Appunti inglese tutto anno quinta superiore, Appunti di Inglese

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Women of the 18th century ● Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice ● Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ● Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights ● Suffragettes Child exploitation ● Charles Dickens, Hard Times Critique of materialism ● Charles Dickens, Hard Times The double ● Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ● Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray War poets ● Rupert Brooke, The Soldier ● Siegfried Sassoon, Suicide in Trenches Epiphany ● James Joyce, Dubliners Stream of Consciousness ● James Joyce, Ulysses Anti totalitarianism ● George Orwell, Animal Farm Dystopian ● George Orwell, 1984 Theatre of Absurd ● Beckett, Waiting for Godot The Romantic Age (1760-1837) ➢ cultural trends 0 reaction to classicism ○ exaltation of the individual + self ○ distrust in progress + factories ○ imagination as a reaction to the age of industry ➢ political trends 0 age of revolutions + war ■ general sense of revolt towards outworn traditions + attitudes ■ 1775-1783 ⇒ American war of independence ● England lost American colonies ● social reforms ● 04/07/1776 → America declared its independence ■ 1789-1794 ⇒ French revolution ● revolt against old social order ○ Robespierre’s reign of terror ○ 1804: Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France ● spread of ideas such as equality + fraternity + liberty ➢ social trends 0 industrial revolution → agricultural economy to industrial ■ increased industrial production ■ new raw materials available from colonies ■ new inventions ⇒ spinning jenny + steam engine ■ revolution in production + transport ■ social consequences ● increase in the population → increase in cheap labour ● social unrest → unemployment + increasing poverty ○ social reforms ■ 1807: abolition of slavery ■ 1832: Reform Act → right to vote to middle class men ■ 1833: Factory Act → improve living conditions of children working in factories (>9 yo) ■ 1834: Poor Law → poor + unemployed ⇒ workhouses (gave them food and clothes in exchange for manual labour) ➢ re-evaluation of nature over reason 0 exaltation of nature + distrust in progress ➢ use of classical forms of expression ➢ immagination ➢ spontaneous feelings + emotions ➢ interest in the world of the self ➢ focus on common life ➢ poet as a bohemian + rebel Jane Austen (1775-1817) ➢ novelist ➢ Steventon, Hampshire ➢ daughter of an Anglican parish rector → encouraged her to learn + read ➢ went to boarding school with her sister but had to leave because of financial problems ➢ started writing at a very young age (14/15) ➢ her life was uneventful 0 didn’t marry ■ they decide to get married on the basis of their personal and independent will, not on the basis of social conventions ➢ jane Austen → clear understanding of a woman’s situation in her time ➢ novel that reflects the era’s obsession with marriage 0 historical condition that affected the life of all women ➢ law of entailment → only allowed male heirs to inherit properties ⇒ women had no financial independence and marriage was the only way they could obtain financial + social stability ➢ Elizabeth stands out as a new woman → doesn’t care about Darcy’s wealth (she rejects him) 0 independence + love = two most important things in her life ○ happiness gained at the end of the novel is her personal fulfillment + demonstration that women are rewarded if they pursue their own independence + happiness It is a truth universally acknowledged ➢ extract taken from the very beginning of the novel ➢ introduces the central themes of the novel 0 marriage ⇒ a man with good fortune must be in want of a wife ○ social conventions ○ small communities ○ men and women ➢ Mrs. and Mr. Bennet are talking about a wealthy gentleman who came to town Mr. Bingley ➢ she’s thinking of introducing him to one of her girls ⇒ marriage ➢ Mr. Bennet is not fully convinced ⇒ Mrs. Bennet is very keen of having her daughters married ➢ argument between the two ⇒ Mr. Bennet wanted to write a letter to Mr. Bingley ⇒ good word for Lizzy 0 Mrs. Bennet doesn’t agree ⇒ Mr. Bennet is always giving her the preference ➢ Mr. Bennet thinks Lizzy has something more than the others (silly and ignorant) ➢ the narrator describes Mr. and Mrs. Bennet - impartial 0 Mrs. Bennet ⇒ less difficult mind to develop, woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper ■ superficiality ■ silliness ■ frivolity ○ Mr. Bennet ⇒ odd mixture of quick parts (sarcastic humour, reserve and caprice) ■ capable to understand that there’s more than marriage ➢ Mrs. Bennet’s goal: having her daughters married ○ find a suitable man is the only way to inherit the family fortune + defined the family’s role in society (social conventions) ○ the couple have different priorities analysis ➢ narrator: third person omniscient 1) lines 1-5: narration ⇒ general statement about marriage habits in the 19th century 2) lines 6-60: dialogue ⇒ Mrs. Bennet tries to convince her husband to go and see Mr. Bingley 3) lines 61-72: narration ⇒ description of the character and behaviour of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet ➢ irony to highlight social hypocrisy ○ property ⇒ it doesn’t consider the man’s feeling and desires Darcy’s proposal ➢ turning point of the story: Darcy declares his love to Elizabeth, but she rejects his offer ➢ themes: love and class reòationships ➢ Mr. Darcy hurries in the room ➢ Elizabeth seems surprised to see him ⇒ she was expecting Colonel Fitzwilliam's ➢ Darcy tells her he admires and love her ardently 0 Elizabeth is confused, but remains silent ➢ Darcy highlight her inferiority ⇒ what makes her reject Darcy’s proposal ➢ Elizabeth’s feelings at first: she stared, coloured and doubted still remaining silent analysis ➢ third person omniscient narrator 0 non intrusive ⇒ there are no direct comments ➢ narrative technique: narration ⇒ point out the characters’ feelings 1) first section (1-9): Darcy enters the room, he’s agitated 2) second section (10-18): Darcy proposes to Elizabeth ● he had struggled in vain trying to overcome his feelings for Elizabeth ● he doesn’t want to repress them anymore ● the way he proposed made clear to Elizabeth that his pride was still affecting his decisions (lines 16- 18) ⇒ underlines the Bennets social inferiority 3) third section (19-29): detailed description of Elizabeth’s growing reaction ● she feels sorry for causing pain and would thank Darcy for his gesture ● blindsided by her own pride ● disappointed and sad ⇒ she liked him 4) fourth section (lines 30-47): Elizabeth’s rejection ⇒ Darcy’s misgiving about her social position 5) fifth section (lines 48-74): Darcy believes he’s being honest 6) last lines: Darcy comprehend Elizabeth’s feelings ➢ in early 19th century, Elizabeth’s decision would have been considered crazy because she was not noble and marrying Darcy would have greatly improved her social status ➢ a conventional 19th century woman would have hoped for a marriage based on love and social position ○ Elizabeth’s unconventional Mary Shelley (1797-1851) ➢ London ➢ daughter of philosopher and political writer + famed feminist ➢ mother died shortly after her birth ➢ 1801: her father remarried → great suffering for Mary 0 stepsister was sent away for school, while she didn’t get any formal education ➢ self-educated + made great use of her father’s extensive library ➢ creative outlet in writing ➢ 1814: met Percy Bysshe Shelley (was still married) → travelled Europe together ○ her father didn’t speak to her for a while ➢ 1816, in Switzerland: they were with other writers, it was a rainy day and to spend time they decided to do a challenge and write a horror story 0 Mary wrote Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus and won the competition ■ published anonymously ■ great success ➢ her stepsister + Percy’s wife both committed suicide → Mary + Percy were able to get married ➢ 1822: Percy died → Mary worked hard to support herself and her son ➢ wrote several more novels and kept promoting her husband’s poetry ➢ 1851: died of brain tumor FRANKENSTEIN, OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS ➢ 1818 ➢ published anonymously ➢ gothic novel → dramatic settings like dark laboratories + mountain landscapes + icy wastes of the North Pole; grim atmospheres; horror and violence ➢ also a novel of purpose → examination of the question of scientific research + ethical responsibilities ➢ epistolary novel told by Robert Walton’s letters (English arctic explorer) ➢ story introduced by a series of letters written by Walton to his sister in England ➢ he found a dying man (⇒ Victor Frankenstein) and takes him aboard his ship ➢ Dr Frankenstein tells Walton his strange story 0 studied science in a German University ○ discovered the secret of giving life to inanimate matter → took body parts from corpses and assembled a monstrous creature, giving him life ○ creatures’s horrible appearance → fear + loathing in people ○ it had human feelings → became lonely + miserable; rejection led him to hate men ○ committed murder ○ wanted the doctor to create a female companion for him ○ Dr Frankenstein nearly completed it byt was horrified and destroyed it ○ monster took revenge killing some of his folks ○ doctor wanted revenge → pursued the creature as far as the Arctic ➢ last series of his letters → doctor dies on the ship ➢ few days later → Walton finds the monster weeping over Victor’s body ➢ creature feels remorse and wants to end its existence → walks off onto the polar ice ➢ clear reference to the myth of the Greek giant Prometheus ➢ Britain’s economy went from agricultural to industrial → government controlled by capital ➢ dominant political parties changed 1. Whigs → Liberal Party ■ William Gladstone ● major representative ● Prime Minister 4 times ● interested in domestic affairs + political reform ● unsuccessfully tried to solve the Irish question, giving home rule to Ireland ● responsible for Third Reform Act of 1884 2. Tories → Conservative Party ■ Benjamin Disraeli ● major representative ● foreign affairs + imperial policy ● firmly believed in the British Empire → had VIctoria crowned as Empress of India ● responsible for passing the Second Reform Bill of 1867 + Trade Union Act of 1875 ➢ innovations 0 1803: steam locomotive ○ 1829: first permanent passenger service ○ railway network ■ 1863: metropolitan railway ○ 1837: telegraph ○ 1840: penny postal system ➢ growth of London couldn’t satisfy the basic needs of his inhabitants 0 overcrowded slums where people lived in the worst conditions possible ○ poor sanitation + use of coal for heating → air was heavy and foul-smelling ○ sewage thrown into the Thames ■ tunnels + pipes to direct sewage outside the city were built ➢ introduced water + gas + lighting in houses ➢ rising crime rates → street robberies + pickpocketing + shoplifting + prostitution + murders ○ 1829: New Metropolitan Police Force was founded ➢ 1851: Prince Albert organizes the Great Exhibition 0 first international exhibition in the world ○ aim = show British progress ○ held in Crystal Palace (no longer exists) in Hyde Park ○ huge success ➢ importance of religion + God’s role in the universe → in crisis because of Darwin’s evolution theory ➢ emergence of slums 0 poor lived in terrible hygienic and economic conditions ➢ poverty was seen as a crime ➢ wealthy had rigid standards of respectability + virtue + ethics + religion ➢ evangelicalism 0 religious movement ○ deep commission to social reform + human welfare ○ campaign for the abolition of slavery ■ 1807: Slave Trade Act ○ moralistic and puritanical movement ○ embodied moral code of the middle class ■ hard work + sobriety + seriousness + individualism ➢ utilitarianism 0 new school of thought ○ only what is useful is good ○ actions should be directed to the greatest good for the greatest possible number ○ ideas criticised → neglection of emotions/feelings/spiritual fulfilment ○ Hard Times ➢ victorians were convinced of their superiority + believed it was their moral duty to export their language, culture, traditions to the uncivilized lands 0 exploitation of resources and people ○ destruction of others’ cultures and habitats ➢ greatest splendour + extension of the British Empire ➢ main purpose of imperial expansionism = commerce 0 gain access to raw materials ○ conquer new markets for British products ➢ was also the chance to escape poor living conditions 0 millions of immigrants to Canada + Australia ➢ Britain’s Imperial Destiny ➢ period characterized by many wars to protect Britain's imperial interests ○ Crimean War (1854-1856) ■ Britain + France + Turkey ■ aim = to halt Russian advance towards Constantinople ■ Br. feared that the Russians were going to take their control over the Dardanelles (connected Black Sea to Mediterranean) ■ Britain won ■ human cost was immense ■ first media covered war → telegraph ■ Florence Nightingale ● the lady with the lamp ● went to Crimea to nurse the soldiers ● spent her night rounds giving personal care to wounded → founder of modern nursing 0 Indian Mutiny (1857) ■ East India Company commercial policy = destroy Indian cotton to favor cotton goods made in Manchester → cause of social unrest + rebellion ■ revolt was suppressed ■ 1876: Queen Victoria was crowned Empress of India ○ Opium Wars (1840) ■ China attempted to suppress illegal opium trade from India ■ it was causing social + economic problems ■ British won → China had to cede Hong Kong and Shanghai ■ second one → Britain allied with France to open up the Chinese market ○ Canada + Australia + New Zealand ■ best + least expensive way to preserve the Empire = grant the colonies some degree of independence ■ colonies of settlement → attracted immigrants from Britain who settled, claimed the land, pushed the natives out ■ obtained dominion (self-government) status ● 1867: Canada ● 1907: Australia + New Zealand ○ Ireland ■ not given home rule during the age of Victoria ■ devastating famine because of a failed potato crop among a peasant population ■ lots of Irish emigrated to America + Australia ○ Africa ■ scramble for Africa = period of rapid colonization of the African continent by Europeans ■ exploration of the continent → mapped by David Livingstone ● believed that the only way to liberate Africa from slavery was to introduce the 3 Cs ○ commerce ○ christianity ○ civilization ■ 1875: Br. bought the majority of shares of the Suez Canal (connects Mediterranean + Indian Ocean) ■ 1882: Br. invaded and conquered Egypt ■ next → Uganda + Rhodesia + Kenya + Niger territories as well ○ Boer War (1899-1902) ■ Br. vs Orange + Transvaal (= South African provinces) ■ Dutch Boers had colonized the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century ■ during Napoleonic wars → Br. had occupied the Cape + took complete control after the Congress of Vienna of 1815 ■ Boers → refused to live under British rule → moved northern and established independent republics = South African Republic + Orange Free State ○ name = from great fortunes created + the way of life this wealth supported LITERARY BACKGROUND ➢ victorian age → one of the most productive + rich + controversial periods of English literature ➢ main genre → novel 0 embodies moral values + religious beliefs + contradictions ○ entertaining and realistic plots with clear moral aim ○ sometimes published in installments ○ complex issues ○ lots of characters ○ unexpected events + surprises + subplots ○ 3rd person omniscient narrator ○ author acts like God ○ usually in 3 volumes ○ popular belief → they were meant to be like sermons ○ internationally known genre the age of fiction ➢ triumph of literature: 0 more people were able to read ○ more people could afford buying books ○ circulating libraries ○ books became easily portable objects ➢ 2 trends: 0 victorian compromise ■ instruct + entertain readers ■ realistic portrait of society ■ not critical ■ contradictions of the industrial revolution + consequences of the expansion of towns ■ city of London ■ optimistic view of man and progress ○ anti-victorian reaction ■ criticism is stronger + realism is more evident ■ critic towards values of the era ⇒ denounce evils of society (dark side of the victorian age was made visible) ■ influenced by Darwin’s theories of natural selection (On the Origins of Species) ■ realism ⇒ realistic representation of the world; pessimistic point of view; objective, non- idealising methods ■ idea of the divided self (duality of human nature) ■ writers were rejected ■ colonial novel ● british colonial expansionism reached its climax of power + extension + organisation ● issue of colonialism + its consequences → started to be explored in literature early victorian novelists ➢ Charles Dickens→ tragicomic novel ➢ Brontë Sisters 0 3 of them ○ most famous = Emily + Charlotte ○ Wuthering Heights (E) + Jane Eyre (C) ■ alternative to the triumph of mainstream Victorian novels ■ explored the world of passion and feelings late victorian novelists ➢ Robert Louis Stevenson → theme of the double ➢ Oscar Wilde → aestheticism ➢ Lewis Carroll → children’s novels (Alice in Wonderland ) 0 victorian theme of childhood ○ difficult to classify ○ can be read in many different ways ■ children’s story ■ piece of nonsense for adults ■ masterpiece for all ages and all readers ○ narrative is full of examples of nonsense poetry and deals with questions related to growing up ○ happy ending ➢ Thomas Hardy → pessimism (Tess of the D'Urbervilles ) 0 novels set in imaginary rural world in the south of England, Wessex ○ sense of pessimism + tragic fatalism ○ Tess = protagonist, heroine whose life was dominated by an indifferent and dark fate ○ his world was the exact opposite of the first trend’s optimism ➢ Rudyard Kipling → colonial novel (Jungle Book and Kim ) 0 British colonial expansionism reached its climax during that period ○ played the role of outsider of the late victorian trend ○ explored complex relationship between the English and the Indians in colonial India ○ K: British had the right/duty to use their own system of values to civilise the Indians ○ JB: two volume book of short stories for kids; world of childhood is mixed with magic + setting of the jungle ➢ birth of literary criticism → Matthew Arnold + John Stuart Mill ➢ birth of scientific writing → Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species ) the american renaissance ➢ studied in Brussels for a year with 2 of her sisters ➢ aunt died → back to Yorkshire ➢ tried to set up a school with her 3 sisters → unsuccessful → spent their time at home writing poems ➢ 1846: sister Charlotte → Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell ⇒ had to use pseudonyms to disguise feminine identity; only 2 copies were sold ➢ 1848: Wuthering Heights ➢ died of tuberculosis at 30 ➢ was reclusive + retiring person ➢ little is known of her life → a few friends to whom she wrote a few letters ➢ lived most of her life in small village in the Yorkshire → deep bond with the landscape + nature (constantly stimulated her imagination) WUTHERING HEIGHTS ➢ retrospective narration ➢ 2 households in the Yorkshire moors: Wuthering Heights (Earnshaws) vs Thrushcross Grange (Lintons) ➢ Mr Earnshaw finds homeless gipsy boy (= Heathcliff) on a journey to Liverpool and adopts him. sister Catherine grows attached to him while brother Hindley resents him. Mr Earnshaw dies. Hindley declares Heathcliff will no longer be allowed an education and sends him to work in the fields. Catherine marries Edgar Linton. Heathcliff runs away and returns as a rich man to exact revenge in both families. Catherine dies but Heathcliff is not free from his torments yet and he’s hunted by her ghost until the end of his life. after he dies the two ghosts are said to walk together in the moon ➢ combines romantic and gothic elements ➢ unbridled passion + stormy natural settings + dreams + ghosts ➢ not well received when it first appeared → excessively passionate, morbid, without a clear moral message, clumsy in its structure ➢ complex construction, lots of flashbacks and personal recollections, idiomatic language, stringing descriptions of the natural environment ➢ 2 narrators → 2 narrative register → 2 points of view ○ Nelly (Catherine’s housekeeper who witnessed most of the events) ○ Mr Lockwood (visiting gentleman who asks nelly to write the story and writes it down on his diary) ○ brilliant effect of impersonality ○ effective use of dialogue ➢ love, hate, revenge ➢ begins with end of the story ➢ landscape description → landscape becomes a symbol of the protagonists’ untameable nature and passion ➢ Heathcliff = romantic hero ➢ Catherine = modern, revolutionary figure, art pen between social conventions and wilder instincts A supernatural apparition ➢ establishes the gothic atmosphere of the novel → storm + ghost + old mysterious and solitary mansion ➢ stormy night at Wuthering Heights. Lockwood bears a tree branch tapping on the window. breaks glass to revoke it. branch turns out to be Catherine’s (ghost) hand. she asks to be let in but in vain. He’s more myself than I am ➢ Nelly is the narrator ➢ dialogue between Nelly and Catherine. talk about Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar Linton. turns out her decision is made by her mind not heart (marrying him means marrying into a wealthy and respectable home). marrying Heathcliff would mean marrying for love. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) ➢ Portsmouth, 8 siblings total ➢ at 9 → sent to school but his formal education was short ➢ at 12 → father and most of the family was imprisoned for debts ➢ forced to work 10 hr days in a blacking factory making shoe polish → 3 years of terrible loneliness and hardship ➢ began writing career as a journalist (became parliamentary reporter in 1833) ➢published Sketches by Boz (Boz = pseudonym) ➢ 1836: got married. published pickwick papers (= first novel) ➢ immense number of novels published as installments in magazines and then complete books + autobiography + regular contributions to periodicals ➢ travelled to America (lecture tour campaigning against slavery) and Italy ➢ wrote for theatre 0 1851: performed in front of Queen Victoria ➢ 1858: left wife for mistress (was an actress) ➢ 1870: died, buried in Westminster Abbey ➢ his great gift was inventiveness → world of characters exaggerated but unforgettable ➢ sympathy with the oppressed + indignation against social injustice ➢ humor → based on creation of characters with distinctive peculiarity of speech, physical appearance or gesture + creation of variety of comic situations ➢ touched upon exploitation of children and cruelty of workhouses ➢ wrote very copiously and quickly, under pressure because of publishers and his need fit money ➢ serial publication → needed to maintain interest from one episode to another → ended each one with dramatic turn of events → suspense → reader would buy the next issue to keep reading the story ➢ indulgence in melodrama ➢ characters: 0 portrayed as caricatured embodying particular vices or virtues ○ middle/lower class, mostly children ○ reproduced the changing face of Britain in the victorian age ➢ social criticism → consequences of industrial revolution in the lives of the poor + living and working conditions of the working class + child labor + legal system + crime ➢ denounces social evils of the time → wants to make readers aware of what’s going on ➢ believed in ethical and political potential of literature ➢ claimed people were forced into prostitution and crime by poverty + hunger + life in a corrupt society ➢ fascinated by urban life → many of his novels are set in London ➢ got words like boredom into the common language ➢ big influence on English → used popular slang expressions that are now common language (bitter-fingers), also with proper names (Scrooge) ➢ Pickwick Papers 0 series of tales with the same character (= Mr Pickwick) ○ huge success ○ monthly installments ○ adventures of Mr Pickwick and 3 friends = Pickwick club. tour of scientific investigation and discovery through England ○ typical example of Dickens’ humor Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) ➢ Edinburgh, family is lighthouse engineers (father wanted him to be one) ➢ child with poor health → spend lots of time at home → developed love of reading ➢ 1867: began studied at Edinburgh University → took a degree in law and qualified as lawyer only to satisfy his father ➢ been traveling Europe for 4 years → essays + articles about experience ➢ 1880: gets married with a 10 years older woman from SanFran that he met in France when she was still married ➢ 1881: back to Britain with wife + son ➢ health has been delicate for his whole life ➢ popular and successful works. Highly appreciated by other writers but critics tended to dismissed his writing ➢ 1887: father died → went back to the US. In summer he sailed to the pacific and spent lots of time on the Hawaiian islands ➢ 1890: bought a large property in one of the Samoan islands. Adopted name of Tusitala (= means storyteller in Samoan language) ➢ health + depression (because he was no longer capable of producing great works) ➢ 1894: died ➢ short life + writing career ➢ impressive quantity of works ➢ covered wide range of genres (poetry + plays + biography + essays + travel writing + short stories + novels) ➢ critics saw him as writer of children’s fiction but in recent times he’s won a place in great anthologies (he’s the 25th most translated author in the world) ➢Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Black Arrow were written as boys novels and inspired from Walter Scott’s work ➢A Child’s Garden of Verses ➢The Beach of Falesa and The Ebb Tide criticized European exploitation and colonization of the South Seas THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE ➢ Stevenson’s masterpiece ➢ shows doubt on progress and civilization → sense of pessimism and anxiety developed in a society that was full of contrasts ➢ man with 2 identities is the protagonist → presents good and evil, civilization and savagery ➢ Dr Jekyll (doctor, rational + moral identity) gets a poison which transforms him in Mr Hyde (depraved + irrational + evil). tastes the fascination of a world of instinct and sensuality. Mr Hyde is responsible for a series of crimes but escaped detection getting more poison and transforming back to Dr Jekyll. remors grows. Dr Jekyll finds it increasingly difficult to free himself from his devil other. story ends with Mr Hyde’s suicide because he can no longer escape justice + discovery of a letter written by Dr Jekyll to one of his friends who's a lawyer → he reveals the mystery of the double identity ➢ Dr Jekyll 0 embodiment of the respectable Victorian gentleman ○ reserved + formal + known for his charitable works ○ handsome and agreeable man ○ ‘creates’ Hyde because he likes being bad without paying the consequences ○ disapproves Mr Hyde’s mischiefs but he’s attracted by his dark side → gives visibility to the self that him and the Victorian society have always tried to hide it repress ➢ Mr Hyde 0 embodiment of the uncivilized part of humanity ○ hides beneath the formal bonds of civilization ○ small, pale and extremely ugly ○ Jekyll’s secret alter ego, his secret nature ○ takes over Dr Jekyll at the end ➢ duality of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde → critic of victorian morals: 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 ➢ relationship between Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde → doppelgänger = literary theory referring to the protagonist’s alter ego, which might be good or evil and negative ➢ story is told from different perspectives 0 Mr Utterson: suspicious about a certain Mr Hyde, Dr Jekyll’s mysterious friend. his point of view is followed for most of the novel, we only know the full story when he does ○ Dr Lanyon: friend of Jekyll’s who witnesses his transformation into Hyde ○ maid: her account in Sir Carew’s (= Member of Parliament) murder ○ Jekyll: letter in which he confesses ○ effect of keeping the reader in the dark + make them share Utterson’s bewilderment and borrow as the story proceeds ➢ gothic tradition → inspired by Frankenstein but Stevenson offers a more accurate analysis of man’s psychological and moral nature ➢ detective fiction = unsolved crimes, scattered clues, mystery, suspense A strange accident The truth about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) ➢ Dublin ➢ son of wealthy famous doctor ➢ brilliant student → Trinity College, Dublin; Magdalene College, Oxford ➢ composed poetry in London ➢ lecture tour → America ⇒ met Walt Whitman ➢ second lecture tour → Ireland and England → became leading figure in the aesthetic movement ➢ 1884: got married (had 2 kids) ➢ editor of a women’s magazine ➢ 1895: after moment of great success in London → involved in a legal case 0 led to his ruin ○ had an affair with a Lord, whose father accused him of homosexuality → at the time it was a criminal offense ○ Wilde accused him of libel → took him to court → case was rejected ○ put into trial for gross indecency (shown in his works and some letters to that lord) ○ convicted → sentenced 2 years imprisonment and hard labour ○ came out of prison: ■ physically and psychologically a broken man ■ abandoned by many friends ■ exile in France → wrote very little ➢ The Happy Prince and Other Tales 0 stories for children ➢Lady Windermere’s Fan ○ first play ○ immediate success → devoted to the theatre → wrote more satirical comedies ■ A Woman of No Importance ■ The Importance of Being Earnest ➢The Ballad of Reading Gaol ○ recounted terrible experience in prison THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY ➢ novel was attacked as an immoral work ➢ ‘vice and virtues are to the artist materials for an art’ ➢ Dorian Gray = rich and beautiful young man who has his portrait painted by Basil Hallward. Dorian meets Lord Henry, who talks to him about the transience of youth + beauty. Dorian is struck by this thought → makes a pledge: sacrifices his soul to maintain his youth + beauty. portrait will bear all signs of the time → becomes old + ugly → hidden away. Dorian leads a life of pleasure + sin + crime + corruption. he’s responsible for 2 murders ⇒ actress + Basil. decides to stab the portrait. he’s found dead, transformed in horrible man → portrait has returned to original beauty ➢ first published in a magazine (installments) → shock for readers: art was education and moral enlightenment ➢ 1891: revised edition was published 0 added 6 chapters ○ added a preface → attempt to deal with the criticisms received ○ outlines his philosophy of art = aestheticism ■ art is neither moral nor immoral ■ it has no moral purpose ■ beauty in itself is a supreme value the first world war ➢ 1910: Edward VII died → succeeded by son, George V ➢ one of the bloodiest conflicts in history ➢ Europe divided in Triple Alliance (Germany + Austria-Hungary + Italy) vs. the Triple Entente (Britain + France + Russia) [Italy will later switch sides] ➢ causes 1. rivalry between Austria and Russia ( ⇒ Balkans) 2. rivalry between Germany and Britain ( ⇒ commercial + naval supremacy) 3. animosity between France and Germany ( ⇒ Franco-German War of 1870) 4. assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand ( = heir to the throne) in Sarajevo (June 1914) → immediate cause ➢ Germany invaded neutral Belgium + Luxembourg to get to France ➢ march on France → Britain is obligated to step in ➢ people thought the war was going to be over in a few months → initially all soldiers were volunteers (conscription was imposed in 1916) ➢ new military technology ⇒ tanks + machine guns + gas ➢ highly cultured literate men joined the conflict → found inspiration for novels + poetry in the experience of the conflict 0 initial sentiments of patriotic pride ⇒ feelings of disgust + rejection ○ many of the war poets were among the victims of the war ➢ 1917: USA joined the conflict ➢ 1918: Germany was defeated → armistice was signed on 11/11 at 11am 0 Remembrance Day → 2 mins of silence every year at 11am to remember all the people who have died in war, started in 1919 by George V between the wars ➢ after WWI → economic + industrial decline of Britain ➢ mining industry = one of the most affected sectors 0 1926: mines’ owners tried to solve the problem reducing salaries and increasing working hours ○ miners went on a strike ■ ‘not a minute on the day, not a penny off the pay’ ■ support of workers in many other sectors (transport + printing + heavy industry) ■ 01/05/1926: TUC (Trades Union Congress, federation representing most of the trade unions in Britain) announced a general strike, which was going to start on the 3rd ■ 1.5-1.75 million people out on strike ○ government quickly recruited over 200 thousand special policemen and called the army ○ Stanley Baldwin (Prime Minister): strike = attack on Britain’s democracy ○ Roman Catholic Church: strike = sin ○ after a week → TUC abandoned ⇒ members went back to work ○ miners continued strike until November, then they admitted defeat ○ 1927: Trade Disputes Act → general strikes are illegal ➢ October 1929: Wall Street Crash 0 US put up custom barriers (stop to imports) ○ 1930s: Europe hit by Great Depression ➢ end of 1931: about 3 million men were unemployed, mainly in the industrial towns of the north ➢ south east of England → prosperity: lots of houses built, purchase of domestic appliances and cars ➢ 1922: BBC (British Broadcasting Company) was founded ➢ 1935: Penguin Books was created → brought serious literature to the population at cheap prices ➢ new international political and economic system ➢ Russian Tsar → executed 0 1917: revolutionary government took over ➢ trauma of WWI + GD → emergence of totalitarian political movements in Italy + Germany + Spain 0 put an end to economic depression ○ protect the country from communism ○ supported each other ■ Mussolini and Hitler helped Franco in rebellion against the Spanish Republic + the civil war ➢ after WWI → Dominions became interested in their independence + exploitation of their resources ➢ 1926: Balfour Declaration 0 officially formalized in 1931 ○ Balfour = Lord President of the Conference + Prime Minister ○ new relationship between Britain and Dominions ■ complete self-independence of Dominions ■ equality under the crown ➢ India → not mentioned in the Statute 0 Indian National Congress fought to get Dominion Status for India ○ Gandhi → launched a