L'età vittoriana e Charles Dickens, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'età vittoriana e Charles Dickens e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The victorian age QUEEN VICTORIA’S REIGN She ruled for 64 years in a moment of cultural and economical progress. Her reign was a constitutional monarchy: a period of stability but a contradictory age with a coexistence of opposites. She married the Prince Albert and their family was a model of RESPECTABILITY. AN AGE OF REFORMS This age was an age full of reforms trying to solve peacefully social conflicts and avoid a big revolution. Among these reforms, there was “the factory act” that prevented children from working more than 48 hours a week. WORKHOUSES Workhouses were places where, in return for board and lodging, employment was provided for the poor, the physically and mentally sick, the elderly, the unmarried mothers, the disabled and the orphans. They were characterized by hard work and a meager diet (described as a SLOW PROCESS OF STARVATION) and were based on the faith in progress, puritan issues of hard work, frugality and duty. They were built by the government because it wanted to scare poor people hoping that they not to end up in workhouses would have started working to improve their conditions. CHARTISM The Chartism was a radical movement formed by people of the working-class demanding: the universal male suffrage, the secret ballot and the possibility for everyone to stands as candidate whit the pay for the members of the Parliament. This movement failed but has an important influence. THE IRISH POTATO FAMINE In 1845 the bad weather and unknown plant disease destroyed potato crops. Ireland, whose agriculture depended on potatoes, experienced a great famine during which many people died and others emigrated (America). So there were a lot of conflicts between the Irish and the Native Americans, this crisis led to the abolition, by the Prime minister, of the Corn Low that imposed tariffs on imported corn keeping the price of brad high. THE VICTORIAN COMPROMISE This age was characterized by complexity and great contradictions. In fact, we talk about the Victorian compromise because there were progress, reforms and political stability on the one hand, but also poverty and injustice on the other one. This age was characterized by respectability: a mixture of morality and hypocrisy under which the unpleasant aspects of society were hidden (WAS IMPORTANT KEEPING UP APPARENCES). Sexuality was repressed and there was a denunciation of nudity in art. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) LIFE ●Born in Portsmouth in 1812 ●Unhappy childhood: he worked in a factory at the age of 12 (his father went to prison for debts) ●Become a newspaper reporter with the pen name BOZ (sketches by Boz, articles about London people and scenes, were published in instalments) ●He devoted himself to writing novels and continued hid journalistic and editorial activities WORK He wrote autobiographical novels whose characters become the symbols of an exploited childhood such as “Oliver Twist”. Other works deal with the conditions of the poor and the working class, for example “Bleak house” or “Hard times”. SETTING OF HIS NOVELS London with three social levels: ●the world of workhouses (people of lower-middle classes) ●the criminal world (murderers and pickpockets living in squalid slums) ●the Victorian middle-class (respectable people) CHARACTERS The upper-middle-class was replaced by the one of the lower orders. H created CARICATURES: he exaggerated particular social characteristics of the middle class and also WEAK FEMALE CHARACTERS. THEMES Family, childhood and poverty. His children are innocent or corrupted by adults and begin in negative situations and rise to happy endings. AIM He wanted the wealthier classes to acquire the knowledge about poorer classes. He wouldn’t encourage discontent, he would make ruling classes aware of the social problems without offending his middle-class readers. In fact he focused on problems not on society. OLIVER TWIST This is an education novel (BILDUNGSROMAN) that fictionalizes the humiliation he experienced during his childhood. The protagonist is Oliver Twist that is innocent, pure and incorruptible and that was saved by a well-to-do family. The setting is London and he wanted to attack the social evils of his time as poor houses, the underworld and the unjust courts, the workhouses founded upon the idea that poverty comes from laziness and the officials of workhouses. Testo: “Oliver wants some more” It talks about a meal at the refectory where the children ate: in workhouses, there was one meal a day and Oliver, hungry, asks for seconds. The cook, bone and healthy, is frightened by Oliver’s “rebellion” and tries to hit him. After this, the owner of the workhouses sells Oliver for 5. Sentences short and coordinated give the idea of speed. HARD TIMES It is a denunciation novel (accusation of negative effects the industrial society). The setting is COKETOWN, an imaginary industrial town. The characters are people living and working in Coketown. The protagonist is Mr Gradgrind, an educator who believes in facts and statistics. His school tries to turn children into little machines, so feelings and imagination are repressed. The themes are the critique of materialism end utilitarianism, a denunciation of the ugliness and squalor of the new industrial age and the gap between the rich and the poor. Testo: “Mr Gradgrind” Chapter one. His name refers to the fact that he wats to grind personalities so we immediately understand that he is a negative character. His description is a caricature: SUNKEN EYES, BALD, WITH A SQUARE FOREHEAD AND HAIR ON THE SIDES OF THE HEAD. Testo: “Coketown” It is described as a jungle, inhospital city. It is a perfect description of industrial town with people that make some things, works at the same time, because work marks your time. There is the description of school without creativity.