L'era Vittoriana e Charles Dickens, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'era Vittoriana e Charles Dickens e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! (1837-1901)   _______________ QUEEN VICTORIA’S REIGN ________________   QUEEN VICTORIA   Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 at the age of 18. In 1840 she married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. They had nine children and their family provided a model of respectability. She ruled for 64 years during which there has been economic and scientific progress. Her own sense of duty became an ideal to follow. AN AGE OF REFORM   The period between 1830s and 1860s is remembered as an age of reform. The most important ones were: - Factory act : had prevented children aged 9 to 13 from being employed more than forty-eight hours a week - Poor Law Amendment Act : workhouses - Second Reform Act : male workers had the privilege to vote, this thanks to the influence       of Chartism that demanded manhood suffrage in 1838 WORKHOUSES   Workhouses were places where, in return for board and lodging, employment was provided for - the poor - the orphans - the disabled - the elderly - unmarried mothers     1837   Accession of Queen Victoria 1840   Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha 1845   Irish potato famine 1851   Great exhibition 1859   Charles Darwin On the Origin of the Species is published 1867   Second Reform Act extends right to vote 1877   Victoria becomes Empress of India 1888   Jack the Ripper 1901   Queen Victoria dies IRISH POTATO FAMINE   In 1845 in Ireland a plant disease caused the destruction of potato crops. Since Ireland always       relied on potatoes for food supply, 1 million people died of starvation and 2 million emigrated mainly to America. Due to the lack of help from Britain, Irish people matured an hatred for     Britain . Between the years 1845 and 1852 there was a tragic period of mass starvation in Ireland due to a disease that affected potato crops. Almost half of the population were completely dependent on the potato for their basic diet. During this period it is estimated that about one million people died of starvation and a further two million emigrated mainly to England or America. At a time when population was growing steadily in Britain as a whole, it declined by nearly 25% in Ireland. The disease, called “potato blight”, was common all over Europe at this time but was more serious in Ireland because so much of the population heavily relied on potatoes for survival. The famine had a crucial influence on the political, social and cultural life in Ireland and was often cited as a rallying point by those advocating Irish Home Rule or a united Ireland. TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS   In the middle of 19th century England experienced a second-wave of industrialization which brought economic, cultural and architectural change. In 1851 Prince Albert organised a Great   Exhibition to show the world Britain’s industrial and economic power. It was housed at the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park. In 1860 it began the building of the London Underground. THE LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE PARTIES   After the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria withdrew from society and spent the next ten years in mourning. Therefore the parties changed. The Liberal Party, including the former Whigs, some Radicals and a large minority of businessmen, was led by William Gladstone. The Conservative Party, which included the Tories, reaffirmed its position under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli.   FOREIGN POLICY   England was involved in two Opium Wars from which it gained five Chinese ports and the control of Hong Kong . Britain then supported many foreing wars, like Italian independence from Austria and the Crimean War.   EMPRESS OF INDIA   In 1877 Queen Victoria was given the title of Empress of India . The British Empire occupied an area of 4 million square miles and it was becoming difficult to control it. India was economically important as a market for British goods and strategically necessary to British control of Asia. THE BRITISH EMPIRE   During the reign of Queen Victoria, Great Britain ruled over a wide and powerful empire . After the conquest of India, the country achieved Egypt, New Zeland, Australia and some territories around Africa, like Sudan. However, the Victorians believed that races were divided by physical and intellectual differences and that it was an obligation imposed by God on the British Empire to spread their superiority. THE END OF AN ERA   The Victorian age came to an end in 1901 when she died. She was buried beside her beloved husband at Windsor Castle. __________________ CHARLES DICKENS _____________________    LIFE   Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and he had an unhappy childhood. His father was put in jail and he began to work in a factory at the age of 12. By 1832 he became an important newspaper reporter of parliamentary debate. He published his novels in installments in newspapers. Around 1837 he began publishing Oliver Twist. He was a republican and he advocated the abolition of slavery. Dickens wrote other books, like A Christmas Carol or Hard Times. By the time he died in 1870 he had amassed a fortune due to the greatness of his name. Charles Dickens gradually developed a more radical social view, although he did not become a revolutionary thinker. He was aware of the spiritual and material corruption of daily reality under the impact of industrialism;the result was an increasingly critical attitude towards his society. In fact, in his mature work he denounced public abuses, crimes and misery. As a matter of fact Hard times uses its characters and stories to denounce the gap between rich and poor and to critices the materialistic view. (LINK 1) Dickens’s style   very rich and original (several details, adjectives used in pairs or in group of three and four) exaggeration, hyperbole, irony suspense at the end of the episodes to keep the readers’ interest Social themes   Dickens highlights all the great Victorian controversies: - the faults of the legal system and the corruption of power - the horrors of factory employment and the appalling living conditions in slums Dickens’s legacy   - He was the man who invented the idea of a white Christmas . ‘Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert Scrooge, they convert us.’ (G.K. Chesterton) - Dickens was one of the first to describe poverty in Victorian London. ( dickensian = word to describe an unacceptable level of poverty) - Meaningful names suggesting characters’ traits and their role. Some characters have entered the language as nouns (ex: a scrooge = somebody mean-spirited) HARD TIMES   Mr Gradgrind is an educator who lives in Coketown and believes in facts and statistics. He raised his two children, teaching them to repress feelings and their imagination. He marries her daughter to a rich banker and she gives consent only to help her brother to get a job in his husband’s bank. Soon, they’ll discover that the husband robs his employees and he will be obliged to leave the country. At the end, Mr Gradgrind will acknowledge what a great damage he had done to his children trying to teach them his materialist philosophy. Hard times uses its characters and stories to denounce the gap between rich and poor and to criticise the materialistic view. In the novel Dickens highlights how people were turning into machines in order to favour progress by avoiding the development of emotions and their imaginations(LINK 2).   