L'età vittoriana e la letteratura inglese, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'età vittoriana e la letteratura inglese e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE VICTORIAN AGE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Victorian age tales its ñame from que en Victoria, -Characteristic of the age are economic expansion, because it became the centre of world’s economy, thanks to its colonies. -internal political contradictions EARLY VICTORIAN AGE Queen Victoria was near to the common men, rather than aristocracy, shaping a new role for the royal family, characterised by civic duties and a deep understanding of her role, manners and moral. Social reform> The industrial revolution in England resulted in great urban poverty and social injustice. There were a series of reforms bills, both middle and working class and mains agricoltural workers could vote. There were also a series of factory acts, which limited working hours and regulated child and female labour. Finally, there were an education act, that made elementary education compulsory. Political parties> Whigs became the LUBERAL party, in opposition to it the theories became the CONSERVATIVE party. The liberal were interested in domestic affair and political affairs The liberal party were more interested in foreign affairs and imperial policies. At the end of the eighteen hundreds the independent Labour Party was formed. Faith in progress> new industrial technologies: -steam locomotive it take to railway age (a railway network covers Britain). The building of Thiene railway increased the extraction of iron and created workshop for engineers. -ships were fueled by steam and were made of steel. -invention of the penny postal system and telegraph. -a population growth for example the population of London increase over 1 million -poor sanitation system -the use of coal for heating made the air Gradually new services were introduced along sewage system, new lightening system who improved the life of citizens and the new metropolitan police force to prevent crime. This age of innovation culminated in the great exhibition, where the royal family showcased the new industrial revolution (100.000 objects) AGE OF OPTIMISM The values of the middle class(merchants, professionals, manufacturers): optimism, prosperity and stability. Wealth and poverty were considered indicators of moral values: If you were poor you were considered a criminal. Utilitarianism it’s a new ideology that believed that only what is useful is good and that political actions should be directed to the greatest good to the greatest possible number of people. Charles dickens will attack this ideology. LATE EARLY VICTORIAN AGE Empereur policy> victorians were convinced of their superiority compared to the empire which were considered uncivilised. The main purpose of English expansion was to access raw materials, obtain new markets and offer an opportunity to the poor to escape Britain. Britain’s foreign policy was characterised by many wars in order to mantrin their interests: opium wars(Hong Kong and Shangai), the Crimean war, the boer wars, the Indian rebellion which was suppressed and queen victoria was crowned empress of India End of optimism> There was a period of trade depression caused by Countries which were also industrialising, people wanted new social solutions and they took great interest in socialism(Karl Marx). The victorian hypocrisy>There were double standards of Victorian morality for example sex and drugs were considered taboo but prostitution, gambling and the use of drugs weere widely spreads in London. The works of doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and the picture of Dorian Gray exposed this double standard of Victorian morality. AMERICA AN EXPANDING NATION America in the early 19th century was a republic. Millions of people went there, while America won a won with Mexico obtaining obtaining Texas, California and New Mexico.The discovery of gold attracted many pioneers The economy of the north was rapidly modernising with new and diversified industries, in the south the economy was found on large farms and relayed on slavery. The civil war>The question of slavery became a dominant issue creating tension. Abram Lincoln(anytime slavery party) was elected in 1816 and as a consequence the southern states seceded the union and becam indipendent: Confered state of america. This led to a civil war that ended when the confederate surrendered. Lincoln was assassinated and the new president Johnson with the reconstruction act, readmitted the southern state into the union. Remitted the 14th amendment gave former states the right to With the 15th men were given the right to vote. Consequences> The slaves were suddenly free in a total ostil environment, so many of them emigrated to the north. In the south couscous clans were founded in order to resist the republican policy of establishing equality for black men. At the same time in the west natives American were dispossessed for their uncensored territories. Although there were tensions the United state moved into a period of peace called the gilded age, named by Mark Twain novel. Characteristic ● Production of iron, steel ● Extraction of gold, silver and oil Charles Dickens 1812-1870 When he was little his dad was sent to prison for death and dickens and chearles was sent to work in a boot-blacking for a short time he then became a journalist, married the daughter of a new paper … He Had 10 children. They separated and started a relationship with a young actress. At the time was a prolific writer: he published Oliver Twist and seriled romces. He was also famous for his social commitment and he attacked the institution but he did not suggest any solutions. (He was from a middle class family) Oliver is a orphan who has to face many difficult circumstances until at the end he finds out that he has middle class origin. Oliver Twist Plot> When he was little he was exploited by his cruel bosses and so he escapes to London, where he discovers the pure side of London. He is arrested, rescued and then wounded in a burglary. In the end he is safe and adopted by a family who will solve the mystery of his birth. Themes> Dickens shows that criminals are victims or an unfair social system that they can not escape. On the other hand is honest and good and this characteristic made him survive difficult circumstances.The narrator uses a dark mocking humor when he describes this difficult reality. It is written in third person. The narrator is omniscient and tends to simpatie with the good and the helpless people. I want some more, pag.69> The extract is taken from the second chapter of the novel Oliver Twist written by Charles Dickens. The novel is about social problems of Dickens’ time. 