major disobedience movement → 1947: complete independence of India ➢ 1948: British Nationality Act ○ granted subjects of the British Commonwealth the right to live and work in the UK ■ flow of immigrants ➢ anti-German atmosphere 0 1917: George V changed the royalty last name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor ➢ 1936: constitutional crisis → Edward VIII decided to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee 0 opposition from all political parties ○ forced to abdicate ➢ George VI (Edward VIII’s younger brother) at the power until 1952 the second world war and after ➢ rise of fascism and nazism → cause of great concern in Britain ➢ Chamberlain (Br.Prime Minister) didn’t want to start another war 0 accepted Italian invasion of Abyssinia (1935) and German annexation of Austria (1938) ➢ 01/09/1939: German invasion of Poland → pushed Chamberlain into acton ○ 03/09/1939: Britain declared war on Germany ➢ allied powers (France + Britain; then Russia + US) vs. axis powers (Germany + Italy + Japan) ➢ 04/1940: Germany invaded Norway and Denmark ➢ 05/1940: Chamberlain replaced by Churchill ➢ 06/1940: France surrendered to Germany → Britain is alone ➢ after RAF (Royal Air Force) sky battle against German Luftwaffe → British cities were subjected to regular night-time bombing ➢ war continued and spread into a global conflict ➢ 12/1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour → brought US into the war ➢ 08/05/1945: victory of the allies in Europe ➢ after launch of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima (06/08/1945) and Nagasaki (09/08/1945) → victory of the allies in Japan as well ➢ both wars involved civilians ➢ modern aviation shortened distances between conflicting countries ➢ WWII → more than 60 thousand people were killed in the blitz (German bombing raids on Britain) ➢ terrifying consequences for the civilians came from the use of technologically advanced weapons like the atomic bomb ➢ countries were invaded and occurred → hard on the civilians ○ those who chose to fight back risked death ■ often tortured and then killed ■ Germans organized shootings in reprisal 0 movements of Resistance in occupied countries → important part in defeating the Nazis ○ people gathered intelligence for allies + destroyed communication lines + openly attacked Germans ○ French Resistance had a really important role ■ helped allies during invasion of Normandy (1944) ➢ 1942: Nazis decided to rid Europe of all the Jews ○ one of the greatest crimes in history of mankind ○ Shoah/Holocaust ⇒ systematic state-sponsored killing of 6 millions Jews ○ (another million people who were Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents had the same fate) ○ creation of death camps → use of gas chambers to exterminate large groups of people at the same time with poison gas ○ unspeakable conditions ○ piles of corpses layed unburied ○ few survivors → resembled skeletons because of forced labour + lack of food; long and difficult road to recovery ➢ 1945-1949: Nuremberg Trials 0 aim = bring Nazi war criminals to justice ○ many leaders convicted of crimes against humanity, some sentenced to death ➢ Churchill (Conservative party) lost first elections after the war → power to Clement Attlee (Labour Gov.) ➢ during WWII: plans to revise state welfare of Britain 0 1942: William Beveridge (= economist) produced a report implemented after end of the war ○ slogan = welfare ‘from the cradle to the grave’ ➢ 1944: reform of schooling + commitment to full employment ➢ 1945: Family Allowances Act ➢ 1946: National Insurance Act → further financial help for the sick and unemployed ➢ 1948: National Health Service Act → free medical treatments for everyone ➢ key sectors of economy were nationalised (ex: Bank of England, power + steel + railway industries) ○ aim = rebuilt the economies of Western Europe, but also to prevent the spread of communism in those areas ➢ relationship between US and Soviet Union has changed after the war ➢ 1948: communist seizure of power in Czechoslovakia 0 prospect of further communist expansion → 1949: birth of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization; US + 11 Western European countries) ➢ 1955: Warsaw Pact = rival alliance founded by Soviet Union + affiliated nations in Eastern Europe ➢ nearly all European nations aligned into one of the opposite camps ➢ 1945-1991: Cold War 0 nonviolent conflict that characterised the relationship between the US and USSR THE SUFFRAGETTES In order to talk about the suffragettes we must know that suffrage is the right to vote in political elections. The firsts who tried to get this right extended to women were the members of the Suffragist movement, founded in 1897 by Millicent Fawcett. Although, their peaceful means of protests weren’t enough, and in 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union, known as the Suffragettes Movement, who campaigned for women’s right to vote in such a violent way that they were seen as unfeminine. Women from all social classes were involved in the movement: Emmeline Pankhurst had a wealthy family on her back, but most of the others were from the middle and working classes. Their motto was “deeds not words” and their protests included general civil disobedience, bombing of letter boxes, handcuffing themselves to railings, window smashing, and hunger strikes in prison, which actually turned out to be fundamental for the people’s sympathy towards the suffragettes, since they were brutally being force-fed by the police. Their actions in prison caused the promulgation of the Cat and Mouse act of 1913, which made it legal to release suffragettes from prison when they would become sick from starvation, and rearrest them once they had recovered. That same year, the Suffragettes had their first martyr, Emily Davison: during the 1913 Derby, she threw herself under the King’s horse as a sign of protest against the attitude the country and King George V himself had towards gender equality. Many people, including many women, did not believe it was right for them to get the suffrage. However, persuaded by the crucial role females played during WWI, the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, granted them the right to vote: first, in 1918, the suffrage was a privilege for women householders who were at least 30, but then, in 1928, it extended to all females over 21.The movie ‘Suffragette’, that we watched back during Christmas break, shows this important phase of our history through the eyes of Maud, a woman who works in a laundry and gets involved with the movement during a window smashing protest, where she recognizes her coworker Violet, who will later recruit her to the cause. At first, Maud seems reluctant and afraid of changes, but she ends up being angry towards society and acknowledged to the injustice women were victims of. In addition, this movie shows the other face of the coin: Maud’s husband, Sonny, and Inspector Steed are perfect examples of the fears of an ageing masculinity threatened by the evolution of social relations.The movie does not include the 1918 and 1928 legislations, to revitalise and celebrate these activists, many of whom didn’t live long enough to see the result of their quests. After 100 years since the first woman got the vote, do you think women have equal rights? Women have been trying to achieve equal rights since the 1850s, but, the truth is that they’re still not treated as men are. This “Gender gap” does not only regard the working field, consequently, it affects the private life and the family household as well. This very last point is perfectly represented by the stereotype of women thought to be only mothers to take care of children and look after the house, while the man is busy working at the office. Undoubtedly, this old-fashioned belief needs to be changed, because I believe it is through changes that women and men will finally get to the same level. Taking action is changing, as we can see when one of the suffragettes, in one of the very last scenes, decides to commit suicide and sacrifice her own life in order to create scandal and open a way to the others suffragettes to be heard, by becoming a martyr. As the movie shows, men were threatened by the power of the suffragettes, which meant they knew women had the guts to break and change the law. LITERARY BACKGROUND ➢ one of the most productive + shocking literary and artistic revolutions of all time ➢ all aspects traditionally associated with victorian lit → swept away by spread of new theories/ideas 0 Einstein → theory of relativity ⇒ destroyed faith in objective reality ○ Freud → psychoanalysis ⇒ unveiled the world of the unconscious + inner self ○ WWI → final blow to victorian optimism ➢ literary + artistic production → strong technical + stylistic experimentalism ➢ attempt to use literature to explore the hidden recess of the modern human mind the break with the 19th century and the outburst of modernism ➢ modernism = cosmopolitan literary + artistic movements that violently reacted against previous values ➢ general idea = human mind is at the centre of writer’s scrutiny ➢ different artistic movements → common aim to rebel against the past + create new forms/styles 1. futurism → decomposition of subject to create a sense of dynamism in painting 2. cubism → fragmentation of subject into geometrical/abstract shapes 3. expressionism → distraction of forms + strange use of colors to convey idea of anxiety 4. surrealism → used art to represent the importance of the world of the unconscious ➢ causes of the shift from victorian to modern novel 0 gradual but substantial transformation of British society ○ pressing need for different forms of expression ■ forced novelists into a position of moral and psychological uncertainty ➢ works of modernist writers → heterogeneous but had common features 0 multi layered and complex narration → fragmentation of narrative point of view + plot ○ time and space → subjective dimensions ○ experimentation of many narrative techniques to render the flux of thoughts that characterized the working of the mind ○ rejection of grammar + punctuation ○ complex vocabulary + concepts ➢ modern novelist 0 mediator between the solid and unquestioned values of the past and the confused present ○ rejected omniscient narrator ○ experimented with new methods to portray the individual consciousness ○ understood it was impossible to represent the complexity of the human mind using traditional techniques ➢ new concept of time → perceived as subjective and internal 0 distinction between past and present = meaningless in psychological terms ○ absence of a well structured plot with a chronological sequence of events ■ it was not the passing of time that revealed the truth about characters ➢ in Britain → T.S. Eliot (poet) + Virginia Woolf and James Joyce (novelists) ➢ their works (1922-1925) → among the highest peaks of English literature ➢ representation of the unconscious ➢ writers active in the 1930s 0 deeply influenced by historical events ■ Wall Street Crash (1929) ■ Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) ■ expansion of Nazi power ○ mainly poets ○ most important → W.H. Auden + Dylan Thomas ➢ precursors of modernism 1. Henry James (1843-1916) ■ use of narrative consciousness technique: novels written from one point of view 2. