American War of Independence & Romantic Age in Britain: Revolution & Reform, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica American War of Independence & Romantic Age in Britain: Revolution & Reform e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE The end of 18 century and the beginning of the 19 century is a period animated by some revolutions, like the American war of independence (1775-1783), the French revolution (1789-1794), and the industrial revolution, which made Britain an urban and manufacturing country. With the American independence, Britain lost all its American colonies, but after the victory against Napoleon, it gained many powers over land and sea. These revolutions influenced the literature and culture of that time with a feeling of revolt. The king of that time was George III, who succeeded his grandfather George II. He was the first Hanoverian king to be born in England and to speak English as his first language. He wanted to regain the power of the crown from the whigs and he used corruption to create his party “king’s friends” until he was strong enough to appoint his prime minister, Lord north. Together they heavily taxed the American colonies that lead to the total loss of them. After the “Seven Years war” and the removal of French power in America, the colonists no longer needed British protection and they resented the many taxes the Parliament imposed. They weren’t represented in the Parliament and the imposition of the taxes on many items lead to a slogan “no taxation without representation”. Two main events lit the fuse for the War on Independence: the Boston Massacre (1770) where the British soldiers fired into the mob during a riot and the Boston Tea Party (1773) when the Sons of Liberty destroyed an entire shipment of tea from India. They made this to fight against the Tea Act of May 1773 who forced them to buy tea from Britain and to pay heavily taxes on it. Britain responded with the Coercive Acts which closed Boston’s commerce. This lead to the First Continental Congress, held in Philadelphia in 1774 with delegates from all the 13 colonies. The congress was divided in two parties: the one who wanted independence and the other who was still loyal to George III. This crisis lead to the American Revolutionary War which began near Boston in 1775. On 4th July 1776 America declared its independence from Britain and George Washington commanded its army. France and Spain joined America’s side on the war. The conflict ended in 1781 and in 1783 with the Treaty of Versailles, Britain accepted the independence of the United States but maintained their colonies in Canada. The consequence of American Independence is that in the end Britain was financially destroyed, but hopefully, with William Pitt the Younger, the situation improved reducing duties. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION This revolution changed England from an agricultural country to a manufacturing one. Among the new inventions, there are; James Hargreaves’ spinning Jenny, which accelerated textile production, and James watt’s steam engine which was used as an energy source. This revolution increased the wealth of the nation but on the other hand, it caused hardship for the laboring class because of the scary conditions. After the war the government faced a war debt, and to reduce it, the government imposed the importation act which prohibited the importation of grain from abroad. There were some workers, Luddites that attributed their problems to technological innovations, and they destroyed new weaving frames, the government suspended Habeas Corpus, a law that protected men from illegal imprisonment and arrested leaders. SOCIAL REFORM George III was succeeded by George IV, who was one of the worst kings in British history, when he died, he was succeeded by William IV, under his reign, Britain saw several reforms. The first one was the reform act which extended the vote to all male members of the middle class, and another Act is the factory one, which tried to improve the conditions of children working in factories. Under his reign slavery was abolished in 1807 but he didn't set free those who were already slaves until 1833 with the slavery abolition act. There was the poor law that obliged parishes to offer financial help to the poor and unemployed, by the way, with the amendment of the poor law in 1834 they were no longer obliged to offer of the Sublime); - in the third one he says that, to make anything terrible, obscurity seems to be necessary. WILLIAM BLAKE William Blake was born in 1757 in london, where he was educated at home by his mother. At an early age he was influenced by the bible and began experiencing visions which he used on his writings. His love for gothic art developed during his apprenticeship as an engraver and after he became also a painter. For his poems he took inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost, proposing a unified vision of the cosmos, thus a marriage of heaven and hell. In 1794 he wrote “songs of innocence and experience showing the two contrary states of the human soul” that determined his fame as a poet. (his engraving illustrate the works of milton, dante, shakespeare and the bible). He was forgotten and ignored for a generation after his death and is recognised as a pre- Romantic. Blake believed that man could know the world fully through imagination, only god, children and the poet himself had this power of imagination, which offered a deeper and truer understanding of the reality. Imagination allowed men to see beyond physical reality, the external world could be understood and experienced only through the internal mind of imagination. SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE Songs of innocence it is a work seen from the perspective of a child, so it shows us something pure. Songs of experience it shows us what life is like according to the vision of an adult and destroys everything that is good in the innocence of a child, because according to Blake as a human being grows up he is corrupted by experience. The style is simple and direct, but the ideas are very complex, expressed through symbolism and abstract concepts. WORKS: The chimney sweeper; it's about a boy who became a chimney sweep after his mother died and his father sold him, so he's forced to work as a chimney sweep.this story is told from the point of view of this child who tells the story of one of his friends who had a bad dream. It's about Tom Dacre crying because his head was shaved to keep his hair from getting dirty. Then he talks about a dream where his friends were locked in coffins which were then opened by an angel and we have a positive vision. moral: if you are good and do your job then god is with us, so if you work you don't have to be afraid of anything. The lamb; one of the most famous works is the lamb, it is a celebration of the lamb, a symbolic animal representing purity and innocence, so it is associated with the child. The tyger; we have already studied the lamb that represents ti he innocence whereas the tiger shows the opposite, darker forces. the lamb and the tyger; trey are two complementari poems. In the lamb, the speaker might be a child, and he asked about its origins. Then the speaker said that the lamb was made by one who is similar to the lamb, a child, they are both innocent, meek, and tender. While in the tiger there is always a question about its creation and about the kind of God who could create this creature, but the tiger never replied. ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL It is a political speech which explains the rights of men and people should abolish the government when it doesn’t respect them. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH He was born on 7 April 1770 in Cumbria, northwest England. He supported the new government’s republican ideals. Wordsworth met Samuel Coleridge and they became friends. They worked together on the Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems mostly by Wordsworth, this work is considered the Manifesto of English romantic poetry. He became England’s Poet Laureate in 1843 and he died at the age of 80 on 23 April 1850. •In his work he emphasizes the importance of feelings, he believed that poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech and reject the elaborate. His focus was on simple country people and natural scenes and he saw nature as an uncontrollable force that dominated the life of man. •The poet is seen as a visionary figure who has imagination and can respond to experiences that other men have failed to understand. He believed that the poet is part of nature, he is inseparable from nature, and it represents the main source of inspiration, joy, and emotions. •His style is plain and easy to understand. He focused on the subjects of childhood, the memory of childhood in adults, and the lost connection with nature. WORKS: The prelude- is an autobiographical work, which describes the development of his ideas and his poetry. The excursion- long work of philosophical reflection on man, nature, and society during a tour of the mountains Preface to lyrical Ballads - is a collection of poems published anonymously by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798. In this preface, Wordsworth clarified the two poets’ conception of the principles of poetry. He expressed a new concept of poetry as spontaneous feelings. He also wrote that poetry should flow from ‘emotions recollected in tranquillity focusing on these genuine feelings rather than on poetic technique. In the first paragraph, he talked about the events which must be of daily life and described them in a common language. In the second paragraph, he explains the reasons why a poet should focus on common life and he said that a poet is a man speaking to men, so he can indeed the others. The last paragraph contains Wordsworth's description of poetic creation; he said that the best state for a poet to create a poem is in tranquillity. I wandered lonely as a Cloud- in this poem he transforms a commonplace into the extraordinary thanks to the present recollection of that joy. The author is recollecting the experience: he said that he was walking alone (in reality he was with his sister) and he saw a group of daffodils beside