 The novel is about the conditions of working children. The introduction is about the condition of Oliver. Indeed the scene takes place in a room of a workhouse: the cantine. Each boy would receive one bowl of food and nothing more. The little boys made a council to decide who would ask for more food and they decided on Oliver Twist. So after dinner, he went back to the master and asked “please Sir I want some more”. The narrator uses a Hyperbole to describe the reaction of the master and the Beadle: they were astonished, shocked and couldn’t believe they’re ears. In the end Oliver was sold for 5 pounds as an apprendiste. This text could be linked to verga’s novel rosso malpelo fit the conditions of child labour. Hard times Plot> The novel is set in a fictional town called Cocktown. The principal character is Thomas Gradgrind, who only believed in “utilitarianism”. His 2 children had to believe only in hard/true facts and not in useless feelings(love). His daughters got married to an old factory owner, instead his son became a criminal. At the end he understands that his philosophy isn’t correct and he changes, starting by helping the poor. Themes> ● Difficult situations of young people growing up in an hostile adult world ● Difficulties of the working class, in contrast to the rich people ● Dickens also attacked utilitarianism which doesn’t care about imaginations and other important aspects of one’s education. Imagination and expression of their own personality. Dickens attacked the uniformity that was a consequence of the industrial revolution, both in education and the construction of new industrial towns. Dickens's primary goal in Hard Times is to illustrate the dangers of allowing humans to become like machines, suggesting that without compassion and imagination, life would be unbearable. Robert Louis Stevenson 1850-1894 He had poor health, he was forced to spend Lot of time at home, so he developed a love of reading. As a young adult he traveled Europe a lot and met her wife. He published the strange case of Mr Jekyll and Doctor Hyde which was very popular and successful. He died on an Hawaiian island troubled by his poor health and depression. He had a very short writing career but grew a wide range of genres but he is best remembered for his novels. He is written in an era when many authors began to doubt the Victorian age and its progress, as a result it was starting a period of anxiety. Doctor Jekyll and me hide Plot>The protagonist is doctor Jekyll, a rational Amman, in order to taste instinct and sensuality, transform himself with a potion into Hyde. On one hand Hyde committed several crimes but escaped prison by transforming himself back into doctor Jekyll. As time passed he found himself more and more incapable of getting free of his evil side. This horror story ended with the suicide of doctor Jekyll, after that his friend utterson revealed his double identity. Doctor Jekyll is the embodiment of the respectable Victorian gentleman, instead Mr Hyde is the embodiment of uncivil humanity. Dr Hyde is the alter ego. This duality can be interpreted as a critic of the Victorian period. Narrative techniques> the story is told through different point of view, the principal is Utterson, suspicions of Mr Hyde, who has a limited point of view so that we learn this horror story as he knows it. This novel has both characteristics of the gothic tradition(Frankenstein) and the new features of the fiction. Setting> The night, the obscurity and the back door of his house are symbols of doctor Jekyll's dark side while the elegant front door is a symbol of the respectable doctor Jekyll. Aestheticism and decadence The aesthetic movement was born in France and was against the restrictive moral code of the bourgeoisie. In England the theorist of the mouvements Walter Pater, who wrote about a subversive and demoralising message. They thought that art had no reference to life and therefore it had nothing to do with morality and had an active purpose(art for art). The term Decadence meant a process of decline of recognised values. Characteristic of aesthetic works: •excessive attention to the self; •hedonistic and sensuous attitude; •perversity in subject matter; •disenchantment with contemporary society, •evocative use of language. Oscar wilde 1854-1900 He was born in a rich family in Dublin and was a brilliant student. He went to Trinity college and Oxford where he grated brilliantly. He was seen as a leading figure of the aesthetic movement. He married and had 2 sons. AGE OF ANXIETY(1901-1949) Between the wars After the 1st world war, Britain had an economical and industrial decline. The miners industry is the one with more difficulties. So the owners of the mines try to solve the problem by reducing the pay and augmenting the bourse of work. The miners went on strike and this paralysed Britain. The government tried to stop the strike with the police and the army and one week later the strike failed. In 1927 the trade dispute act made strike illegal. In 1929 was also heat by the Great Depression after the Wall Street crash. North of Britain faced a recession because they didn’t modernise the industries after the war, while the south enjoyed sum prosperity. THOMAS STERNS ELIOT He graduated from Harvard university where he started to write. He moved to England where he married and began to work as a teacher and then in a London publishing house. He was one of the leaders of the modernist movement and a avantguard poet, with the poem waste land. His words had a wide range of cultural references and he used a variety of techniques: pastiche and juxtaposition. He was awarded a Nobel prize in literature in 1488. The waste land> structure is