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) ■ tried to record the mystery of human experience using multiple points of view ● give voice to the fragmented self of the characters ■ impressionistic technique → based on the use of disconnected images + narrative details 3. David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) ■ Sons and Lovers and Lady Chatterley’s Lover were deeply influenced by Freud’s theories(*) ■ realistic description of the conditions of life of people in provincial England + provoking analysis of psychological implications of family bonds and sexual ● centred his work on the liberating function of sexuality (*) in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) Sigmund Freud introduced the idea of the instability of the self, which formalized the concept that consciousness is multi- layered and really exists only as it is perceived by the self. His theories deeply influenced early 20th century authors, giving them tools to explore the hidden self of the characters. ➢ interested in the development of the character’s mind and human relationships ➢ psychological novelists ➢ ‘stream of consciousness’ 0 term coined by American psychologist William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890) ■ was Henry James’ brother ■ compares consciousness to river/stream → continuous flow of thoughts and sensations that characterise the human mind ○ idea immediately translated into fiction → interior monologue ■ one of the most widely-adopted narrative techniques ● aim = represent the unspoken activity of the mind ○ inspiration from ■ symbolism ● broke the traditional metric system ● started to use free verse → better means for expressing human feelings ■ Thomas Ernest Hulme’s theories ● aesthetic philosopher ● believed in the importance of raw images as pure forms of expression ○ Ezra Pound ■ american poet ■ invented the name ‘imagiste’ ○ 1914: manifesto → official start of imagism and therefore modernism ○ use of common and non-decorative words or expressions ○ free use of metrical forms ○ creation of new rhythms to tackle new subjects ○ concise + dry style ○ avoidance of vague concepts → concreteness ○ free choice of any subject/matter ○ poems = usually short; poet’s response to a scene or object; contained no moral comment ○ hard + clear + precise images ○ aim of poetry = achieve precision + discipline + dry hardness ➢ georgian poets ○ name = during George V’s kingdom ○ influenced by the Victorian Romantic tradition ○ Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) ○ Walter De La Mare (1873-1956) ○ Edward Thomas (1878-1917) ○ sympathy for English elements (ex: countryside = idyllic place) ○ convention of diction ○ indifferent/hostile to the revolution in sensibility and technique started by the symbolists ➢ symbolist poets ○ movement → started in France (Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal , 1857) ○ style characterised by ■ indirect rather than direct statements ■ use of images to evoke rather than to state ■ importance given to the ‘sound’ of words ■ use of quotations from other literatures, revealing cosmopolitan interests ■ use of free verse ■ possibility for the reader to bring meaning to the poem ○ poetry = escape from emotion + personality ○ poet (according to T.S. Eliot) ■ explorer of experience ■ used language to create rich patterns of meaning that were not easy for the superficial reader ■ recorded the collapse of Western civilisation and the culture and spiritual waste of the beginning of the century ➢ strong influence on William Butler Yeats → the Irish revival ○ Irish poet ○ production reflected all influences + styles that characterised the history of English poetry from the end of the end of 19th century to the late 1930s ○ influenced by aesthetic movement + imagism ○ very personal style ○ inspiration = Irish folklore ○ form of poetic symbolism ⇒ reaction to the sterility of the modern world ➢ second generation of modernist poets ○ social + political commitment ○ Oxford university → Oxford poets ■ in the 1930s ■ left-wing propaganda ■ concerned themselves with the social and political aspects of human life ■ turned away from T.S. Eliot’s complexity ■ aim = communicate with their fellow men + encourage them act in a morally right way ■ Wystan Hugh Auden ● spokesman of the group ● not a pessimistic point of view of life ● poetry = means to tackle important social and political issues of the era ● use of symbolic, not obscure language ● high level of experimentation ● to US in 1939 → started looking at Christianity as answer to modern man’s anxiety ■ Stephen Spender ■ Cecil Day-Lewis ■ Christopher Isherwood ■ Louis MacNeice ● poems → combined humour + tragedy ● important contemporary issues ● reflect of his fascination with his homeland (= Northern Ireland) ● never fully shared the left-wing attitudes of the group → explicitly criticized them ○ new romanticism ■ in the 1940s ■ reasons for the name ● appealed to emotions ● rediscovered individual themes of love + birth + death + sex ■ literary movements that reacted against the cerebral poetry of previous authors (ex: Auden) ■ Dylan Thomas ● Welsh poet ● prototype of the new romantic poet, greatest representative ● popular in Britain + US ● universal themes (ex: love + death + cycle of life + freedom) ➢ American poetry ○ Ezra Pound + T.S. Eliot ■ born in America but spent most of their lives in Europe ■ condition of expatriates → expansion of ideological horizons + allowed merging of different cultures, styles, poetic traditions ● result = truly modern, cosmopolitan concept of poetry ○ Edgar Lee Masters + Robert Frost ■ American poets strongly linked to the culture of their modern country ■ ELM → Spoon River Anthology = collection of over 200 epitaphs written for the inhabitants of the imaginary village of Spoon RIver; porta of a huge variety of human types; poetic form makes it eternal + universal ■ RF → focused on local life (most poems set in New England); used American rural life as a source for reflecting on universal + philosophical themes related to the modern world the new voices of non-british drama ➢ first half of the century = age of prose and poetry writing → no great British dramatists emerged in this period ➢ only exception ⇒ T.S. Eliot ○ Murder in the Cathedral ■ inspiration from murder of Thomas Becket (= archbishop of Canterbury) ➢ best examples of English thrìeatre of this time were to be found outside England → US + Ireland ➢ years of great experimentation in the field of European drama ○ idea that theatre was an instrument of social criticism + moral reflection ➢ Ireland → Irish Literary Theatre ○ founded in 1899 by William Butler Yeats ○ became Abbey Theatre in 1904 ○ aim = revive the tradition of Irish national theatre ○ combination of nationalistic praise for Irish folklore + modern interest in social issues ○ use of realistic language ➢ US ○ Eugene O'Neill ■ plays in which the representation of human isolation goes hand in hand with the contant avoidance of any form of realism ○ Tennessee Williams ■ boycott ● Alabama transportation company boycott (blacks refused to give up seats for white people) ● lasted 381 days ● MLK was arrested and his house was bombed ● 1965: the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses ■ mass demonstrations ■ sit-ins ○ political change without the use of violence I have a dream ➢ speech delivered from the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. 0 one hundred years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 ■ one hundred years later, “The Negro is still not free” ➢ fervent emotional sermon, forged out of the language of Christianity and the spirit of democracy ➢ references: the Declaration of Independence of 1776 (America is the land of opportunity where all men are equal) and the Bible (MLK was a preacher) 0 King’s dreams coincides with the American Dream (All men are created equal ) ➢ racism is widespread especially in the southern states ○ Mississippi: signs of injustice and oppression ○ Alabama: racism is widespread and affects children ○ Georgia: no sense of brotherhood among former slave and former slave owners ■ MLK comes from the south (Georgia) ➢ King’s speech is about freedom for everyone in America ➢ two parts 1. lines 1-18: “I have a dream that…” (anaphora) ⇒ it gives rhythm to the speech 2. lines: 19-38: freedom is the most repeated word (“let freedom ring” ⇒ personification & metaphor) ⇒ being loud to make their voices heard ➢ “We will be able to speed up the day when all of God’s children, black men and white men [...] will be able to join hands and sing in the words…” hyperbole ➢ “Let freedom ring” metaphor ➢ “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama” alliteration ➢ “I have a dream that one day” anaphora ➢ “A state sweltering with the heat of injustice” personification ➢ language: concrete and inspiring ➢ the shift of pronouns from “I” to “we” underlines a sense of unity towards freedom ➢ key words: freedom, hope, equal, justice, one day, today, sisters and brothers, faith, together ➢ ➢ Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) Warwickshire, wealthy family studied at King’s College, Cambridge ➢ idyllic view of the English countryside ➢ nervous breakdown → travelled to Italy + Germany + North America + New Zealand + Pacific Islands ➢ WWI → commissioned into Royal Naval Division ➢ 1912: Georgian Poetry 0 first collection of poems ○ title → he belonged to the georgian poets ■ rejected victorian poetry didactic style ■ dealt with humble themes ■ melancholic + elegiac tone ➢ 1915: 1914 & Other Poems 0 his most famous poetic work ○ sonnet collection ○ published year of his death ○ express idealistic + enthusiastic praise for war → made him popular ➢ 1915: died on a hospital ship in Greece (got blood poisoned) ➢ didn’t have long experience of war → couldn’t experience the most terrible aspects of war ➢ exaltation + exultation over the experience of war ➢ war = purifying experience for people and nations, triumph of patriotism and heroism ➢ the only thing that can suffer is the body ➢ his poetry → lacks the elements of tragedy and loss ➢ soldier = hero who saves and protects those who are home, sacrifices for the nation ➢ sometimes is too sentimental + superficial ➢ his work = inestimable historical documents reflecting the exalted mood of Britain during the years immediately before the outbreak of WWI ➢ death = seen as a reward; it’s glorious to die for one’s country The Soldier Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) Kent studied at Cambridge University → left without graduating ➢ comfortable life ➢ small volumes of poetry ➢ best remembered for his war poetry → written during/right after WWI 0 Counter-Attack and Other Poems ➢ ➢ ○ War Poems ➢ 1915: went to fight in France → returned the following year to recover from fever ➢ 1917: got wounded → went back to England ➢ became increasingly disillusioned with the war ➢ open opposition to the war → nearly led to a court-martial ➢ 1918: wounded again in Palestine ➢ the only war poet who survived the war ➢ after WWI → continued to write both prose and poetry ➢ The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston → trilogy of autobiographical novels ➢ post-war work → characterized by spiritual concerns ➢ 1957: conversion to Catholicism 0 his religious poetry is generally considered inferior to his war production ➢ 1979: died ➢ voice of first-hand experience of the conflict’s horror + brutality ➢ war poems → explicit + simple language; perfect control of meter + rhyme ➢ strong reactions in Britain 0 many criticized him for his lack of patriotism + his poems’ shocking violence ○ others