr Jekyll kills himself so that the bad side of himself (Mr Hyde) cannot take control. Dorian Gray after having made a murder, understands why it is his painting that gets old in his place and decides to destroy the painting; destroying the picture mortifies his soul and kills himself. 8. THE SAME MORAL The moral of these stories is “If you live a life of sins, in the end you will be punished and the punishment is proportional to the sin committed. Modernism are represented as being imprisoned in a city that does not give them the cha nce to grow and to develop their full potential as human beings. Physical and spiritual paralysis All the characters in Dubliners have a desire, they try to fulfil their lives by overcoming all the obstacles to this ambition, and ultimately surrender because they do not have the will to transform their desire into action. This universal condition of inaction affects all the inhabitants of Dublin and is defined by Joyce as ‘paralysis’. In Dubliners paralysis is not just a physical condition: it is a spiritual stagnation of the self, a universal lack of growth that affects the whole Irish nation. In other words, it means spiritual and physical death. A way to escape: epiphany Apparently there is only one potential way to escape from the universal paralysis that affects the whole Irish nation: epiphany. The word ‘epiphany’ means ‘revelation’ and ‘manifestation’. Joyce uses it to refer to the moments in which the characters of Dubliners experience the sudden revelation  of their condition of paralysis. Unfortunately this revelation does not lead to a real change in their lives: it simply makes them more aware of how dead and paralysed they are. -Ulysses Plot Ulysses is a long, complex novel set in and near Dublin on one single day, 16 June 1904. Its 18 ‘episodes’ narrate the actions and interactions of three characters. First we meet the young Stephen Dedalus, whom Joyce had already presented in his previous novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He is the protagonist of the first three episodes, grouped as Part I: ‘The Telemachiad’. The next and main section (episodes 4-15) is called ‘The Odyssey’ and focuses on the urban wanderings of Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged Jewish advertising salesman. Finally, the third section, called Nostos, brings Leopold back home to his loving but unfaithful wife Molly. The section ends with the spectacular adventure of Molly’s monologue, nearly 1600 lines of free-flowing stream of consciousness prose in eight unpunctuated sentences, concluding with a triumphant affirmation of love and acceptance of her husband, Leopold. A modern odyssey In a narrative that wanders through the city of Dublin, ironically reflecting the travels of wanderers like Odysseus, Leopold Bloom and the Jews, Joyce’s Ulysses is an epic novel which offers different visions of daily life, personal attitudes, po litical and cultural discussion and reflection on the human condition. Its styles are multiple and varied; its language and structure inventive. Each episode offers its own style. Title referring to a character or incident from Homer’s The Odyssey. Joyce’s constant references to Homer’s The Odyssey and to the world of ancient mythology adds a layer of universality to the events narrated in the novel and at the same time ironically underlines the squalid reality of modernity, which lacks the heroism of the ancient world. In this sense the ‘mythical method’ adopted by Joyce in Ulysses is very similar to the one used by T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land: both writers use ancient myths to represent the modern world as a place where heroism has disappeared and sterility dominates. Joyce’s stream of consciousness One of the most remarkable features of Joyce’s Ulysses is its narrative style, which represents the triumph of one of the most interesting tec hniques of Modernist writing: the ‘stream of consciousness’. -Appunti scritti Joyce received severe education in Ireland, 4 degree of school, Ireland was a sort of cage. Society was in a state of paralysis. Paralysis: stagnation in which Irish people leave, they didn’t react to the problem. He leaved Ireland forever and want to Trieste, were he met his future wife and Svevo. After he went to Paris and he published Ulysses.  Relationship with Ireland: He critics Irish people but he sets all his novel in Ireland. He begins talking about Irish problems and then he transform on universal problem (In Ulysses), that became the crime of the man of 20th century. Dubliners The Dubliners is a collection of 15 short story, the last one called “The Dead” is considered is masterpiece. They are set in Dublin and they are divided into 4 main groups: “childhood”, “adolescence”, “adult life” and “public life”. For the first time Joyce introduce two terms: “paralysis” and “epiphany”. Epiphany is a revelation of little Jesus Crist to the wise men (re magi). It’s a moment of salvation through a simple event realized his/her condition. Dubliners is set in several place: pubs, streets and it describes its problems. Critics affirmed that we cand find a progress of growing up, from particular to universal. Joyce introduce the “Steam of consciousness”. Eveline is a short story in the collection of Dubliners, she is a 19 y/o girls. The short story begins with Eveline near the window, she remember the day of her mother death and she realize her miserable life. She went to escape with his boyfriend Frank ì, but when she is near the ship she is paralyzed and she leave Frank. Ulysses Ulysses 1922, published in Paris, England refused to publish it because it was immoral. Joyce followed example from Odissea, it’s an epic poem, there is the hero, Leopold. It’s set Ireland but Joyce talks universal problem, the lack of heroism, love, ideals and trust. This work is divided into 18 epics episodes, they follow the scheme of Odissea; the first 3 episodes are called Telemachiad, the next 12 the wondering, in the end we have the last 3, the retorn to Itaca, we find Molly Bloom. PLOT Stephen Dedalus: we can find this name also in the portrait of the artist as a young man, Joyce use particular time, the story appended in only 1 day. The 3 characters represent: Leopold and Bloom the union between body and mind, Molly: the body and Stephan the mind. Stephan is a young teacher, he is homeless and fatherless, because he had same problems with his father, like Telemaco in the Odissea. Dedalus reminds to the myth of Dedalus, the architect who build the labyrinth but he remain trapped, and the myth of Icarus that represent the overreached. Dedalus want to escape, he want freedom, the same desired Joyce felt when he was young. His marriage represent the lack of love. Leopold correspond to Ulysses, Molly is similar to Penelope but Penelope waits for 10 years, she is faithful, Molly is unfaithful. She has a love affairs with her boss. The technique Joyce use is the steam of consciousness, the best example is the final monologue of Molly, It’s without punctuation and grammatical rules. George Orwell Journalist, essayist and novelist, Eric Arthur Blair, who later adopted ‘George Orwell’ as his pen-name, was born in India where his father worked in the administration of the British Empire. He spent his childhood in England and went to Eton College. His family’s circumstances did not allow him to go to university, and Blair joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, gaining first- hand experience of the poor and of the oppressive role of the Imperial admini stration.Five years later he returned to England and lived among the poor people in London before leaving for Paris. under the name of George Orwell, published his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), describing the conditions of the poor in the two capital cities. Orwell went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He described his war experiences in Homage to Catalonia, published in 1938. In 1945 his