MR GRADGRIND The scene takes place inside a classroom which is as austere and plain as the teacher’s teaching style. The teacher, Mr Thomas Gradgrind, introduces himself to the exclamation “Now, what I want is facts”. He states that the formation of a child’s mind must be rooted in the study of facts. There is only proof not poetry for him. He wants to sow the seeds of fact, not the fancy; of sense, not sentimentality. His very description is essentially factual: square forefinger, square wall of a forehead, square coat, square legs and square shoulders. As for the name, Gradgrind has a hidden and specific meaning: “grad” means graduate, and “grind” means powder something by crushing it. As a matter of fact, Dickens has an opposite view of education than Mr Gradgrind. He believes that education doesn’t have to be based on facts knowledge, but it has to be impassioned in order for them to learn. Grad→ graduate grind→ macinatore macinatore di laureati   COKETOWN   Coke→ carbone There is a comparison between comedown and children→ chore( soffocare) Dickens already noticed the appreciation of appearance that didn't care what was the process behind it. Why does he use a religious language? He considered the money something to worship. He wants to emphasise the materialistic view. Even the churches are built in warehouses, everything has to be productive. Coketown is the fictional city where the novel Hard Times is set in. The city was an industrial mill town extremely polluted due to the smoke coming out from the factories. The pollution led the buildings to be the same one another because of soot. The river had an awful smell and a purple dye. Not only were the streets identical, but also the people who did the same work. Everything in Coketown was purchasable. He considered the money something to worship. He wants to emphasise the materialistic view. Even the churches are built in warehouses, everything has to be productive. The society of Coketown was based on a materialistic view where facts were the foundation of everything. Yet, society did not get on well. . During a Sunday morning, Mr Gradgrind and his friend were walking along the city and they noticed some labourers in the streets going to the church. The labourers were not well seen. Even though the labourers didn’t belong to God, there was a group of good people that went to the parliament (House of commons) who tried to force the barbarians(labourers) to go to church. Then the Teetotal society showed the fact that the Labourers only got drunk. The chemist and druggist came with other statements they get opium. And then came the chaplain of the jail who reported that the labourers did unconventional dancing. At the end, also Mr Gradgrind and Mr Bounderby criticized them by furnishing their statements based on personal experiences. In this passage Dickens is doing satire on these moralistic people. So many people are repeating the same thing→ a tone of ironic, exaggerated tone that becomes ridiculous to the reader. The problem seems to be the working class but it’s not. ____________________ OSCAR WILDE _______________________   He was an Aesthetic artist.(esteta). Some intellectuals considered the Victorian mentality too rigid. Against materialism and the Victorian age. He was a very fashionable man, a bit vain. LIFE   He was born in Dublin in 1854. Oscar Wilde belonged to the Aesthetic movement . He believed in art for Art’s sake(Art for art), art should be centered around beauty. He was a dandy (he was fashionable). Oscar Wilde got married to Costance Lloyd and had two children. He wrote stories that brought him great success. Oscar Wilde was homosexual but he was still married because at that time homosexuality was a crime. He had a lover, Arthur Douglas(" Boise "). When his uncle discovered he had an affair with a man, he denounced him to the authorities for indecent behaviour. He was sentenced to two years in prison doing hard labour. When Wilde came out, his reputation was destroyed. He died in poverty and alone in exile in Paris in 1900. Oscar Wilde became an icon for the LGBTQ+ community. The Picture of Dorian Gray was refused by six publishers because it contains discussions between men that suggest shades of love. THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY   The picture(portrait) of Dorian Gray grows old instead of Dorian Gray himself. In the introduction of the novel, Basil Hallward is painting Dorian Gray. Lord Henry Wotton is a friend. All three of them together. Dorian Gray gets complimented on his good looking appearance. He wished he could stay young and beautiful forever and the painting could age for him. In this way he made a pact with the devil(LINK 3). Dorian starts to live a life of pleasure where all his desires are satisfied. Immoral conduct → Sybil Vane. They get engaged. Sybil gets distracted by this love and starts to ruin her acting career. Dorian leaves her because she was a bad actress and she spoiled dramatic art. He was in love with the idea of her. She commits suicide. He comes home and starts to lead an Immoral kind of life(decadent-scandalous life). On the contrary at the same time, the picture is aging and experiencing the vices of Dorian, who became insensitive. He shows Basil the painting was aging for him. They have a fight and Dorian kills Basil. He participates in a shooting game and a man gets accidentally killed. He starts thinking about life and he repents: he doesn't want to lead an Immoral life anymore. Dorian stabs the portrait and he dies. After his death the painting returns to its original purity. THE PREFACE   The preface is the Manifesto of the esthetic movement The preface contained the justification for what he wrote because Oscar Wilde was accused of immorality. The artist creates something that is only beautiful. The artist's aim is to reveal art and not the artist himself. The critic should not judge, he can judge the beauty but not the moral aspect. Judge only beauty not morality. If the reader finds something that looks immoral it's not Wilde's concern, but the reader's problem. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the ones cultivated. A book can't be immoral, it can be well-written or bad-written. The artist can express everything. It is implied that censorship shouldn't exist. The artist can express an idea but he can't teach and try to convince others. All art is quite useless→ a provocation. According to Wilde,the artist is the creator of beautiful things. He might consider the moral or immoral lives of people as part of the subject matter of his work, but art itself is not meant to teach the public anything. The true artist does not aim at proving anything and he makes no judgements