INTERO PROGRAMMA DI LETTERATURA INGLESE - QUINTA SUPERIORE, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica INTERO PROGRAMMA DI LETTERATURA INGLESE - QUINTA SUPERIORE e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! romandio perdry A new generation of poets established new trends, but they did not lay down a precise programme of rules. They tended to use subjective, autobiographical material moving towards the expression of a lyrical and personal experience of life. Many factors produced this change: for example, the noisy activity of the industrial town was compared negatively with the simple serenity of the countryside. There was a growing interest in everyday life, an interest in melancholy and a new taste for the desolate, the love of ruins, graveyards, ancient castles and abbeys. Nature There was also a revolution in the concept of nature. The classical view of nature as an abstract concept was slowly replaced by the view of nature as a real and living being. The romantic poets also regarded nature as a living force and as the expression of God in the universe. The sublime The distinction between the beautiful and the sublime became a main theme of 18th-century aesthetics. Sublime could be defined as whatever provoked terror, pain and strongest emotions. In these strongest emotions there is a pleasure in such feelings. Imagination Romantic poets need to give expression to emotional experience and individual feelings. Imagination gained a primary role in the process of poetic composition. Thanks to the eye of the imagination, they could see beyond the reality and discover a truth beyond the powers of reason. The role of the poets The poet was seen as a teacher whose task was to mediate between man and nature, to point out the evils of society and to give voice to the ideals of freedom, beauty and truth. The great English Romantic poets are usually grouped into two generations. The poets of the first generation are Wordsworth and Coleridge. They agreed that Wordsworth would write on the beauty of nature and ordinary things with the aim of making them interesting for the reader, while Coleridge should deal with visionary topics, the supernatural and mystery. The poets of the second generation were Byron, Shelley and Keats. The political disillusionment is reflected in their poetry. The child There was an interest about the experience of childhood. To a Romantic, a child was purer than an adult because he was unspoilt by civilisation. His uncorrupted sensitiveness meant he was even closer to God. Individualism There was new emphasis on the significance of the individual. The Romantics saw the man in a solitary state, and stressed the special qualities of each individual's mind. The cult of the exotic They exalted the atypical, the outcast, the rebel. In this period there is the veneration of what is far away both in space and in time. Poetic technique The Romantic poets searched for a new, individual style through the choice of a language and subject suitable to poetry. More vivid and familiar words began to replace the artificial phrases of 18-century diction. romandio portg Romanticism was a revolt against the aristocratic social and political rules of the Age of Enlightenment and also a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. This movement legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority, which allowed freedom from classical notions of form in art. One of the most important themes of romantic culture is the enhancement of the autonomous and creative personality, released from the external constraints of society and traditional conventions and norms. For this reason, the exponents of romanticism rebel against all authorities and against traditions, to enhance their freedom. This rebellion, based on passion, not reason, is condemned because it challenges the government of the time: in fact, it is much more powerful than the rebellious individuals. So, it can be said that the whole enterprise of rebellion is hopeless from the start. o Inthelast stanza there are the emotions recollected in tranquillity, after the experience. BOAT STEALING In the first part of this poem, the speaker begins by recalling how he came upon a boat tied to a tree. He gotin, and pushed it off into the lake. He knew that he shouldn't steal the boat, but he brought him pleasure. Alongside the water, he noted natural wonders like mountains and the water itself. He focused on one specific mountain and rowed in its direction. It got bigger until it rose above him and blocked out the stars. Suddenly, he felt fear at the sight of it and the feeling that it was coming behind him. He was occupied for days after by that mood and the thought that there was more to the world than he understood. samuel taylor coleridge He was born in Devonshire in 1772. He received an excellent education in the classics. During the university years he was influenced by French revolutionary ideals. After his disillusionment with the French Revolution, he and another poet planned to move to America and to establish a utopian community in Pennsylvania, where private ownership would not exist. This project, however, came to nothing. Coleridge met Wordsworth and he settled in the Lake District. An important collaboration between the two poets started and most of Coleridge's best poetry was written in these years: o The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, his masterpiece, was written in 1798. This is the first poem of the collection Lyrical Ballads, that became the Manifesto of the English Romantic movement. o Christabel, an unfinished poem set in the Middle Ages, about a young girl under a witch's spell. o Kubla Khan is unfinished. It was written under the influence of opium. He settled in London, where produced Biographia Literaria, a text of literary criticism and autobiography. Here he explained his task to write about extraordinary events and Wordsworth's one to write about subjects from ordinary life in the Lyrical Ballads. He died in 1834. the vunv or th ancient maviner Ittells the fantastic story of a curse that falls on a ship andits crew after the killing of an albatross bya sailor. It is divided into seven sections, which follow the "stages" of the ancient mariner's journey and his curse. Part 1: The old mariner meets three guests on their way to a wedding and stops one to tell him his story. He tells him how the ship was led by storms to run aground in the ice of the South Pole. Suddenly, through the fog, a white bird arrives, who was considered by the crew to bring luck. But the old man kills it for no reason. Part 2: From this moment a spell falls on the ship. The crew accuses the old sailor of his crime, placing the corpse of the albatross around his neck. Part 3: The sailors begin to die of thirst when suddenly another ship appears: it is a ghost ship led by Death and Life-in-Death who play dice for the lives of sailors. Death wins the crew, who die. While Life-in-Death wins the ancient mariner, who is the only one to survive. Part 4: The old sailor is persecuted by the memory of his dead mates and sees huge sea snakes in the sea. Since the mariner is now regretting his mistake, the albatross falls from his neck into the sea. Part 5: There is the process of the soul’s revival. The ship begins to move and some spirits stand by the bodies of the dead men. Part 6: The process of purification seems to be impeded. Part 7: Once at the destination, the old mariner's task is to travel around the world and tell his story, to teach men to love and respect God's creatures. The atmosphere is full of mystery. Natural elements are turned into supernatural pictures. Nature Coleridge did not view nature as a moral guide. His Christian faith did not allow him to identify nature with the divine. For the poet nature has an essential role in poetic creativity. The Rime and Traditional Ballads The Rime contains many of the features associated with ballads, that is: the combination of dialogue and narration; the four-line stanza; the language, rich in alliteration, repetition and onomatopoeia; the theme of travel and supernatural elements. But the presence of a moral at the end makes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner a Romantic ballad. Interpretation The poem may be the description of a dream, an allegory of the life and the soul or a description of the poetic journey of Romanticism. Primary and second imagination The primary imagination can be experienced by every human being and is an unconscious process. It is also linked with perceptions. The secondary imagination it can only be experienced by the poet, who can recreate images from past experiences. The result of this process is the poem. While Wordsworth uses imagination to modify the data of experience through the recollection in tranquillity, lifting them above a passing recording, Coleridge creates thanks to the secondary imagination. Fancy It is a mode of memory. It is inferior to imagination because it is not creative, it's like a logical faculty because it only combines different things into different shapes, not like imagination that fuse them into one. george gordon bye To many of his contemporaries, Byron's poetry and life embodied the Romantic spirit. George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron, was born in 1788. He was an unconventional aristocrat. Though rich and handsome, he had a handicap, a deformed foot. However, as a student at Cambridge University, he not only drank, gambled and made brilliant conversation, but he forced himself to become skilled at physical sports. He also began to write poetry; in 1807 he published Hours of Idleness, a small volume of lyric poems, which was attacked in the pages of the Edinburgh Review. Byron replied with English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, where he showed his taste for satire. In 1809 he set out on his Grand Tour - Portugal, Spain, Malta, Albania, Greece and the Middle East - where he gathered the experiences giving rise to the first two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which he published after his return to England in 1812. The cantos were so successful that Byron became a literary and social celebrity. His reputation increased even further when he published a series of verse narratives, The Giaour, The Corsair and Lara, which suited the public, given their exotic settings and the description of foreign customs. In 1815 Byron married Annabella Milbanke, but the marriage collapsed a year later because of Byron's incestuous relationship with his half- sister Augusta Leigh. Surrounded by scandal and debts, he left England in 1816, never to retum. He lived in Geneva, where he became a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and wrote the third canto of Childe Harold. Then he moved to Venice, where he produced the tragedy Manfred (1817), the fourth and last canto of Childe Harold (1818), the mock-heroic poem Beppo (1818), and began his masterpiece, the mock-epic Don Juan (1819-24). In 1819 he moved to Milan, where he became involved in the patriotic plots against Austrian rule, and eventually went to Pisa to join Shelley. After Shelley's death he decided to commit himself to the Greek struggle of independence from Turkey. He organised an expedition and devoted himself to training the troops in Missolonghi, where he died in 1824, struck by a severe fever. His heart is buried in Greece where he is still regarded as a national hero, but his body is interred in the family tomb in England. Although Byron never considered himself a Romantic poet, and criticised Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats, he was the only English poet of his age to achieve a European reputation and to have a significant influence on other writers. Byron's individualism Byron firmly believed in individual liberty and hated any sort of constraint. He wished to be himself without compromises and he wanted all men to be free, and so went to fight against tyrants. He denounced the evils of society by using the witty style of 18th-century poetry to convey a satirical aim. In the foreground there is always an isolated man whose feelings are reflected in the wildest exotic natural landscapes. So, nature is not a source of