AUTORI ETÀ VITTORIANA LETTERATURA INGLESE, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica AUTORI ETÀ VITTORIANA LETTERATURA INGLESE e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE VICTORIAN AGE AUTHORS. Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights (early Victorian novelist/prose) This work is the retrospective narration of a visitor in Yorkshire telling the story of two hauseholds on the Yorkshire moors: Wuthering Heights(of the Earnshaws) and Thrushcross Grange( of the Lintons.) The story begins 30 years earlier when Mr Earnshaw finds a homeless gipsy-boy(Heathcliff) in Liverpool and adopts him as his son. When Mr Earnshaw dies, Hindley declares Heathcliff will no longer be allowed an education and sends him to work in the fields. Heathcliff grows-up ill-treated and is angered when Catherine, whom he loves, marries the rich Edgar Linton. The death of his beloved Cathy cannot free Heathcliff from the torments of his love- hate relationship with her and he is haunted by her ghost. After his death their two ghosts are said to walk together on the moor. ( gothic and romantic elements) The novel was considered excessively passionate and without a clear moral message. Nowadays, modern readers appreciate the novel's innovative narrative technique for its complex construction, its interesting use of flashback, its vivid use of idiomatic language and its descriptions of the natural environment of the Yorkshire moors. The story is told by two narrators, Nelly, Catherine's housekeeper, and an outsider, Mr Lockwood, who asks Nelly to tell him the story. Through the double-narration, the novel achieves an effect of impersonality . LANDSCAPE AS A SYMBOL=The landscape surrounding Wuthering Heights is characterised by moorland, which cannot be cultivated and is infertile. Landscape becomes a symbol of the protagonists' untameable nature and passion, which cannot be restrained by rationality. Heathcliff's name ties him to the land (heath: an area of uncultivated land; cliff: a steep rock). Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre (early Victorian novelist/prose) Is an autobiographical written in the first person that revolves around the figure of Jane, a poor orphan girl. Her rebellious behvaviour leads her to an institution for orphans, where she gets an education and becomes a teacher and later the governess of Adèle, the illegitimate daughter of Mr Rochester. Jane is not beautiful, but her intelligence attracted Rochester, who falls in love with her. The two arrange to marry but Jane discovers that Rochester is already married with Bertha Mason, held prisoner in a room. So Jane runs away and is cared by the Reverend St John Rivers and when she is about to marry him, one night she hears Rochester’s voice calling her name. She feels a compulsion to return to Rochester's house that she finds burnt by his mad wife. Rochester is alive but blinded, Jane marries Rochester and at the end of the story we learn that Jane has been married with Rochester for ten years and that he regained his sight. GOTHIC AND ROMANTIC ELEMENTS= Jane's journey from poverty to the condition of a happily- married woman is Gothic. The setting is Gothic: Thornfield Hall is an old mansion which hides the dark secret of Rochester's past. The supernatural situations are gothic. Rochester and Jane themselves are Romantic heroes: Rochester is a kind of Byronic hero, arrogant but intelligent and Jane herself is a passionate individual. It is a social novel with a strong critique of the role of women in Victorian society. The-novel is very clear on the fact that it’s only through education that a woman who is poor can live in a dignified way. Her independence challenges the Victorian prejudices against women. CHARLES DICKENS (early Victorian novelist/prose) The great gift of Dickens was inventiveness, a typical example of his humour is his work Pickwick Papers, then in Oliver Twist he focused on social criticism. Dickens’ purpose was to denounce the social evils of the time and to make readers aware of them due to his own experience when as a child was forced to work 10 hours days in a factory. In his plots, Dikens needed to maintain interest from one episode to another so he did it, ending each episode whit a dramatic turn of events that provokes suspence. His characters are often caricatures embodying particular vices or virtues. Fascinated by urban life, many of his novel are set in London. Dickens has been so important to influence English Language, in fact he spread many words already existing in English but unknown, such as ‘boredom’, ‘butter-fingers’. The abundance of narrative details as well as of grotesque and visually-effective particulars made his novels ‘cinematic’. His main works includes: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Hard Times and Great Expectations. Oliver Twist Oliver Twist is an orphan and live in a workhouse. When he asks for more food at the end of the evening meal, he provokes a furious reaction from the officials who send him away to work. Oliver runs away to London, where he becomes involved with a gang of thieves led by Fagin. On his first mission as a pickpocket Oliver is arrested but was cared by Mr Brownlow. Then Oliver is forced to take part in a burglary but was abandoned, this time is taken in by Mrs Maylie and Rose. Nancy discovers that the gang were so determined to recapture Oliver because Monks, in reality was Oliver’s half-brother. Both sons of a wealthy father, who left his fortune to Oliver's mother, Agnes Fleming. It also emerges that Rose is Agnes's younger sister. At the end, Oliver receives his inheritance and is adopted by Mr Brownlow. POOR LAW AND WORKHOUSES= Charles Dickens personal experience of poverty is reflected in Oliver Twist, in which he express his anger at the living conditions of the poor and the iniquity of the Poor Law of 1834, which dictated that public charity was to be administered through workhouses. In Victorian England the wealthy aristocratic class did not have to work for a living while the growing middle class saw hard work as moral virtue. Poverty was seen as a sin and poor people could only receive assistance if they lived and worked in workhouses. The only alternative of life was a life of crime and prostitution. Oliver stands out as a child with a pure heart and a determined spirit. His happy ending comes as a result of the discovery of his true identity and so he simply returns to his rightful status. Dicken’s description of the cruelty and hypocrisy of Victorian England doesn’t lead to any reform or change in Victorian mindset. LEWIS CARROLL: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (late Victorian novelist/prose) This work is a classic of nonsense literature, a form of writing that uses a series of techniques to disrupt meaning and to help turn the familiar out of place through the inversion of logic and language and the creation of unexpected contrasts. Dominant is the contrast between Appearance and Reality. It is the story of what happens to little Alice when she falls into a rabbit hole and discovers an underground fantastic new world, "Wonderland', where things are not what they seem to be. A world populated with strange characters like the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts and a series of unusual talking animals. Most of these are mad. Like all children’s story, it has a happy ending and we discover that all her frantic adventures were nothing but a daydream. THE VICTORIAN WORLD 'UPSIDE DOWN'- The world discovered by Alice is the upside down version of the Victorian world: rules of logic are subverted, scientific or natural laws are disordered, time and space are relative. The imaginary world visited by Alice is ruled by an irrational woman who represents the negative counterpart of the Queen Victoria. Carroll's animals and things behave almost like people, 'Wonderland' is a land of absurdity where the traditional notions of logic, identity, sanity, space and time are ridiculed. THOMAS HARDY: Tess of the D’ubervilles (late Victorian novelist/prose) Tess of the D'Urbervilles, with the subtitle 'A Pure Woman', recounts the tragic life of young Tess. She is sent by her family to claim kinship(prole) with the rich cousins Stoke-D'Urbervilles. She is raped by Alec and becomes pregnant but the son dies soon. Then finds a new job as a milkmaid(lattaia) and meets Angel Clare and falls in love with him. She writes him a note about her past which she slips under his door but unfortunately, it finishes under the carpet and Angel never receives it. The two separated and years later, Angel discovers Tess with Alec and decides to kill him. At Stonehenge Tess is arrested. FATE= The characters are often face to Fate and so are defeated by a series of circumstances which combine to determine a tragic ending. Hardy believed that man's destiny is controlled by a blind force, which he