bought his books → he captured the true feeling of the soldiers + growing reaction against a war that seemed unending ➢ disillusioned by terrible realities of war → destroyed lives of thousands of young victims ➢ used poetry to denounce truths about war ➢ philosophy of no truth unfitting ➢ insistence on the most horrific details of war (ex: rotten corpses + suicides + filth) Suicide in the Trenches James Joyce (1882-1941) one of the most important novelists of all time one of the greatest innovators of 20th century prose writing ➢ Dublin, Catholic middle class ➢ when he was a child → parents lost their wealth + father lost job as tax collector ➢ 1898: started studying Italian + French + English at University College, Dublin ( → started writing literary reviews + articles) ➢ 1904: met Nora Barnacle (future wife) ➢ moved to Trieste (still belonging to Austria-Hungary) → offered a teaching position; worked on: ○ Dubliners ■ collection of short stories written using a naturalistic style ○ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ■ semi-autobiographical ■ Stephen Dedalus = protagonist narrative techniques ➢ only apparently traditional ➢ based on the rejection of the Victorian idea of the third-person omniscient narrator ➢ use of internal narrative perspective ⇒ each of the stories is narrated from the point of view of one of the characters ➢ realism mixed with free direct speech and free direct thoughts ⇒ direct presentation of the character’s thoughts ➢ style: naturalistic , concise , detailed descriptions ➢ realism mixed with symbolism ⇒ deeper meaning of external details ➢ each story opens in medias res , told from the perspective of the character ➢ different linguistic registers ⇒ the language suits the age, the social class and the role of the characters ➢ absence of a didactic and moral aim because of the impersonality of the artist themes: paralysis and escape She was fast asleep ➢extract from The Dead 0 last story ○ implacable portrait of the Irish middle class → condition of mediocrity + stubbornness ○ Gabriel Conroy ■ protagonist ■ prototype of the mediocre Irish middle-class man ■ individual who lives his life like a dead person The Death ➢ the conclusion of the short story The Death ➢ Gabriel and Gretta has just come back from an after-Christmas party (at the house of Gabriel’s unmarried aunts) ➢ at the party Gretta heard and old Irish song ⇒ reminded her of Michael Furey, her first love ○ she believed he died for her ➢ back at the hotel, Gabriel asks Gretta why she looked so thoughtful ⇒ she tells Gabriel the story ➢ Gretta’s sleeps and Michael has his own epiphany plot: ➢ Gretta falls asleep after confessing about the romance/love story with Michael Furey ➢ Gabriel observes Gretta sleeping and realises she’s no longer young ➢ Gabriel understands that he played a poor part in Gretta’s life 0 Gretta never really communicated with Gabriel ⇒ she had never told Gabriel about her love story (line 27- locked) ➢ Gabriel soon realises that Aunt Julia will die soon ➢ He also realises that everyone is becoming shades ➢ Suddenly he’s attracted by the noise of snowflakes falling outside the window ➢ snow is falling and covering all Ireland (⇒ Joyce’s classic setting) ➢ divided into 6 paragraphs ➢ setting and time 0 line 24: the air of the room chilled his shoulders ⇒ only reference to the location ○ it’s winter ■ snow = Gabriel’s desire to change & epiphany ⇒ it makes Gabriel conscious of the human condition ■ falling snow = heaven or death reached by people at the end of their life ➢ description: realistic - Gretta’s sleep, snow falling themes ➢ living & death ➢ light & darkness ➢ warmth & cold ➢ present & past stylistic analysis ➢ verbs: past perfect (memories), past simple/continuous (current situation) and present continuous (future) ➢ chiasm: falling faintly and faintly falling ➢ metaphor: journey westward = to die 0 controversial because we don’t know what kind of death they’re going to face narrative techniques ➢ third-point of view narrator ⇒ shares Gabriel’s thoughts ➢ internal point of view ⇒ Gabriel’s ➢ limited narrative ⇒ the reader has access to Gabriel’s fragmented thoughts 0 he doesn’t know the full story behind the character, but only what Gabriel goes through in his mind at the moment ➢ What were Gabriel and Gretta doing an hour before? 0 aunt’s supper, own foolish speech, wine and dancing, marry-making when saying good-night in the hall, the pleasure of the walk along the river and the snow 2nd paragraph ⇒ gabriel feels a strange friendly pity for Gretta ⇒ she seems innocent while sleeping 3rd paragraph: imminent death (lines 16-17, 19-21) 5th paragraph: ➢ Gabriel’s seems very sad and even lonely, he’s confessing he’d never felt anything like what he feels for Gretta and he’s trying to convince himself of that feeling’s love. He sees Michael Furey as a young man standing under a dripping tree. He starts crying. ➢ The tears reveal that he loves his wife ⇒ lines 29-30 ➢ A young man standing under a dripping tree (= Michael Furey is the man standing) ➢ He’s not alone, but surrounded by other dead people ➢ Gabriel feels that the world around him and himself are going to die and dissolve eventually lines 32- 33 ➢ the title refers to: mankind ⇒ eventually, we’re all going to fade away ➢ snow falling = paralysis 0 it represents the impossibility to escape death, because it’s as impossible as preventing snow from falling ➢ Gabriel’s journey to the west ⇒ better to pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fading and withering with age ULYSSES ➢ set in and near Dublin ➢ one single day ⇒ 16/06/1904 ➢ 18 episodes ➢ narrate actions and interactions of 3 main characters ○ Stephen Daedalus - Telemachus ■ Joyce had already presented him in a portrait of the artist as a young man ■ protagonist of the first part ● the telemachiad (episodes 1 → 3) ■ pure intellect ■ he embodies every young man seeking maturity ■ alienated protagonist of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - becomes momentarily his adopted son ■ in his stream of consciousness he’s stimulated by sense impression ■ associates things by ressemblance ○ Leopold Bloom - Odysseus ■ middle aged Jewish advertising salesman ■ protagonist of the second part ● the odyssey (episodes 4 → 15) ■ Joyce’s common man, he stands for the whole mankind ■ middle-aged advertising canvasser and non-practicing Jew ■ in his stream of consciousness things are linked by cause and effect or by being near in space and time 0 Molly ■ Leopold’s wife ■ protagonist of the third part ● nostros (episodes 16 → 18) ● brings Leopold back home to his lovely but unfaithful wife ■ Leopold’s wife, she stands for flesh, sensuality, fecundity ■ voluptuous singer who is planning an afternoon of adultery with her music director ■ she defines herself with her sensual nature and fecundity ➢ end of the novel ⇒ Molly’s monologue ➢ 1600 lines of free-flowing stream of consciousness prose in 8 unpunctuated sentences ➢ concluding with triumphant affirmation of love + acceptance of her husband Leopold ➢ ironically reflects the travels of wanders like Odysseus ➢ epic novel ➢ offers different visions of daily life + personal attitudes + political and cultural discussion + reflection on the human condition ➢ language + structure = inventive and fanciful ➢ upsetting sentence structure ➢ one of the strongest anti-totalitarian voices of literature ➢ his work = expresses clear warning against the mystification of power + dangers of totalitarianism ➢ Animal Farm → shows his commitment + political position ➢ strong sense of moral awareness ➢ his aim = transform political writing into an art 0 “I write because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing” 1984 ➢ bleak, dystopian (≠ utopian) vision of a future world ruled over by an oppressive totalitarian regime in which the state controls every detail of a person's life, down to their private thoughts ➢ set in what was once London, now capital of the state of Oceania Big Brother = at the head of The Party → governs over citizens with a system of constant surveillance + violent policing + psychological conditioning reform of English → led to creation of new language = newspeak Winston Smith = protagonist, journalist who has to rewrite old articles to adjust history, in order to support the state policy; rebels against the oppression of the regime; writes a diary → keep a record of events; affirms he believe in the existence of objective truth Julia = Winston’s partner in the rebellion → they have an affair affair discovered by the Thought Police ⇒ they’re arrested + mercilessly tortured + brainwashed until they’re cured (→ they betray each other + reject their ideals + confess) fully convicted of their guilt + stupidity last lines of the novel ⇒ Winston = broken man but perfect citizen ➢ title = Orwell wanted to represent the frightening possible future of England 0 1984 = reverse of 1948 → year in which the book was written ➢ fascinating but disturbing novel ➢ examines role of power + domination in an imaginary future society ➢ society he’s talking about → reflects totalitarian regimes of the 30s and 40s ➢ interest = difficulty of preserving individuality + value of truth and personal intellectual freedom 0 language was manipulated to hinder clear thought ○ censorship controlled all forms of public expression ○ all human values → sarified in favor of social + political orthodoxy ➢ nightmare vision of future as a warning ➢ Winston = symbolic name → direct reference to Churchill ➢ Smith = most common English last name ⇒ universality ➢ one of the few human beings whose humanity hasn’t been completely cancelled by totalitarianism 0 memories of a past in which things were better ○ hates The Party → tries to rebel ○ in spite of all his attempts, he eventually surrenders in Room 101 (= where he’s tortured) ■ becomes a passive + depersonalised member of The Party ➢ Big Brother = image present everywhere in Oceania; strong, apparently benevolent face ➢ looks at all citizens from posters + tv screens → “Big Brother is watching you” ➢ all citizens can be spied, even their thoughts aren’t private ➢ it’s all-knowing and all-seeing ➢ threatening concept ➢ newspeak = reformed version of the English language (oldspeak) introduced in 1984 society ➢ elimination of all irregular forms + drastic reduction of the vocabulary ➢ aim = reduce possibility of independent/unorthodox thought → elimination of words that could express concepts of democracy or freedom ➢ by 2050 → oldspeak = completely disappeared ⇒ revolution would be complete ➢ example of the way language can be used as an instrument for power + coercion ➢ doublethink = other instrument of power + mass control used by the party ➢ ability of holding 2 contrasting ideas at the same time, even though they’re contradictory ➢ capacity that enables the Party to erase the past + make people believe in its truths ➢ cancellation of human conscience + rationality the object of power is power ANIMAL FARM, 1945 ➢ political and allegorical novel ➢ expression of his disillusionment with totalitarianism in the form of an animal fable ➢ anti-Soviet and dictatorship satire (Napoleon) ➢ dystopian novel ⇒ influenced by Gulliver’s Travel ➢ pastoral setting ⇒ two pigs as main protagonists ➢ characters: group of oppressed animals , led by Napoleon ⇒ they overcome their cruel master and set up a revolutionary gov’t 0 Napoleon soons becomes a dictator ○ all Seven Commandments are abandoned and only one