consolation and joy, it does not embody any theory nor has any message to convey. Byron's style Byron continued to refer to 18th-century poetic diction as regards style, even when his themes were Romantic. The influence of neoclassical poetry can be traced also in the satirical aim of most of his poetry. The Byronic hero With his life and his works Byron popularised the Byronic hero, a passionate, moody, restless and mysterious man, who hides some horrible sin or secret in his past. He is characterised proud individualism and the rejection of the conventional moral rules of society. He is an outsider, isolated and attractive at the same time. He is of noble birth, but wild and rough in his manners; his looks are hard, but handsome. He has a great sensibility to nature and beauty, but has growm bored with the excesses and excitements of the world. Women cannot resist him, but he refuses their love; men either admire or envy him. This blend of hidden suffering, rebelliousness and eroticism was irresistible in Byron's age. mandred Byron subtitled Manfred 'A Dramatic Poem and called it ‘metaphysical', since it explored cosmic relationships. Almost all the characters are spirits of the earth and air, or the waters. The hero, Manfred, is a sort of magician, who is tormented by remorse, the cause of which is left half unexplained. He wanders about invoking these spirits, which appear to him but are of no use. Finally, he goes to the residence of the Evil Principle to evocate a ghost, which appears and gives him an ambiguous and disagreeable answer. In the third act, he is found by his attendants dying in a tower where he had studied his art. The hero, whose guilt and suffering give him the power to explore the secrets of the universe, is here caught in a moment of crisis. His torment seems to arise from his affair with his sister Astarte. This leads to the fragmentation of his personality and to the loss of identity, looking for a final solution in suicide. Setting The story is set in the Alps, partly in Manfred's castle and partly in the mountains. The Alpine landscape enters powerfully into the poem with its peaks and abysses. The hero Manfred perfectly embodies the Byronic hero: he is solitary, driven by a sense of guilt, darkly handsome, tyrannical, passionate, but also kind, intellectual and brave. Many of these elements were taken over by Byron from the myth of Faust, Milton, the Gothic novel, and especially from the archetypal figure of Cain as the man predestined to commit evil and to face damnation. Style The work begins near to the ending of an action whose beginning is never fully described. One reason for this may well be Byron's desire to give prominence to the enigmatic character of Manfred himself. Manfred becomes his own narrator and our main source of information, but he never reveals the exact nature of his pain. Byron also exploits a shifting point of view by assembling different perspectives on Manfred through the other characters of the play: a chamois-hunter, the spirits, the abbot and his defendants. Byron manipulates the narrative by leaving gaps or implying an event without even describing it, so that the reader is left with the same sense of exclusion as that experienced by the hero. MANFRED’S TORMENT At midnight, alone in a Gothic gallery, Manfred is meditating about his life. He has undergone many experiences, but only one has profoundly affected him. When he calls on the spirits of the universe to appear before him, none come. He summons them three times, and the third time voices of the seven spirits are heard, invoking a mysterious curse on Manfred’s soul. The first voice is that of the Spirit of Air. It is followed by the voices of the spirits of the mountains, ocean, earth, winds, night, and Manfred’s guiding star. They agree to do his bidding and ask what he would have them do. SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY o First stanza —> darkness and lightness meet in her beauty; o Second stanza —> her outer beauty mirrors her inner beauty; o Third stanza —> her peaceful mind and thoughts are reflected in her perfect face. The poet describes an unnamed woman who “walks in beauty”. It is not just her beautiful face to strike the poet, it is the dynamic image of the whole living, walking lady that he finds beautiful. In contrast to popular tradition, her beauty is not only described as brilliant, but has something dark in it; it is compared to a night with no clouds and a lot of stars. This introduces the contrast between light and dark in the poem. The woman's appearance and especially her eyes create a sort of harmony between dark and light. Her beauty is also contrasted to the garish daylight. In the second stanza, the poet turns to her inner life, seeing her external beauty as an expression of pure thoughts. In the final stanza he returns to her face, but again sees the silent expression of peace and calm in her cheek, brow, and smiles. Her pleasant facial expressions clearly express her inner goodness and peacefulness. In the fourth stanza the poet imagines being a dead leaf, a cloud or an ocean wave sharing the wind”s force. He wishes he could be lifted up by the wind to avoid being trapped by the thorns of life, because he feels he shares his being tameless, swift and proud with the wind. In the last stanza he asks the wind to play him like an instrument, to inspire him to write poetry which the world would read and by which it would be spiritually renewed, just as the rebirth of nature, which is spring, comes after the lethargy and the death of winter. ENGLAND IN 1819 Itis a political sonnet, written as a response to the brutal Peterloo massacre in August 1819. The poem attacks England, as the poet sees it, decadent and ruled by a king, George III, who is dying, old, blind, insane and despised. His sons are objects of public scorn and his ministers run the country for their own selfish interests. The people are hungry, oppressed and hopeless. Meanwhile, the army is corrupt: it is used to destroy liberty and collect booty. The laws are harsh and useless because they are manipulated to protect the rich and enchain the poor. Religion is in a state of apathy and Parliament denies Roman Catholics their civil rights. But out of this unhappy state of affairs, the last two lines expresses the hope that a glorious Phantom, a revolution, may spring from this decay and illume our tempestuous day by destroying all wrongs. Byron VS Shelley Byron was an unconventional and rich aristocrat, whereas Shelley, son of a wealthy and conservative member of parliament, made a revolutionary propaganda against Catholicism and English rule. He rebelled also against existing religions, laws and customs. For these reasons he became a republican and an advocate of free love. Both poets travelled all over Europe and spent a lot of time abroad. In fact, Byron died in Greece, while Shelley in Italy. Byron continued to refer to 18th century poetic diction as regards style, even when his themes were romantic. It is possible to notice a satirical aim in his poetic composition. Shelley was a master of traditional verse forms, like the couplet and blank verse. He is best remembered for his short lyric poetry. Jola beatg John Keats is perhaps the greatest member of the group of the second generation of Romantic poets who blossomed early and died young. He is Romantic in his enjoyment of sensation, his love for the Middle Ages and for the Greek civilisation, his concept of the writer, but the synthesis he made of all these elements was very much his own. He was able to fuse the Romantic passion and the cold neoclassicism, just as Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) did in Le Grazie (1819-13). Keats was born in London in 1795 in a modest though reasonably well-off family. The first of five children, he attended a private school in Enfield and, following the early deaths of his father (killed in a riding accident) and mother (of tuberculosis), he decided to study to become a surgeon in 1810. Seven years later, in spite of precarious finances, he gave up medicine for poetry. Helped in his quest by the poet and radical editor of The Examiner, Leigh Hunt, Keats soon became a friend of the leading writers and artists of the period, including Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 4.14). In 1818 Endymion, a long, mythological poem, appeared. This was a difficult time for Keats, since his brother died because of tuberculosis and his ever-frail health deteriorated rapidly. He also fell in love with Fanny Brawne, but poverty, his bad health and his almost religious pursuit of poetry made marriage impossible. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Keats wrote a series of masterful poems during the following year: - The Eve of St Agnes, characterised by those features which are conventionally called 'Romantic'; here the atmosphere is the one of a symbolic Middle Ages, where superstition, art, ritual and luxury form a background against which evil threatens perfect love. - The great odes, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, To Autumn, Ode on Melancholy, To Psyche, where the poet explores the relations between pleasure and pain, happiness and melancholy, art and life, reality and imagination. - The ballad La Belle Dame Sans Merci, which shows once more a taste for medieval themes and form. - Hyperion, begun in 1818 and published, unfinished, in 1820, which shows the influence of Milton in its sonorous blank verse. In 1820 the symptoms of tuberculosis became evident in Keats. In September of the same year he travelled to Italy in an effort to recover his health but died in Rome in February 1821. He was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome. Keats's reputation When Keats died, he was hardly known outside his own literary circle, and even there it was taken for granted that his work was doomed to total neglect and obscurity. Many years later Matthew Arnold (1822-88), the most important Victorian critic of English literature, said of Keats, 'He is with Shakespeare', and there has never been a more complete judgement. Keats's poetry Unlike the lyrics of Shelley and Byron, Keats's lyrical poems are not fragmenting of a continual spiritual autobiography. It is true that the odes of 1819 contain some deeply felt personal experiences, however, these are not the substance but the background. His use of the poetical personal pronoun T' is not linked to an individual within the context of his time, but stands for a universal T'. His poetry rarely identifies scenes and landscapes with subjective moods and emotions. There is no sense of mystery or Wordsworth's pantheistic conviction. Keats's theory of imagination For Keats imagination had a supreme value and it was this that made him a Romantic poet. His idea of imagination was twofold: first, the world of his poetry is artificial, one that he imagines; second, his poetry comes from imagination, meaning that most of his work, even most of the odes, is a vision of what he would like human life to be, stimulated by his own experience of pain and misery. In Keats's view, the poet has ‘negative capability. By this he meant the poet's capability to deny his certainties and personality in order to identify with the object which he sees as the source of his inspiration and the place where truth lives. If the poet manages to rely on this negative capability, he can find sensations, which are the basis of knowledge leading to beauty and truth. This allows him to write poetry. LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI o First part— the narrator talks about the knight; o Second part —> the knight meets the girl; o Third part — the knight's dream; o. Fourth part —> the knight awakens. The ballad takes place in late autumn. A knight is wondering in a desolate wasteland where the plant life aswided and no birds sing. He himself is declining; he is pale and the rose in the cheeks, like the sedge is withering. He tells about a beautiful woman with wild eyes, a detail which highlights her real supernatural nature. She speaks a strange language, sings fairy songs and lulls the knight to sleep in her elfin place. Eventually she abandons him in that cold hill side. The lady’s responsibility for the knight's sick condition seems to be confirmed by the dream he has of dead pale kings, princes and warriors. He is under the lady’s spell. Scott's main achievement was to get people to realise that history was not just a list of political and religious events, but the product of human decisions. He took the past of Scotland as his main subject and mixed it with imaginative adventures. He blended highly figurative language with dialect to portray real and living characters, who belong both to the aristocracy and the humble classes. He introduced a new concept of history, based on the lives of ordinary people, rather than on those of kings and noblemen. He was interested in the moments when an important historical crisis, especially in Scottish history, caused personal problems in individuals orin groups: Waverley and Ivanhoe (1819), his most important works, describe these conflicts. Sir Walter Scott greatly influenced the Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873), whose long narrative The Betrothed (I promessi sposi) was published in 1827. Both Scott and Manzoni mingled historical truths and fiction; they set their novels in historical contexts that point out the political and cultural conflicts between, respectively, Scotland and England, and Lombardy and Spain. However, they used different linguistic means: Scott made an extensive use of Scottish dialect since he wanted to celebrate the glorious past of his country and its independence from England; while Manzoni removed any regional inflections from the language employed in the definitive edition of The Betrothed (1840-42) because he aimed at creating a national consciousness. joe augden Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Stevenson, Hampshire, a small village in southern England where her father was rector of the church. The seventh of eight children, she spent her shot life within the circle of her very dose, affection family. Her lifelong, inseparable companion was her sister Cassandra, who, like Jane, never married. She was educated at home by her father and showed an interest in literature and writing very early. Her earliest writings in face date from 1787. She completed: - Elinor and Marianne between 1795 and 1797; - Sense and Sensibility in 1811; - First Impressions, which, later revised, became Pride and Prejudice in 1814; - In 1798 she wrote Northanger Abbey, which was published later. When her father died, Jane, her sister and mother settled at Chewton, a small country village a few miles from her birthplace. There Jane produced her most mature works: Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion. She died probably of Addison’s disease in Winchester in 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral. AIl her novels were published anonymously — her identity was later revealed by her brother Henry who supervised the publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, adding a Biographical Notice of the author. Jane's fame was already well established. Austen and the novel of manners Jane Austen is regarded as the master of the novel of manners. She owes much to the 18th- century novelists, from whom she leamed the insight into the psychology of the characters and the subtleties of the ordinary events of life, like balls, walks, tea parties and visits to friends and neighbours. From Henry Fielding in particular, she derived the omniscient narrator and the technique of bringing the character into existence through dialogue. Her style was also characterised by the use of verbal and situational irony, rather than by open interpretation or comment on the action. Unlike the Augustan writers, however, she restricted her view to the world of the country gentry which she knew best: three or four families in a country village', she said, 'is very thing to work on. Austen's analysis of character Jane Austen had no place for great passions; her real concern was with people, and the analysis of character and conduct. She remained fully committed to the common sense and moral principles of the previous generation but checked them through her own direct observation and spontaneous feeling. Therefore, her work is very amusing and, at the same time, deals with the serious matters of love, marriage and parenthood. The happy ending is common element to her novels: they all end in the marriage of the hero and heroine. What makes them interesting is the concentration on the steps through which the protagonists successfully reach this stage in their lives. Romantic love gives Jane Austen a focus where individual values can achieve high definition, usually in conflict with the social code that encourages martiages for money and social standing. Her treatment of love and sexual attraction is in line with her general view that strong impulses and intensely emotional states should be regulated, controlled and brought to order by private reflection, not in favour of some abstract standard of reason but to fulfil a social obligation. The heroine's reflection after a crisis or climax is a usual feature of the novels because understanding and coming to terms with her private feelings allows her personal judgement to establish itself and secures her own moral autonomy. The theme of marriage The traditional values of country families - such as property, decorum, money and marriage - provided the basis of the plots and settings of Jane Austen's novels. They take place in England; there is no Scotland, Wales or Ireland and not even the industrial north of England. Jane Austen writes about the oldest England, based on the possession of land, parks and country houses; in her stories people from different counties get married as a result of the growing social mobility. The marriage market takes place in London, Bath and some seaside resorts where people used to gather and carry out their business. And it is in these places that all the troubles of Austen's world occur: gossip, flirtations, seductions, adulteries. This happens because the marriage market has also produced a range of villains: unscrupulous relatives, seducers, gamblers and social climbers. pride and prejudice Plot and setting The plot of Pride and Prejudice is that of a romantic comedy: it deals with the fortunes of young lovers - their trials, misunderstandings, reversals, triumphs - and ends in happy marriages. It is setin Longboum, a small country village in Hertfordshire, where Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Lydia and Kitty. One day a rich bachelor, Charles Bingley, and his two sisters rent a large estate in the neighbourhood, called Netherfield Park. After a series of balls and parties that bring the members of this little society together, Mr Bingley falls in love with Jane, and his best friend, the aristocratic Fitzwilliam Darcy, begins to feel attracted to Elizabeth. But she dislikes him because of his snobbish behaviour. When Mr Darcy declares his love, he cannot help showing contempt for her inferior social position; so, Elizabeth rejects him and accuses him of separating her sister and Bingley, and of ill-treating George Wickham, a young officer who was the son of Darcy former steward, Darcy writes her a letter where he reveals that Wickham is an unscrupulous adventurer. Meanwhile Wickham elopes with Lydia. Darcy traces them and provides for their marriage. Elizabeth realises that she was mistaken about Darcy and accepts his renewed proposal, in spite of the opposition of Lady Catherine De Bourgh, Darcy arrogant aunt. Bingley comes back and becomes engaged to Jane, so the novel ends with the happy marriages of the two couples. Characters The main characters are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. They both have positive qualities, but also weaknesses in a kind of critical antithesis to the conventional heroes and heroines of the sentimental novels of the period. Darcy knows the principles of how to behave in his social world, but is self-centred and unsociable. Elizabeth has a lively mind, one of the qualities that attracts Darcy to her. She is intelligent and capable of complex impressions and ideas. She has a strong spirit of independence and refuses to take on the roles which her family or socially superior people try to impose on her. Both Elizabeth and Darcy show an imperfect understanding of themselves and each other. She accuses him of pride and he accuses her of prejudice. These accusations are partly well- founded. But they also work in reverse: she is proud, and her pride blinds her to his virtues; he is prejudiced by his upbringing and is disgusted by the vulgar behaviour of Elizabeth's mother and sisters. Some of the minor characters in the novel are almost caricatures, like Lady Catherine and Mrs Bennet; others are rather 'flat - like the sweet and attractive Jane, who is little more than a type - or objects of ridicule, like Mr Collins, the pompous clergyman who, after Elizabeth's refusal, proposes the next day to her best friend, Charlotte Lucas. Workhouses and religion Life in the workhouses was appalling on account of their system of regimentation, hard work and a monotonous diet. The poor had to wear uniforms and their families were split. This apparent hard line was due in part to an optimistic faith in progress and to the Puritan virtues of hard work, frugality and duty. The idea behind the workhouses was that awareness of such a dreadful life would inspire the poor to try to improve their own conditions. Workhouses were mainly run by the Church Religion was a strong force. In industrial areas the nonconformist Churches, such Methodists, promoted study and abstinence from alcohol. as Chartism In 1888 a group of working-class radicals drew up a People's Charter demanding equal electoral districts, universal male suffrage, a secret ballot, paid MPs, annually elected Parliaments and abolition of the property qualifications for membership. No one in power was ready for such democracy and the Chartist movement failed. However, their influence was later felt when, in 1867, the Second Reform Act enfranchised part of the urban male working dass in England and Wales for the first time and, in 1872, the secret ballot was introduced with the Ballot Act. The Irish Potato Famine Bad weather and an unknown plant disease from America caused the destruction of potato crops in 1845. Ireland, whose agriculture depended on potatoes, experienced a terrible famine, during which a lot of people died and many emigrated, mostly to America, in search of a better life. The Irish crisis forced the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, to abolish the Corn Laws in 1846. These laws-imposed tariffs on imported com, keeping the price of bread artificially high to protect the landed interests. Technological progress In the mid-years of the 19th century, England experienced a second wave of industrialisation which brought economic, cultural and architectural change. While European monarchies were toppled by revolutions in 1848, England avoided the revolutionary wave. In 1851 a Great Exhibition, organised by Prince Albert, showed the world Britain's industrial and economic power. The exhibition was housed at the Crystal Palace, a huge structure of glass and steel designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and erected in Hyde Park. More than 15,000 exhibitors from all over the world displayed their goods to millions of visitors. People became very fond of exhibitions, so money was invested in setting up several museums, including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and what is now called the Victoria and Albert Museum. Entrance was free. The building of the London Underground began in 1860 and railways started to transform the landscape and people's lives. They transported large quantities of raw materials and products quickly and cheaply. People were able to travel for work and leisure, and the middle classes could live in the suburbs instead of the crowded town centres. Foreign policy Steel steamships expanded the Victorians' world even further. In the mid-19th century, England was involved in the tvo Opium Wars against China, which was trying to suppress the opium trade. The First Opium War (1839-42) was fought between China and Britain, while the Second Opium War (1856-60), also known as the Anglo-French War in China, was fought by Britain and France against China. England gained access to five Chinese ports and control of Hong Kong. The most lucrative colony of the British Empire was India. In 1857 widespread rebellion, known as the Indian Mutiny, against British rule began, after which the Indian administration was given fewer responsibilities. Britain also supported some liberal causes like Italian independence from the Austrians. When Russia became too powerful against the weak Turkish Empire, the Crimean War (1853- 56) was fought. It began as a dispute between Russia and the Ottoman Turks, but soon France and Britain got involved since they wanted to limit Russia's power in the area. The Crimean War was the first conflict reported in newspapers by journalists 'on the ground'. People were genuinely shocked by the reports. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) volunteered to lead a team of 38 nurses at Scutari base hospital during the war and she became know as the 'Lady with the Lamp! for her night rounds giving personal care to the wounded. Once back in England, she formed an institution for the development of the nursing profession. (he viclorian compromige A complex age The Victorian Age was marked by complexity: it was a time of unprecedented change but also of great contradictions, often referred to as the 'Victorian compromise. It was an age in which progress, reforms and political stability coexisted with poverty and injustice. Listening to sermons was a popular pastime, yet vices were openly indulged. Modernity was praised but there was a revival of Gothic and Classicism in art. Religion played an important role in people's lives; Evangelicalism, in particular, encouraged public and political action and created a lot of charities. Philanthropy led to the creation of societies which addressed every kind of poverty, and depended especially on the voluntary efforts of middle-class women. The Victorians believed in God but also in progress and science. Freedom was linked with religion as regarded freedom of conscience, with optimism over economic and political progress, and with national identity. Respectability Increasing emphasis was placed on education, and hygiene was encouraged to improve health care. Self-restraint, good manners and self- help came to be linked with respectability, a concept shared both by the middle and working classes. There was general agreement on the virtues of asserting a social status, keeping up appearances and looking after a family. These things were 'respectable. However, respectability was a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, since the unpleasant aspects of society - dissolution, poverty, social unrest - were hidden under outward respectability. There was growing emphasis on the duty of men to respect and protect women, seen at the same time as physically weaker but morally superior, divine guides and inspirers of men. Women controlled the family budget and brought up the children. General attitudes to sex were a crucial aspect of respectability, with an intense concern for female chastity, and single women with a child were marginalised as ‘fallen women. Sexuality was generally repressed in both its public and private forms, and moralising 'prudery in its most extreme manifestations gradually led to the denunciation of nudity in art, the veiling of sculptured genitals and the rejection of words with a sexual connotation from everyday vocabulary. {he american civil war The difference between the North and the South The first half of the 19th century in America was characterised by economic expansion, social change, impulse towards scientific discovery and inventions, and an extraordinary moment of literary expression. The political situation was tense because of the economic differences between the northern and southemn regions. While industrialisation was well established in the North, the economy of the South was still based on the vast plantations of tobacco and cotton, and on slavery. There was also a huge difference in the density of population: the white population increased, due to the immigrants from Europe who settled especially in the North, bringing with them their languages and customs. In the South, instead, there were about 4 million black slaves. Furthermore, life in the American South was based on a rigidly divided class system, with the aristocracy of the plantation owners still linked to the old values of gallantry and honour. After the 1830s several northern States adopted emancipation, while the international demand for cotton meant the economy of the South continued to rely on slave labour. On the one hand, the abolitionists attacked the exploitation of slaves, the separation from their families and the cruelty they suffered, and the fact that they were given no education. On the other hand, the supporters of slavery held that it was an institution which gave the blacks employment, protection and taught them the principles of Christian faith. The Civil War Northern abolitionists, who included writers, intellectuals and religious associations, began to organise themselves into a political movement. From what had formerly been the Whig Party arose the Republican Party, which demanded that slavery be excluded from all territories of the Union. In 1860 the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) won the presidential election. Soon after, 11 southern States seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, under the presidency of Jefferson Davis (1808-89). War followed because Lincoln, supported by a majority of northerners, refused to concede that any American State had the constitutional right| to withdraw from the Union. The Civil War The Anglo-Boer Wars The struggle with France at the beginning of the 19th century had led to Britain's global hegemony - with its naval power and its enormous financial and economic strength, Britain seemed invulnerable. However, since Waterloo, its foreign policy had been defensive. Many areas of the world were characterised by political and cultural fragmentation and it was there that Britain began to gain control without major political intervention. This was the situation in South America, in Asia and most of all in Africa, where Britain competed with the other European countries to divide up the continent. In South Africa, by the 1870s, the British controlled two colonies, Cape Colony and Natal, while the Dutch settlers, the Boers, had the two republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. When Britain took over Transvaal in 1877, the Boers rebelled and war broke out. The Boer Wars (1880-1902) ended in 1902 with a British victory. Empress of India In 1877 Queen Victoria was given a new title, Empress of India. In the last decades of the 19th century, the British Empire occupied an area of 4 million square miles and more than 400 million people were ruled over by the British. The Empire, however, was becoming more difficult to control. There was a growing sense of the ‘white man's burden', a difficult combination of the duty to spread Christian civilisation, encouraging toleration and open communication and at the same time promoting commercial interests. It was a strongly felt obligation to provide leadership where States were failing or non- existent, especially in Africa and India. India was economically important as a market for British goods and strategically necessary to British control of Asia from the Persian Gulf to Shanghai. By 1850 the East India Company directly ruled most of northern, central and south-eastern India. In the late Victorian period, the new imperial government became more ambitious and through free market economics it destroyed traditional farming and caused the deindustrialisation of India. At one time the main manufacturer of cotton cloth for the world, India, now became the largest importer of England's cotton. The end of an era The Victorian Age came to an end with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. For almost a century she had embodied decorum, stability and continuity. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees for 50 and 60 years on the throne had been celebrated with huge public parades, and for her funeral London streets were packed with mourmners. She was buried beside her beloved husband in the Frogmore mausoleum at Windsor Castle. {he late victoriang Victorian urban society and women In the later years of Victoria's reign, Britain was primarily an urban society. Victorian cities had gas lighting, rubbish collection and there were many public buildings, such as town halls, railway stations, libraries and museums, music halls, boarding schools and hospitals, police stations and prisons. This was a period of a retail consumer boom - with many new shops, public houses and theatres. Even now some Victorian institutions can still be seen in British cities. Middle-class women became increasingly involved in public life as leaders in campaigns against prostitution, as teachers and as volunteer charitable workers. Further education opportunities for women became available with the opening of women's colleges in the 1870s. However, a strong taboo remained regarding family issues such as control over property, conditions of divorce and rights over children as well as questions of sex and childbirth. The 1882 Married Women's Property Act gave married women the right to own and manage their own property independently of their husbands for the first time. Social Darwinism Darwin's theory of evolution became the foundation for various ethical and social systems, such as Social Darwinism, which developed in the 1870s. The philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) applied Darwin's theory of natural selection to human society: he argued that races, nations and social classes, like biological species, were subject to the principle of the survival of the fittest and that the poor and oppressed did not deserve compassion. Eugenics was a similar interpretation created by Darwin's cousin, Sir Francis Galton (1822- 1911), and attracting many intellectuals. They exhorted the middle classes, regarded as nature's fittest, to reproduce more, especially educated women who seemed to neglect their racial duty to breed. Patriotism In the late 19th century, expressions of civic pride and national fervour were frequent among the British. Patriotism was deeply influenced by ideas of racial superiority. Towards the end of Victoria's reign, the British considered themselves the leaders of European civilisation. There was a belief that the 'races of the world were divided by fundamental physical and intellectual differences, that some were destined to be led by others. It was thus an obligation imposed by God on the British to spread their superior way of life, their institutions, law and political system on native peoples throughout the world. This attitude came to be known as ‘Jingoism. Colonial power and economic progress made for the optimistic outlook of many Victorians. victorian portry Two kinds of poetry During Victoria's reign, poetry became more concerned with social reality and was expected to express the intellectual and moral debate of the age. This led on the one hand to the creation of majestic poetry linked to the myth and belief of the greatness of England; on the other hand, to the creation of poetry more inclined towards anti- myth and disbelief which had to solve the ethical problems raised by science and progress. The new image of the poet People expected that the poet could reconcile faith and progress, as well as sprinkle a little romance over the unromantic materialism of modern life. Optimists believed that the benefits of progress could be reached without altering the traditional social organisation or destroying the beauty of the countryside; they wanted to find a corresponding attitude in poets and to be told that modern life was as susceptible to romantic behaviour as the remote legends of King Arthur or the Italian Renaissance. Outstanding poets The major poets of the age were Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning (1812- 89), who is remembered for his best 'dramatic monologues' in which he was an original