remains: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equals than others” ➢ made him internationally known and financially stable ➢ short narrative message ➢ clear warning against the mystification of power and the dangers of totalitarianism in society ➢ representation of the dangers of all kinds of revolutions ➢ denounces the threat of selfishness and greed that characterises human actions ➢ parallel with the history of the USSR (1917-1943) ➢ each animal symbolises a precise figure or representative type ➢ initial idealism of the revolution gradually decayed into inequality, hierarchy and dictatorship ➢ does not attack the original ideals of the Revolution, but the ways in which they were betrayed The situation depicted by Orwell throughout the whole novel seems paradoxical, meaning that the author completely reversed the iconic conception of a farm. At the beginning, the animals are treated horribly, as frequently happens in farms, although, later on, the animals manage to gain power and eventually end up making Jones run away from his property. This whole situation is pretty ironic because it’s unusual, never heard before, and also never happened before that a group of animals led by pigs could take over an entire farm. In addition, Orwell radically changed the normal hierarchy conception of the farm, he not only gave power to the animals, in particular to the pigs, but also made the farm owner go away, as described in the second chapter. Another fact that highlights this irony is that once the animals have the farm all for themselves and they feel free to do whatever they want, they come across some issues. It is in light of these technical problems, such as milking the cows or feeding the animals with the proper ratios, that they realise why Mr. Jones was so important to keep the farm running. The theme of power certainly represents Napoleon, however this feature will transform him in a pig version of Mr. Jones. Initially he shares the power with Snowball, but as soon as he gets him out of his way, he basically becomes a dictator. Napoleon makes the animals work as slaves, especially to rebuild the windmill everytime it gets destroyed, in this case, Boxer is probably the clearest example to show the harsh working conditions the animals were facing. Power corrupts Napoleon at the point that he becomes Mr. Jones, as mentioned in the very last line of the book. Napoleon starts his ascension to the throne by expelling Snowball, then takes over the house in charge of “brain of the farm”, later on he becomes “our Leader Comrade Napoleon” and “Father of the Animals”, but most shocking of all, at the very end, he starts walking on his legs, violating the very first commandment of the original set of The Seven Commandments. The novel is certainly relevant today, not only because it shows what happened in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, but also because it draws an important food for thought for us and for the next generations, in order not to make history repeat. The cruelties and brutalities of both the living and working conditions of the animals in the farms are far less terrible and tough than the ones people lived in. With this novel Orwell wants to depict how gradually, but rapidly at the same time, men like Lenin and Stalin gained power by obtaining the masses’ consent. At the end, as Napoleon shows by walking on two legs, giving equal rights to the masses was not the main focus of those who proclaimed the proletarian dictatorship; because as clearly explained in the last chapter: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. With the quotes: “All animals are equal, but more animals are more equals than others” Orwell wanted to express that even though the animal revolution started by sharing the common thought that all animals were equal, at the end, the principle turns out to be betrayed by Napoleon. He used the animals in order to give him power, so that once he got the consent from all the animals, exhausted by working 24/7, he could be an animal version of Mr. Jones. This quote clearly explains that Napoleon’s aim was not the well-being of his once-called-comraded, but on the contrary it was his social climbing to become kind of like a dictator. To sum up, this quite destroys every hope of equality the animals had ever wished. “Four legs good two legs bad” means that it was now the time that animals took control of the farm. Initially the principle was perfectly respected, however, once Napoleon managed to remove Snowball, things got complicated, and with a blink of an eye, the farms were totally controlled by Napoleon. A significant part of this quote is certainly when Napoleon parades in the courtyard followed by a line of piglets walking on their hind legs, because it shows the real result of the principle. What all animals dreamed of was gradually crumbled, they were now subjugated to a equally brutal ruler, whose only ➢ racial tensions emerged → intolerance + racism, effects still felt today ➢ ethnic ghettos grew in depressed industrial cities ➢ after WWII → Clement Attlee was elected (Labour Party) ➢ lots of reforms 0 set up the Welfare State ■ national health service ■ social security ■ free education ■ council housing ■ committed to employment for all ■ (1945-1975: Conservative + Labour parties agreed on the new role of the government in providing welfare for all) ○ Bank of England + power, steel, railway industries were nationalized ○ to ensure equality between sexes ■ 1970: Equal Pay Act (man and women with the same job had to be paid the same) ■ 1975: Sex Discrimination Act (discrimination of women in the workplace was illegal) ○ 1976: Race Relations Act (tried to eliminate racist discrimination in a society that was becoming increasingly multi-ethnic) ➢ development of youth-driven counter-culture 0 50s → young people started to turn away from adult models + create new cultural expressions ■ in England → Teddy Boys ● wore Edwardian clothing ● formed gangs ● listened to rock&roll music ○ early 60s → mods + rockers ■ conflicting groups ■ became famous for street fighting ■ mods = interested in fashion; listened to modern jazz + soul + r&b music ■ rockers = wore leather jackets; imitated figures of rebellion (James Dean + Marlon Brando) ○ later → hippies ■ long hair, advocated peace and love; took hallucinatory drugs; inspo in eastern philosophies ○ late 60s/early 70s → youth culture was against war, especially Vietnam War ■ challenged government policies + establishment with demonstrations + sit-ins ➢ 60s 0 years of great optimism ○ life standards improved for the majority of people ■ lots of families could afford to own a car ■ new motorway system made it easier to travel ■ television ads encouraged consumerism ➢ 70s 0 years of economic decline + rising unemployment ○ Britain entered into recession → cost of welfare policies became problematic ○ 1978-79: winter of discontent ○ 1979: Conservatives came into power → Margaret Thatcher (= Iron Lady) ■ strong leadership ■ tackled the Trade Unions + privatised national industries + cut down on state benefits ➢ a failing one year-long miners strike made the coal industry almost completely disappear ➢ 1982: Britain won a brief but bloody war against Argentina 0 national pride emerged ○ war was over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands (South Atlantic) ➢ 1990: Iron Lady resigned ○ she had lost support from her own party over local taxation + hostility towards Europe ○ replaced by John Major (Conservative) ➢ July 1994: Tony Blair = leader of Labour Party (= opposition) 0 transformed it ■ from left-wing socialist position to centre-left stance ■ name = New Labour Party (to distance it from its past) ○ 1997: won general elections ■ brought an end to 22 straight years of Conservative rule ■ Blair became Britain’s youngest Prime Minister (was 43) ● programme of devolution, establishing: ○ Scottish Parliament ○ National Assembly for Wales ○ Northern Ireland Assembly ➢ 21/04/1925: Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born ➢ 06/02/1952: her father, King George VI, died ➢ 02/06/1953: she was crowned Queen under the name of Elizabeth II ➢ 1947: married Prince Philip Mountbatten (= Duke of Edinburgh) 0 had 4 kids = Charles + Anne + Andrew + Edward ➢ early years of her reign → British Empire evolved in the British Commonwealth ➢ head of the Commonwealth + representative of the nation → she travelled more extensively than any other monarch/leader in history ➢ 1977: Silver Jubilee 0 entire nation was involved in street parties celebrating the first 25 years of her reign ➢ 90s = period of difficulty + unhappiness ○ 1996: Prince Charles + Diana Spencer (= the People’s Princess) divorced ○ Aug 1997: Diana tragically died in a car crash in Paris THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ➢ end of WWII → US = leading nation of the world 0 economic boom ○ new prosperity ○ confidence that social problems would be solved ○ great changes ⇒ equal rights for women + minorities ○ shift in power from the industrial centers north-east to south-west ○ growing belief that they had the economic + military power to maintain world peace + determine other nation’s behavior ○ rapid development of technology ■ space exploration Cold War ➢ after WWII → international politics = dominated by the Cold War 0 = state of political tensions between Western Powers (US + NATO) vs Eastern Powers (Soviet Union + its satellite countries) ➢ 1961-61: building of the Berlin Wall 0 polarization between the two blocks got accentuated ○ divided Berlin into Eastern and Western blocks ➢ US → policy of containment = fight communism any time + place it occurred ➢ anti-communism → wasn’t limited to foreign policy ⇒ domestic anti-communism ○ irrational anti- communist hunt led by Senator Joseph McCarthy ■ tried to discover communists + bering them to trial + punish them ■ had a list of people he accused of anti-American activities + communist sympathies ● mostly intellectuals + rival politicians ● many lost their jobs + left the country ■ eventually asked to prove his accusations → he had no evidence → got dismissed ➢ US military intervention in Korea + Vietnam = part of the containment policy → limit spread of communism in South-East Asia Korean War ➢ end of WWII → Korea was divided in 2 zones of occupations, which formed governments in 1948 1. Republic of Korea = American-occupied South Korea 2. People’s Democratic Republic of Korea = Soviet-occupied North Korea ➢ 1950: tensions exploded → North Korea invaded South Korea ➢ UN condemned this act of aggression → sent troops + Truman (= US President) → sent troops as well ➢ after 4 months → combination of UN/US troops drove the North Koreans back ➢ then → Chinese entered the conflict (North Korean side) ⇒ fortunes changed rapidly ➢ 1953: unpopularity of the war led to Eisenhower’s election as the new US President ○ (promised to put the war to an end) ➢ July 1953: war ended ■ revolves around the actions of a young graduate who is dissatisfied with the values of society and rebels against them ■ play known for the explicitness of its language + realism with which British life is portrayed ➢ with their works literature became a vehicle for social criticism + protest Theatre of the Absurd ➢ expression coined in the 50s ➢ works of a group of European and American playwrights who shared Albert Camus idea of human life as absurd + meaningless ➢ wasn’t an official movement or group of artists → heterogeneous works ➢ plays → expressed the meaninglessness of modern life ➢ literary + stylistic devices 0 language → fragmented ■ wide use of pauses + silence ○ dialogues → illogical + aimless ○ plots → not logical + defy almost all the conventions of traditional theatre ○ constant mix between tragedy and comedy ○ opened ends ○ pointless actions ○ relationships among the characters → inconsistent + unclear ➢ aim = provoke the audience by destroying the conventions of traditional theatre ➢ expression of a very dark view of life ➢ life = meaningless + fragmented + hopeless ➢ reflection of the attitude most genuinely representative of the time 0 certitudes + unshakeable basic assumptions of former ages have been swept away, tested and found wanting, discredited as cheap and childish illusions ➢ decline of religious faith → substituted by faith in progress + nationalism + totalitarian fallacies ➢ sense of senselessness of the human condition + inadequacy of the rational approach ➢ open abandonment of the rational devices + discursive thought ➢ Eugène Ionesco ➢ Samuel Beckett ➢ Jean Genet ➢ Arthur Adamov ➢ Harold Pinter 0 The Room ○ The Caretaker ○ The Dumb Waiter ○ almost always the same themes ■ idea that man is obsessed with the idea of being confronted with unexpected ■ menacing events that can cause destruction or death ○ plays set in close, claustrophobic rooms ■ metaphors for the modern world, in which men are constantly under threat ○ his plays are often called ‘comedies of menace’ ○ importance of silence ■ words aren’t effective tools for communicating, they seem to have lost their capacity to express meaning + they’re used by characters to fill the threatening silence that pervades and surrounds them ➢ effect of an absurdist play ⇒ powerful + highly estranging 0 audience often feels frustrated + puzzled + disturbed ○ tries to rely on characters actions + language looking for an explanation of what they saw ➢ strong influence by the French existentialist philosophy 0 relies on the beliefs that life is meaningless + time doesn’t exist + actions are purposeless Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) ➢ 13/04/1906, Dublin (→ Irish) ➢ novelist + short-story writer + poet + playwright ➢ studied French + Italian + English ➢ 1928: moved to Paris → English teacher 0 met and became friend + assistant to James Joyce ➢ travelled in Britain + France + Germany 0 wrote poems and stories + had occasional jobs ➢ 1937: back to Paris ➢ WWII → Ireland was neutral ⇒ was allowed to remain in Paris ➢ fought with the French resistance ➢ 1942: members of his group got arrested by the gestapo → obliged to flee ➢ after the war → won the Croix de Guerre = award for his bravery ➢ settled in Paris ➢ prolific years → 1952: Waiting for Godot → became internationally famous ➢ 1960s: career as theatre director ➢ 1969: Nobel Prize in Literature 0 didn’t accept it in person → didn’t want to give a speech at the ceremony ➢ 1970s + 1980s: kept writing in his small house near Paris, where he could devote himself to writing while avoiding publicity ➢ late 1980s: serious health problems → nursing home ➢ died December 1989 ➢ his plays = masterpieces of contemporary world theatre ➢ Waiting for Godot (1952) ➢ Endgame (1957) → actions take place in a post-atomic bunker; inability of human beings to overcome their existential loneliness + communicate ➢ Krapp’s last Tape (1958) → monologue; a man listens to his own recorded voice telling him about his past happiness; voice sounds like a complete stranger to the man → lost + impotent ➢ Happy Days (1961) → long, endless monologue; woman (= Winnie) buried up to her waist, then neck; physical inability of the main character to use her body; contrast between the memories of her past happy days and the absurd condition of loneliness + degradation in which she finds herself now ➢ then → his theatre became more essential 0 language replaced by silence ○ movements + actions replaced by stillness ○ attempt to translate the existential void of modernity through theatre ➢ dramaticules ⇒ series of short plays; powerful dramatic vehicles; all traditional elements of drama were progressively eliminated ➢ many plays → theatre of the absurd ➢ disjointed + meaningless + repetitive dialogues ➢ rejection of logical plot ➢ absurd = absurdity of human existence ➢ language 0 rhythm ○ disconnected thoughts ○ “lets go” ⇒ they don’t move ⇒ language is useless What do we do now? Wait for Godot. ➢ lack of communication ➢ impossibility to remember ⇒ the past doesn’t exist ➢ death and suicide (line 44) ➢ blurred idea of passing time ➢ life is meaningless ⇒ eternal wait ➢ dead voices ⇒ negative connotation ➢ spending time to keep occupied ➢ they are not sure whether they tried to hang themselves yesterday ➢ they have bad memories ➢ they need each other to confirm they are still alive stage directions ⇒ express the characters emotions ➢ sentences are mainly shot ➢ the characters’ words are mainly concrete ➢ there are many pauses ⇒ highlight the fragmented language ➢ they are obsessed by the idea of keep the dialogue going (lines 74-89) ⇒ they confirm they are alive (being silent = being dead) 0 the act of speaking prevent them from thinking about the meaning of life ○ if they stopped thinking, they would probably discover they’re eventually going to die Brooklyn - Colm Toibin THEMES Many themes are highlighted in the book, their link is that they’re all connected to Eilis’ growth and they define how she faces difficulties and challenges presented by her new life. One of the first themes is migration , which initially represents an obstacle for Eilis, because she would have to leave her home and the only reality she had ever lived in; as we can see in pages: 22, 23, 24, where Eilis is still in Ireland and the opportunity of going to live in Brooklyn is presented to her, thanks to Rose’s initiative. Another theme is the new start, which is introduced during the boat trip, where her cabin mate, Georgina, tells her what to do once made it to Ellis Island, in order to get past the inspections (49). Other situations representing the new start are Eilis’ new job at Bertocci’s and her bookkeeping classes, because of the new environment and routine she has to get used to. Going through a new start, Eilis most certainly experiences homesickness . Especially at the very beginning of her stay in Brooklyn where she finds herself lonely and surrounded by people who shared her same origins, but as a matter of fact, weren’t her real family. A clear example of homesickness is found in page 67, where she feels as she doesn’t belong to Brooklyn because her heart is still in Ireland. This theme defines her growth, and makes her more independent and strong. Next theme related to Eilis’ character is personal identity, which defines Eilis as a young, shy and hesitant lady at the beginning, and then it marks her growth and adulthood. A reference to the book can be found in page 181, where it’s described her reaction to her brother Jack’s letter about Rose’s death. This very last page identifies with Eilis because Rose was part of her. Another important theme is loss : Rose’s death, the terrible and tragical event which will make Eilis go back home to support her mother and say goodbye to her beloved sister forever. Some examples referring to the theme of loss are the phone call with Eilis’ mother and also when Father Floods tells Eilis the news, or even when Eilis gets the letter from Jack. Loss is connected to difficult choices, represented by going back home, leaving Tony and even being “forced” to accept his marriage, probably not because of true real love, but because of her confusion and fragile mental state. This theme can be found even at the beginning, where Eilis isn’t ready to leave home, but still goes away, because Rose tells her it’s what’s best for her future. Last theme is probably love, represented by the love story between Eilis and Tony. It’s probably because of this relationship that Eilis manages to fit in the society and no longer feels homesick; even though, she doesn’t really seem overexcited when Tony proposes, because, in my opinion, she doesn’t love him the same way he loves her. EILIS’ CHANGE The book is considered a coming of age novel, whose main character is Eilis: a young lady originally living in Ireland during the 1950s, who begins a new life in Brooklyn, which will define her growth and personal changes. At the beginning, Eilis is shy, hesitant, and very close to her home and family; for this reason, she isn’t sure about going away at first, but then, once she realises Rose has come up with this opportunity for her future, she decides to leave, although, mainly because she was supposed to and really didn’t have a choice. Before departing, Eilis is still a child, as we can see on the boat, when she eats because she is too naive to think that later she would feel bad. This shows that she’s not really used to decide for herself, since she had only been used to live with her mother and sister, who always looked out for her. She can be defined as a light character at first, because she doesn’t know what she wants. but as she fits in the new environment (Brooklyn) and meets Tony, she becomes more confident and independent. Overcoming homesickness made her stronger and less passive, this paved her way to adulthood, mainly because after a while, she feels home in America, even though she doesn’t forget about Ireland. In my opinion, it’s her ‘feeling at home’ in Brooklyn that makes her go back to Tony in the movie, because otherwise, she would have stayed with her mother; at the end she’s not only more independent, but even able to make her own choices. The change in Eilis’ personality can be seen even under a more physical point of view: at the end she dresses with more style and her appearance is more confident and self-assured. This refers to her maturity and her new way of being conscious of her future and decisions. To sum up, Eilis changes from an insecure young lady to an independent woman. MOVIE vs BOOK Although the two are telling the same story, some events are shown differently in the movie. Starting from the most obvious difference, the movie, unlike the book, gives a real end to the story, since Eilis does go back to Brooklyn, while the book is left with the assumption that she has gone back to Brooklyn (we are not sure). As we saw in class, during the interview with Colm Toibin, the author thinks the movie gave a real end to what the book leaves unfinished, which gives the reader the opportunity to create his own end to the story. Toibin’s main focus while writing the book was showing what it was like for a person who got sent away to live in a different reality, this reconnects with the theme of immigration, and so arriving to another country with insecurities and fears. Both the movie and the book underline Eilis’ physical and mental change, even though, through the book the homesickness phase is more clear, because the narrator describes in details how she feels. While in the book, the reader can actually see the content of Jack’s letter to Eilis, in the movie, we can only see Eilis reaction to the letter; given that, the reader is probably closer to Eilis based on the fact that he can fit into her shoes by reading the letter. All things considered, through the movie it’s possible to personificate the characters, who are just words and imagination by reading the book, but at the same time, the book expressed better Eilis’ growth to adulthood.