creator of characters; Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Matthew Arnold. The dramatic monologue The dramatic monologue is a narrative poem in which a single character may address one or more listeners. It is related to the soliloguy used in Elizabethan plays: in Hamlet's famous soliloquy for example, the character addresses himself and the audience in a moment of self-exploration. In a dramatic monologue the speaking character is different from the poet himself, and is caught in a crucial moment of crisis; a non-speaking listener, whose presence has to be inferred from clues in the speaker's monologue, is present and conditions the development of the monologue. Since the poet does not speak with his own voice, the reader has to infer whether he is intended to accept or criticise what is said by the speaker. As the speaker must be judged only on his own words, different points of view may be justified and supported. This suggestion of the absence of a unique truth was the exact opposite of the Victorian love for certainties and it paved the way to new possibilities for poetry in the Modern Age, bringing verse closely in touch with the often-unpredictable movements of the human mind. In the dramatic monologue, the tone of the language is argumentative, aiming at revealing the main character's thoughts, thus reflecting a great interest in human psychology. Types of novels > Novel of manners: dealt with economic + social problems and describes a particular class or situation. > Humanitarian novel: divided into novels of realistic nature, fantastic nature and moral nature. Charles Dickens used humour with a sentimental request for the less fortunate. > Novel of formation: (bildungsroman), Bronte’s Jane Eyre. It dealt with one character’s development from youth to maturity. It focuses on a subjective experience. > : Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (nonsensical universe). In this novel social riles are disintegrated, cause-effect relationship doesn't exist and time and space have lost their function. Women writers Emily Bronte + George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans: she uses a male pseudonym). Majority of novel-buyers were women because they spent more time at home. Exploration of the daily lives and values of women within the family and the community. the late viclorian novel Realistic novel Itmirrored a society in a growing crisis in the moral and religious fields + influence by Darwin's evolution (coincidences exploited to solve the intricacies of the plot). 1) Thomas Hardy — presented strong individuals. Manifestations of the strong forces of nature opposing. Protagonists are defined by their native regions. 2) George Eliot + focused on a psychological and moral complexity. Psychological novel Stevenson: The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (named multiple personality disorders). It describes monstrous aspects of life + DOUBLE NATURE OF VICTORIAN SOCIETY. He is concemed about the duality present in every person. Example — aristocracy was only superficially kind but hid dark secrets. Evil that lies behind the appearances. Colonial literature Rudyard Kipling: his novels are set in the distant lands colonised. It exalted British imperial power. White man's burden + task of the white man: carry civilization and progress to the savages. charteg dickeng He was born in Portsmouth in 1812. UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD + father in prison, at 12 y/o he was working in a factory and at 15 y/o he was an office boy + studied at night. Had become a very successful shorthand reporter of parliamentary debates. He worked as a reporter for newspaper (his pen name was Boz). In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth and then he started a full-time career as a novelist, but continued journalistic and editorial activities. 1837: began Oliver Twist 1839: he ended it 1839: Nicholas Nickleby 1844: A Christmas Carol 1870: Hard Times He was a republican but against the US (American notes) In 1870 he died and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Characters The 18° century realistic upper-middle-class world was replaced by the one of the lower orders. Characters who live immortally in English imagination: Mr Gradgrind, Mr Pickwick, Scrooge and many others. AIM — arouse the reader’s interest by exaggerating his character’s habits. He is always on the side of the poor. Kids are often the most important: good and wise VS worthless parents (reverse of the natural order of things). They become examples instead of imitators. Didactic aim Dickens never wanted to get the poor to rebel. BUT he wanted to make the ruling class aware of social problems. Style and reputation Employed the most effective language + powerful descriptions of life and characters. Careful choice of adj, repetitions and hyperbolic and ironic reworks. GREATEST NOVELIST IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. OLIVER TWIST First appeared in 1887 in instalments than as a book. Itexplains the economic insecurity and humiliation Dickens experienced as a child. The name Twist represents the fortune he’ll experience + unknown parents and was bom in a workhouse, where he was brought up in an inhuman way. He commits the outrageous act to ask for more food: he is sold for 5 pounds to an undertaker. His conditions are worse so he runs away to London + gang of pickpockets (Fagin) and caught on his first attempt at theft. The victim of theft is Mr Brownlow and he's shocked by the appearance of Oliver. He takes him home and takes care of him. Oliver is kidnapped by Fagin’s gang and he's forced to steal. He is shot. At the end he's adopted by Mr Brownlow and we discover Oliver has noble origins. GANG + HIS HALF BROTHER = ARRESTED. Setting and characters The novel takes place in London, three different social levels. 1) The parochial world of the workhouses: insensible to the feelings of the poor; 2) The criminal world: poverty drives pickpockets and murderers to crime; 3) The world of the victorian middle class: respectable people who show a regard for moral values + they believe in human dignity. HARD TIMES (1854) Itis a denunciation novel: a powerful accusation of some of the negative effects of the industrial society. Setting: the fictional city of COKETOWN, which stands for a real industrial mid-town in mid- 19° century victorian England. The characters are people living and working in Coketown, like the protagonist Thomas Gradgring: he is an educator who believes in facts and statistics. His school tries to tum children into little machines, that behave according to such rules. Themes Critique to materialism Denunciation of the ugliness and squalor of the industrial age Gap between rich and poor AIM — illustrates the dangers of allowing people to become like machines and to suggest that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable. Language and imagery Detailed and rich of symbolism: characters speak with their social register. SENSE IMPRESSION + things are presented through their shape, touch, smell, sound and sight + use of colour linked to emotions. TESS OFTHE D’UBERVILLES John Durbeyfield (a peddler) descendant of D’'Ubervilles. When the horse of the family dies, Tess goes to Trantridge and becomes a maid of the D’Ubervilles estate. Alec tries to seduce her, but she refused. He rapes her in the wood and she is pregnant (gives birth to the child, but he dies). She works as a milkmaid and she meets Angel and falls in love with him. Tess writes him a letter, talking about her past but goes under the carpet. They get married and she talks about her past. Angel leaves her and goes to Brazil. She hears that Alec has been converted and becomes his mistress. Angel comes back so she kills Alec and goes with Angel. At the very end she was arrested and executed at Stonehenge. Characters Tess + is clever and beautiful. She is presented as a victim but she has the energy to go on living. She is presented through symbolic images to stress her beauty, innocence and vulnerability. Alec D’Ubervilles + is a rich man. He believes that his social status gives him the right to do whatever he wants. REGARDLESS OF ANY MORALITY. Angel Clare — has modern and liberal ideas. He proves to be strict and dogmatic by Tess's confessions. Themes Relativity of moral values and opposition between man-made laws and nature. Tess is trapped facing troubles of life: she feels guilty for her pregnancy but there's no reason. The religious belief is constantly questioned because modern man is in a spiritually hopeless state. JUDE THE OBSCURE He is an orphan boy. He wants to study at the uni of Christminster. He marries Arabella Donn and moves to Christminster. There he meets his cousin Sue. She gets married with the school master Phillotson. Then they fall in love (Jude + Sue), refuse to marry but they live together. Sue takes in Jude’s son Little Father Time and bears him a son and a daughter. They die = God's punishment!! Itis a scandal and Jude loses his job. At the end Jude and Sue go back to their marriages. Settings The novel is divided in six parts: 1) Marygreen + Jude develops a desire for university; 2) Christminster + he realizes it's impossible for a working-class man to enter the uni; 3) Melchester + Jude aims to study for the church; 4) Shaston + Sue asks Phillotson for freedom + returns to Jude; 5) Aldbrickham + Sue and Jude live together; 6) Christminster + tragedy takes place. Sue Bridehead She is an intellectual woman. She promises freedom and strength BUT frustrates him ang goes back to her conventional life. Sharp sensibility > unconventional but fragile. Themes Hardy questions marriage vows + issue of divorce. Higher education of the working class + new figure of a woman who is struggling for independence of thought. Style Symmetrical pattern (marriage, divorce and final re-marriage) + sense of anxiety and self- destruction (3" person omniscient narrator). And repetitive dialogues + two-voiced process of analysis. robert lovig glevengon He was born in Edinburgh in 1850. Because of his poor health he spent his childhood in bed (he was influenced by his family’s Calvinism). He studied engineering at uni and travelled a lot (South England, Germany, France and Italy) because he was in conflict with the victorian world In 1857 he graduated and devoted himself to writing. He got married and moved to Australia and Tahiti. In 1894 he died. In 1880 he became popular as a novelist + Treasure Island; -— The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; + Kidnapped; — The masterpiece of Ballantrae. ‘THE STRANGE CASE OF DRJEKYLL AND MR HYDE Mr Utterson is a London lawyer and a friend od Dr Jekyll. After he tells a story about a man assaulting a small girl, he questions the odd behaviour of the friend. He founds out that he created a potionable to release his evil side. These two beings are in PERPETUAL STRUGGLE: once Hyde is released, he achieves domination on Jekyll's aspect. Jekyll has two choices: 1) Choose life of crime; 2) Jekyll must eliminate Hyde by killing him —> SUICIDE IS THE FINAL CHOICE. The double nature of the setting London in 1870s had a double nature + reflected Victorian’s society. Ambivalence is reinforced by the house of Jekyll: o Front used by the doctor o Behind used by Mr Hyde Most scenes take place at night and most important events wrapped up in fog + darkness. Style Multinarrative structure + four narrators - Utterson + role of a detective; - Enfield — is very different from Utterson because he has a dual nature; - Dr Lanyon + l“person to see transformation; - DrJekyll + 1“person + final confession in last chapter. The novel can also be interpreted as a critique of Victorian society since the protagonist's apparent beauty does not reflect his inner beauty and the portrait (his double) represents his dark side and the bad conscience of the Victorian bourgeoisie. ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST Itis Oscar Wilde's most famous comedy. PLOT + It tells of two young people belonging to London high society, Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing, also known as Jack. Both lead a double life: Algernon pretends to have a sick friend named Bunbury whom he visits when he wants to avoid attending social events; Jack lives in Hertfordshire, where he tutors Cecily, the young niece of Thomas Cardew, now dead, who adopted Jack as a child. Jack is a wealthy landowner and pretends to have a spendthrift and reckless brother named Ernest, a name he uses when he travels to London. Jack is in love with Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen, an elegant and sophisticated girl, and proposes to marry him. The girl accepts her because she has always wanted to marry a man named Ernest since Ernest is a really respectable name. Lady Bracknell, the girl's mother, initially approves of the marriage but she changes her mind when she discovers that Jack is actually a foundling that Thomas Cardew had found in an abandoned leather purse at Victoria Station twenty-eight years earlier. Later the scene moves to Jack's country house, where Algernon arrives and, in Jack's absence, pretends to be his brother Ernest. Algernon and Cecily fall in love at first sight, Algernon proposes to marry him and Cecily accepts because she too has always dreamed of marrying a man named Emest. At this point in the story, both girls believe they are engaged to a man named Ernest. All this will cause a series of misunderstandings. Meanwhile, Lady Bracknell arrives at Jack's country house to bring her daughter back to London who had gone to her boyfriend. Here he meets Miss Prism, Cecilys governess, who once worked for her sister and then disappeared with her baby nephew, the woman reveals that she accidentally placed it in a leather bag left at Victoria Station, it tumns out then that Jack is actually Algernon's brother and that his real name is Emest. The play ends with the marriage of the two couples. THE INTERVIEW The action and satire in Act 1 are highlighted by the arrival of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen's mother. She is an aristocratic, arrogant and conservative Victorian mother. She interviews Jack to decide whether he is suitable as a possible son in law. She asks him about his habits and income. He seems to give all the right answers, until she asks him about his family background. Jack admits that he's an orphan, found in a handbag. wall vlvidman © CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! The poem, consists of 3 stanzas in totality having 2 quatrains in each. The speaker’s coming to terms with the death of his fallen comrade is the focal point of the poem at hand. At the start of the poem, the speaker attempts to come to reality as he observes his dead captain on the deck. Slowly and gradually, he realizes that the change is permanent and life must go, regardless. The end of the Civil War was supposedly a moment of rejoicing for the American populace, instead, it became an event of mouming. The conclusion of the Civil War has brought with itself national mourning and a period of reflection. The title “O Captain! My Captain! refers to Abraham Lincoln as a captain of the ship. Here, the “ship” is a symbol of the civil war fought for liberating the slaves. According to the poet, the ship is sailing nearer to the shore, meaning the war is about to end. They have achieved their coveted goal. Being a moment of victory, everyone is happy. However, they have to consider, at the same time, that their metaphorical “captain” of the ship is no more. When he lived, he guided the multitude with his fatherly guidance. After his death, the nation is fatherless. In this agony, the poet writes the verses. However, the mood of the poem is not gloomy. Even if they have lost Lincoln, the dream Lincoln has seen is not lost. I HEAR AMERICA SINGING The speaker describes various "carols" that arise from different figures in the American working class as people go about their work. He hears the mechanics, the carpenter, the mason, and the boatman singing. The speaker celebrates each individual song, which provides the connection between the worker and his/her task. He mentions the working women, as well. Each person in the poem has an individual carol, and together, they create the sound of "America Singing." The poem consists of one stanza, which is made up of eleven lines. Whitman writes in his characteristic free verse. One by one, he lists the different members of the American working class and describes the way they sing as they perform their respective tasks. ‘Whitman uses music to emphasize the connection of the human experience. The tone is joyful and hopeful. Whitman highlights individuals that often go unnoticed in classic poems. “I Hear America Singing” is a love poem to the nation. the crigig or certaintieg The First World War left Britain in a disillusioned and cyical mood: some soldiers celebrated their return home with a frantic search for pleasure; others were haunted by a sense of guilt for the horrors or missed the sense of purpose the war years had given them. The gap between the generation of the young and the older one, regarded as responsible for the terrible waste of lives during the war, grew wider and wider. Nothing seemed to be right or certain: scientists and philosophers destroyed the old, predictable universe which had sustained the Victorians in their optimistic outlook, and new views of man and the universe that had emerged at the beginning of the century spread through society. freudg influente The first set of new ideas had been introduced by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in his essay The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud's view of the developing psyche emphasised the power of the unconscious to affect behaviour; the discovery that man's action could be motivated by irrational forces of which he might know nothing was very disturbing. Freud provided a new method of investigation of the human mind through the analysis of dreams and the concept of 'free association (his patients were invited to speak about whatever entered their mind at the moment), which deeply influenced the writers of the Modern Age. object, image or word. Instead, the emotion originates in the combination of these phenomena when they appear together. Another device widely used by Eliot is the repetition of words, images and phrases from page to page: they all give the impression of the increasing musicality of the poem. ‘THE BURIAL OFTHE DEAD This poem is a metaphor for the condition of contemporary man, whose life is meaningless, empty, alienating, and as a result quite similar to death. Traditional myths and symbols are used in an original way and acquire different and sometimes difficult connotations. The lines don't actually have a regular scheme, and the metre isn't traditional. Furthermore, there aren't even classical divisions in stanzas. Even if the poem lacks traditional features, it contains some alliterations, which give it a kind of musicality. Repetitions of sounds and words are used in order to emphasize a particular aspect of the situation. In this passage spring is like a cruel season, since it breaks the illusion of safety and protection created by winter. This unique view of the coldest season of the year breaks with the traditional stereotype of a hostile and glacial period. In this poem winter acquires a positive connotation. The speaker walks through London, which is populated by people who seem to be the ghosts of the dead, because they sign and stare only in front of their feet. They have lost the ability to communicate to each other. The speaker recognizes a man named Stetson and it appears that the two men fought together in the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage. The reference to the First Punic War stands for the universal issue due to the dismay of contemporary society after the first World War. Similarly, the corpse is a metaphor for the contemporary man, who feels useless, empty and overwhelmed by and alienating reality, which can be compared to death. The sprout probably means a new beginning, like a rebirth, so it represents the victory of life over death. The Dog the author mentions is probably three-headed Cerbero, which guards the entrance of Hades, the ancient Greek god of underworld. The poem ends with a line of Baudelaire, accusing the reader of sharing the poet’s situation and destiny. (he lrotlore men It can be an extension of The Waste Land. Although it is a poem about the dilemmas of belief, it is also explicit about language. Whatever it is that has happened to these men, loss of faith and belief in themselves, their voices have been dried up and been made “quiet and meaningless". The speaker perceives a living language elsewhere but he cannot hear it and neither can his eyes open wide on a visionary positive moment: no redemptive vision is possible and the journey through hell begun with The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock continues. THIS ISTHE DEAD LAND The poem takes place in the hollow valley, in a dry cellar. The speakers are the hollow men, who have lost contact with God. Their voices are dried, quiet and meaningless. They are empty and stuffed. They are like filled with straw. They don't have a determined shape. There are shades without colours. The Hollow men live in a region that looks like desert where nothing lives but cactus. The inhabitants are dead in the sense that they do not have life, but they also cannot cross over into the kingdom of death. It’s like being trapped at a rest stop between two destinations. The Hollow Men pray to stone images, which are like false gods or idols. In this valley there are no eyes because there is no one comfort them because they never joined with God. In the text are described sightless eyes; they belong to the people who lives in this place. If the eyes return their vision could be restored. So, their only hope is if the heavenly eyes back as a star. The theme is the dilemma of belief, loss of faith and belief in themselves. Jeuneg joytw He was born in Dublin in 1882. His interest was for a broader European culture, and this led him to begin to think of himself as a European rather than an Irishman. Joyce believed that the only way to increase Ireland’s awareness was by offering a realistic portrait of its life from a European, cosmopolitan viewpoint. In 1904 he met and fell in love with Nora Barnacdle. In 1905 they settled in Trieste, where he made friends with Italo Svevo. The years in Trieste were difficult, filled with disappointment and financial problems, in fact Joyce was in trouble with publishers. Dubliners, a collection of short stories all about Dublin and its life, was completed in 1905 but only published on the eve of the First World War. While not a huge commercial success, the book caught the attention of the American poet Ezra Pound, who praised Joyce for his style and voice. In 1915 he moved to Zurich together with his family. In 1917 he received the first of several anonymous donations which enabled him to continue writing the novel Ulysses, which began to appear in serial form in The Little Review in 1918, but was suspended in 1920 on charge of obscenity. In 1920 Joyce moved to Paris, where was published Ulysses in 1922. A limited edition of 1,000 copies was followed by an English edition of 2,000 copies. Although this final decade of Joyce's life was darkened by his daughter's illness, his increasing blindness and his father's death, he continued to write. In 1940, when France was occupied by the Germans, Joyce returned to Zurich. He died at the in 1941. He was buried in there. Though Joyce went into voluntary exile, he set all his works in Ireland and mostly in the city of Dublin. His effort was to give a realistic portrait of the life of ordinary people doing ordinary things and living ordinary lives. He succeeded in representing the whole of man's mental, emotional and biological reality, fusing it with the cultural heritage of modern civilisation as well as with the reality of the natural world around him. The rebellion against the Church His hostility towards the Church was the revolt of the artist-heretic against the official doctrine and a provincial Church which had taken possession of Irish minds. Style Joyce, influenced by the French Symbolists, believed in the impersonality of the artist, as Eliot did. The artist's task was to render life objectively in order to give back to the readers a true image of it. As his works did not have to express the author's viewpoint, Joyce used different points of view and narrative techniques appropriate to the characters portrayed. Eveline’s present is linked to stillness and dust. Her past is connected with the death of her mother. Her future has connections with love, action, the sea and escape. She doesn't know everything, because she has taken everything for granted. She is not sure to go away, to live her home. We know her name only in line 37. Eveline is unhappy and wants to change. Frank is like an escape for her, she uses him to go and live. We can say that she is not in love with him, he's only a mean to escape from her situation in Dublin. The music is the beginning of the epiphany: in fact, a street organ reminds her of the promise she made to her dying mother and she understands the emptiness and the meaninglessness of her dreams and of her love. In this moment she is still at the window and she is still thinking. The time of the text seems to be longer, but in reality, it takes only 2 or 3 minutes. After that we have the description of the station. She is praying God to direct her, to show her what was her duty. This is guilt, not love; she is trapped in this new situation too. She is confused and can't make up her mind. She's not able to move forward, she is paralyzed. At the end Eveline is compared to a helpless and scared animal, since she is passive, paralysed, unable to make up any decision. At first there is her plan to escape which coexists with her antithetical wish of getting on living in her home; at the end there is the failure of her project of escaping and paralysis wins inside her soul. GABRIEL’S EPIPHANY The protagonists of the story are Gabriel and Gretta, his wife. They attend a Christmas party organised by his aunts. In this occasion they meet several people, even an irritating young woman who accuses him of not being Irish enough. Through an epiphany Gabriel realizes the true relationship between him and his wife, Gretta. The epiphany Gabriel experiences is the direct effect of his wife's confession to having a love before she met him. Not just a love, but a true love named Michael. At first, he feels anger toward her because he was not her first love. He feels he didn't love his wife as much as Michael In this passage they are in an hotel’s bedroom and he is staring at his wife asleep on the bed, and feels deeply saddened that he will never experience a true love relationship in return from his wife. Gabriel realizes that she has never felt similarly passionate about their marriage. His thoughts wonder to present, past and future; he thinks of aunt Julia and how she will soon die, of the words that might console aunt Kate; then his mind wonders to Michael and how his wife has 'locked him in her heart for so many years'. He feels he has played a poor part in his wife's life and that Michael, although physically dead is more alive in her heart than he is. Looking at the snow falling through the window and he has the impression he is losing his identity and becoming one with the dead. The snow is the end of everything. He feels alone and profoundly mortal, but spiritually connected for the first time with others. Virginia tccol( She was born in London in 1882. She grew up in a literary and intellectual atmosphere. During childhood she suffered the death of her mother and sexual abuse by her stepbrothers. In 1904 she decided to move to Bloomsbury and, together with her sister, she became a member of the Bloomsbury Group, which included the avant-garde of early 20th-century London. For these writers, artists and thinkers, the common denominators were a contempt for traditional morality and Victorian respectability, a rejection of artistic convention and a disdain for bourgeois sexual codes. Their reputation as radical thinkers was founded on the revolutionary stream-of- consciousness prose style developed by Virginia Woolf, as well as the pacifist philosophical theories of Bertrand Russell and the Post- Impressionist painting of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. In 1912 Virginia married Leonard Woolf and in 1915 she started her literary career as a novelist, essayist and critic. The Second World War increased her anxiety. She became haunted by the terror of losing her mind. In 1941 she drowmed herself in the River Ouse. Virginia was interested in giving voice to the complex inner world of feeling and memory and saw the human personality as a continuous shift of impressions and emotions. So, the events that traditionally made up a story were no longer important for her; what mattered was the impression they left on the characters who experienced them. In her novels the omniscient narrator disappeared, and the point of view shifted inside the different characters' minds through flashbacks, associations of ideas as well as momentary impressions presented as a continuous flux. nvg dallotcay PLOT + Clarissa Dalloway, the protagonist of the novel, goes to Bond Street to buy some flowers for a party she is giving that evening at her house. While she is in the flower shop, a car drives noisily past and shifts the attention to the street, where Septimus and Lucrezia are walking: he is an estate agent's clerk and a shell-shocked veteran of World War I, she is an Italian girl. Septimus's mental disorder has necessitated the callingin of doctors, first Dr Holmes and now Sir Bradshaw, a famous nerve specialist. Clarissa walks back home and there she receives an unexpected visit from Peter Walsh, the man she used to love in her youth. He then leaves Clarissa's house and goes to Regent's Park, where he catches Septimus and Lucrezia, who are going to Sir Bradshaw's for an interview. The interview lasts three-quarters of an hour and results in Sir William's arranging for Septimus to go into one of his clinics. In the evening Septimus jumps out of the window of his room, and the ambulance carrying his body passes by Peter Walsh, who is going back to his hotel. AIl the characters who have been in some way important during the day are present at Clarissa's party. The Bradshaws arrive and Clarissa hears from them of Septimus's death. SETTING — Mrs Dalloway takes place on a single ordinary in June. It follows the protagonist through a very small area of London. They all enjoy the sights and sounds in London, its parks, its changing life, its flavour. Through what Woolf defined as the 'tunnelling technique, she allows the reader to experience the characters' recollection of their past, thus providing a sense of their background and personal history. Clarissa Dalloway party is the climax of the novel and umifies the narrative by gathering all the people Clarissa thinks about during the day. CHARACTERS + They belong to the upper-middle class. Mrs Dalloway is 51. She is the wife of a conservative member of the parliament, who has a conventional view on politics and women's rights. She experienced the influence of a possessive father and the frustration of a genuine love, the need to refuse Peter Walsh, a man who would force her to share everything. All this has weakened her emotional self. She is characterised by opposite feelings: her need for freedom and independence and her class consciousness. Septimus is an extremely sensitive man. He can suddenly fall prey to panic and fear, or feelings of guilt for the death of his best friend, during the war. He is like a victim of the industrialised war and suffers from headaches and insomnia. He cannot stand the idea of having a child, he is sexually impotent. However, Clarissa and Septimus are similar in many respects: their response to experience is always given in physical terms. Yet there is a fundamental difference which has contradicted the theory that Septimus is Clarissa’s double. THEMES AND MOTIFS + The novel deals with the way people react to new situations, and provides an insight into some of the most significant changes in the social life of the time. Woolf makes use of some cinematic devices, such as close-ups, flashbacks and tracking shots. The insistent chiming of clocks reminds the reader of the temporal grid which organises the narrative, of the passing of time in life and of its flowing into death. Clarissa does not simply walk-up Bond Street and back again, she also perceives, thinks, remembers, and consequently her present experiences and future plans are suffused with the feelings and experiences of the past. So, life expresses itselfin moments of vision which are at the same time objective (the clocks, the streets, the cars, the flowers) and yet subjectively creative, since they are recreated every moment by active consciousness. STYLE +— Virginia never lets her characters' thoughts flow without control, and she maintains logical and grammatical organisation. Her technique is based on the fusion of streams of thought into a third- person, past tense narrative. Similar to Joyce's 'epiphanies' are Woolfs george ortcell He was born in India in 1903, and was the son of a minor colonial official. Orwell was educated at Eton, in England, where he began to develop an independent-minded personality, indifference to accepted values, and professed atheism and socialism. On leaving college, he started to work for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (1922-1927). He hated working in Burma and returned to England on sick-leave. Once back in England, he devoted himself to writing full time, publishing his works with the pseudonym of George Orwell. He married Eileen O'Shaughnessy in 1936. In December 1936 he went to Catalonia with his wife to report on the Spanish Civil War. He joined the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification and fought on the Aragon front. Back in England, the Orwell’s adopted an infant child and called him Richard. In 1941 Orwell joined the BBC, broadcasting cultural and political programmes to India. In 1943 he resigned and became the literary editor of The Tribune, an influential socialist weekly. He died of tuberculosis in 1950. The artist’s development He had a deep understanding of the English character, of its tolerance, its dislike of abstract theories and insistence on common sense and fair play. His experiences abroad contributed to his ability to see his country from the outside. Orwell’s life and work were marked by the unresolved conflict between the middle-class background and education and his emotional identification with the working class. To role of the artist is to inform, to reveal facts and draw conclusions in order to social function. It's possible to notice the influence of Dickens in the choice of: - social teams - realistic language - misery caused by poverty - deprivation of society He criticises totalitarianism, the violation of liberty and tyranny in all its forms. animal (ar Animal Farm is Orwell’s reaction to: Stalin’s Purge Trials and Stalin’s signature of the non- aggression pact with Hitler. The book expresses he's disillusionment with totalitarianism in the form of an animal fable. Itis a dystopia influenced by Swift's Gulliver’s Travels (1726). PLOT + A group of oppressed animals, led by Napoleon, overcome their cruel master and set up a revolutionary government. Napoleon's leadership becomes a dictatorial regime. All the Seven Commandments are abandoned an only one remains: it says that all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. THE MEANING + Each animal symbolises a precise figure or representative type. Animal Farm is not only a satire on the Soviet Union, but a satire on dictatorship in general, as the name napoleon shows. The fable shows how the initial idealism of revolution gradually decayed into inequality, hierarchy and dictatorship. 1184 PLOT + The novel describes a future world divided into three blocks: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. This world is ruled by the party, which is led by a figure called Big Brother, and is continuously at war with other two States. The party controls everything. In order to control people's lives, the party created a Newspeak, a language with a limited number of words. The aim of this new language is to eliminate literature, thoughts and consciousness. The doublethink makes people believe that the party is the only institutions that knows right from wrong. Individuality is forbidden, but Winston Smith, the protagonist, illegally buys a diary in which he begins to write his thoughts and memories, addressing them to the future generations. He works at the Ministry of Truth an there he meets Julia; she proves to also have a rebellious attitude and they begin a secret affair. One day O'Brien tells them that he hates the party and works against it as a member of the Brotherhood; this mysterious group is trying to overthrow the party. O'Brien gives Winston a copy of the Manifesto of the Brotherhood. Winston is reading it to Julia when some soldiers break in and arrest them. He is takes to the Ministry of Love and he discovers that O'Brien is a party spy. He tortures and brainwashes Winston but he resists. At the end the spy sends the protagonist to Room 101, that is the last place for people who oppose the party. Here Winston is forced to face his worst fear: rats. Winston's will is broken and released. He meets Julia, but he cannot recognize her. He has completely lost his identity and has learned how to love Big Brother. SETTING + London, in the mythical country of Oceania, in the future. London is a desolated city governed by terror and the control of Big Brother. CHARACTERS + The protagonistis Winston Smith. His surname is the commonest English, so the hero is a sort of everyman. His name evokes Churchill’s patriotic appeals during the Second World War. He experiences: alienation from society, rebellion against the party and search for spiritual and moral integrity. Big Brother is the ruler of Oceania, he looks like a combination of Hitler and Stalin. His image is stamped on coins and projected on telescreen. Julia is beautiful and optimistic. She falls in love with Winston, which is considered a crime for the party. O’Brien is a member of the inner party, who tricks Winston and Julia. THEMES — The main themes of the novel are: importance of memory and trust, abolition of individuality and reality. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a satire on hierarchical societies which destroy fraternity. STYLE AND TONE — There is no consolation, but only a cruel reality, so we can say that the tone of the novel is pessimistic. The author’s aim is to inform, to reveal facts and draw conclusions from them and to give an interpretation of reality. DYSTOPIA +— 1984 is a dystopian novel. While a utopia is an ideal or perfect community some writers have described in order to embody their ideals, a dystopia shows a possible future society that satires existing conditions of society. Orwell establishes a model of what the world should not become by presenting a picture of the future as being under the control of Big Brother. There is no privacy because there are telescreens watching people everywhere. The party controls the press, communication and propaganda. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU On one day of April, the clock struck 1 P.M. Winston Smith was climbing up the stairs of Victory Mansion. The Party, which was the government of the state, decided to remove electricity in order to organise better the Hate Week. He was only 39 years old, but he was very tired to do that action, due to a varicose ulcer on his right ankle. On each wall, a poster appeared where there was a face of a man and, under it, a caption, which said: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU! The only thing that he immediately noticed was the telescreen, where there were two figures talking about pig-iron. Nobody and nothing could cover these telescreens. When he looked outside the window, he saw the poster in every corner of the street and he also noticed a word on a wall, INGSOC. In the same moment, a helicopter flew around the streets in order to spy what the people were doing, with the help of the telescreen, controlled by the Thought Police, another part of this government. There is no privacy: individuality and liberty of words are erased. Nick Carraway is both an observer and a participant in the novel. He is the only character to show and hold on to a sense of morals and decency. Both Fitzgerald and Carraway find themselves surrounded by high society and dishonest people, and neither of them fits in with that kind of lifestyle. Nick is also linked to one of the major themes in the novel: the contrast between East and West. He comes from the West, and returns to it at the end of the novel. Tom Buchanan comes from a very wealthy midwestern family and is Gatsby rival for Daisys love. He is unfaithful, arrogant and aggressive. Daisy represents the enchanted object of desire, the great American dream, she is the light attracting Gatsby to her. She is very moody and impulsive. She is characterised by carelessness and absence of loyalty. STYLE Nick Carraway is the narrator from whose point of view all the events and characters of the story are presented. Nick is a retrospective narrator who, after going through an experience, looks back on it with a better understanding. Fitzgerald rejects chronological order and uses the fragmentation of time and frequent flashbacks to represent the inner world of his characters and to show the way knowledge is normally acquired in real life. Fitzgerald's style is characterised by frequent appeals to the senses, by the suggestive use of colours, and poetic devices such as repetition. simile and metaphor. The language also blends realism and symbolism. SYMBOLIC IMADES — The description of the society of the Jazz Age is extremely detailed with symbolic images, like the car, which stands for the destructive power of modern society and money. The green light at the end of Daisys dock at East Egg is the symbol of Gatsbys hopes and dreams. It represents the gap between the past and the present, the physical and emotional distance between Gatsby and Daisy, but it is also generally associated with the American dream. Blindness is another central image: most of the characters in the novel do not wish to see. They seek out blindness in the form of drunkenness, like Daisy and the guests at Gatsby parties Jordan, Daisy, Tom and many others drive carelessly; they remain blind to danger, so caught up are they with the selfish pursuit of pleasure. Only Nick truly sees. He is Fitzgerald’s spokesman in his representation of the decay of his generation. NICK MEETS GATSBY Nick's neighbour, Gatsby, gives parties every weekend. There is always a lot of food to eat, alcohol to ding and an orchestra playing jazz. Most of the people who attend the parties were not invited, but Nick receives an invitation to one party and decides to go. Once he arrives at the party, he is embarrassed because he doesn't know anyone. Nick spends quite a bit of time trying to find Gatsby. No one seems to know Gatsby, even though they are all guests in his home. Nick unexpectedly runs into Jordan Baker, his cousin Daisy's friend. He and Jordan spend time together and hear and share several rumours about Gatsby. A young woman tells them that at another one of these parties, when she ripped her dress by accident, Gatsby sent her a very expensive replacement. They gossip about what this odd behaviour means. One rumour has it that Gatsby killed someone, another that he was a German spy. Nick and Jordan sit down at a table with a man who recognizes Nick from the army. After talking about the places in France where they were stationed during the war, the man reveals that he is Gatsby. Nick is embarrassed to have not recognized him, but Gatsby puts him at ease, but leaves to take a phone call from Chicago. the theatre oc the abgurd Itis a drama without purpose, where there is no action. The protagonist doesn't know that to do. This type of drama is a symbol to describe the life of modern men, saying that they are lost because they are not able to communicate and life has its own meaning. The purpose of this drama is to show that there is no purpose. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is considered as the starting point of Absurd drama. gamuel beckett Samuel Beckett was born in 1906 in a Dublin suburb, into a Protestant middle-class family. He moved to Paris, where he had been appointed as a lecturer in English. He also became closely associated with the Irish novelist James Joyce and his circle. He wrote most of his works first in French, then translated them into English. He began his literary career as a short-story writer and a novelist; however, his international reputation was established by his plays. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was the first play in the style of the Theatre of the absurd. The basic belief was that men's life appears to be meaningless and purposeless and that human beings cannot communicate and understand each other. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in France in 1989. uaiding (or godel PLOT — The two-act play starts in medias res. In Act 1 two tramps, or homeless people, Vladimir and Estragon, are waiting on a country road for a mysterious Godot, who eventually sends a boy to inform them he is not coming but will surely come the following day. The tramps are continually aware of cold, hunger and pain, they quarrel and think about separation and even suicide in each act, yet remain dependent on each other and never do anything. As opposed to the two protagonists, the other characters in the play - Pozzo and Lucky - make continuous purposeless journeys to fill their existence. Act 2 differs only apparently from the first, and the play ends with the two tramps still waiting for Godot. SETTING — The play has no development in time, since there seems to be no past or future, just a repetitive meaningless present. The play has no setting but a country road and a dead willow tree, which stand for the inner world of the characters. A SYMMETRICAL STRUCTURE +— The two acts are symmetrically built. The play unit effect is its symmetry: the stage is divided into two parts by the tree; the human races is divided into two, Vladimir and Estragon, then into four, Vladimir and Estragon and Pozzo and Lucky; then, with the boy arrival, into two again, mankind and Godot. The characters' actions are also symmetrical. CHARACTERS + Its protagonists, Vladimir and Estragon, are never described as tramps; they are two human beings with questions about the nature of the self, the world and God. They are complementary, since they are different aspects of a single whole. Vladimir is more practical; he never dreams and he keeps waiting. Estragon is a dreamer. As the passing of time is their mutual occupation, Estragon struggles to find games to help them reach their goal. He cannot remember anything about his past; Vladimir, although possessing a better memory, distrusts what he remembers. Estragon needs his friend to tell him his history: it is as if Vladimir establishes Estragon's identity by remembering for him. Pozzo and Lucky are physically linked to each other by a rope as well as by a tyrannical relationship of master and servant; Lucky is slavish and stands for the power of the mind, while Pozzo is the oppressor and represents the power of the body. THEMES + A grotesque humour pervades the daily routine of the two tramps, whereas tragic and desperate tones express Beckett's assumption. His pessimism is intensified by his perception of the meaninglessness of human life. STYLE + The language of the play is informal, but it does not serve the purpose of communication: the characters are unable to provide each other with any information either about their present situation, or about their recent experiences and current events in the world outside. Another device used to show the lack of communication is the use of para-verbal language, such as pauses, silences and gaps. Repeated phrases, lines and words are used to signify the senseless repetition and relentless flow of time inherent in human existence. WAITING The second Act is characterised by many questions without real answers. The landscape is anonymous and it's evening. Vladimir is talking with a young boy. He says if he can recognize him, this means that Vladimir needs another person to verify his identity. This way of writing is used to explain the fact that normal people don't communicate.