composed of 5 parts with different titles and themes(sterility of modern life, love as desire…) The poem is written in 3 verses and various lengths of lines. It also has different tones and different and apparently disconnected themes. The fragmentation in his poems represents the historical fragmentation of western civilization. The poem is also full of quotes from classical sources(from thé bible, Dante, Shakespeare…) which are juxtaposed and apparently incoherent. The poem seems to be stricter as a series of broken images, juxtaposed to represent the chaos of the modern word. The title refers to the situation in Europe after the Great War. He develops the theory of Objective correlative: a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion that the writer wants to evoque in the reader. THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS It is a narrative technique used in the early 20th c The main goal was to write freely the thoughts of the characters without any interventions of the narrator. It was achieved through the breaking of the grammar and syntactic rules and the overlapping of past and present. This new technique is the result of a series of factors: 1. Influence of FREUD and the role of unconscious (theory of human psyche, he propose the revolutionary idea that consciousness has many layers and most of hit are anknow.) 2. The difference between subjective and objectivity, made by BERGSON, revolutionaries the concept of time, saying that it is not a series of units but a constant flow.) 3. A new conception of human consciousness by William James (he believed that consciousness was a stream that connotation be organised in a rational way and where past and present coexisted without boundaries. 4. The sense of anxiety and fragmentation caused by the Great War. JAMES JOYCE 1882-1941 Born in Dublin from a catholic middle class family. When he was at university college of Dublin he studied many languages and started writing literary reviews and articles. He met Nora barnacle who later became his wife. He became a teacher in Trieste when the city was still belonging to the Austroungaries, where he worked on “Dubliners”. He became friends with Italo Svevo. He moved to Zurich in 1914, where he started to work on Ulysses, his masterpiece. He then moved to Paris and in 1941 he moved back to Zurich when he died. Although he left Ireland, Joyce’s works are all set in Ireland, it was his main source of inspiration. Dubliners takes play in only one day and is longer than the 2sn part, which takes place during 10 years. The novel revolves around a series of contrasts: main-female; life-death; light-dark; inner-outer. We also have many simbols the most important one is the lighthouse which represents something that is wanted but never acquired, something that is a constant inspiration and light and the key to understand the lives of the characters. The title suggested the idea with the preposition TO, it means what the characters wanted but also the ultimed aim of the reader who want to reach the truth. RUPERT BROOKE He studied in Cambridge where he started to write poems. After a nervous breakdown he traveled around the world. At the beginning of the first word war he enlisted in the royal naval division. His first collection of poems was called Georgian poetry, so he belonged to a group of writer called the Georgian poets who jejected the didactic porpouse of Victorian poetry. His most famous work is a sonnet called 1914 and other poems which expressed an idealistic and entusiastici prasge of war. He died in a hospital ship in Greece and the obituary in the a times was written by Churchill. Characteristic> He didn’t have a long experience of war because he contracted blood poisoning so this fact prevent him from experiencing the most terrible and cruel aspect of war. This is why he exalted and idealised war as a purifying experience for people and nations. The soldier experience was seen as a sacrifice for the nation and war was glorified as a triumph of patriotism and heroism. SIGFRIED SASSOON He studied at Cambridge university but didn’t get her degree; he wrote poetry and began to publish small volumes. His most remembered for his war poem written befor and after the fist world war. He went to fight in French but was wounded and returned to England. He became more and more against the war and this led him to court(not patriotism). After the war he continued to write prose and poetry which were characterised by spiritual concerns that led to his conversion to Catholicism. Characteristic> he was the voice of first hand experience of the horror and brutality of the war described with explicit and simple language. His works were criticised for his lack of patriotism and for the shocking violence. He used poetry to denounce the truth of war and insisted on horrific detail of war. The life James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882. His interest was for a broader European culture. His attitude contrasted greatly with that of his literary contemporaries, like Yeats, who wanted rediscover the Irish Celtic identity in order to create a national conscience. Joyce, on the contrary, believed that the way was by showing a realistic portrait of Ireland's life. He left Ireland and moved to the Continent. He lived in Trieste for ten years. He died in Zurich in 1941. Joyce’s narrative One of his most important works is Dubliners, a collection of short stories all about Dublin and Dublin’s life. The poet Ezra Pound was enthusiast about this work and helped Joyce print A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, his semi-autobiographical novel. Dubliners and A portrait had established him a writer and alleviated his financial difficulties. His great masterpiece is Ulysses. This book was strongly criticized and after being declared obscene and banned in Britain and America, was published in Paris. Dublin Though Joyce lived in Europe 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. The plot Ulysses tells the story of a day in the life of advertising salesman Leopold Bloom. During this day three main characters wake up, have various encounters in Dublin, and go to sleep eighteen hours later. The central character, Leopold Bloom, is Joyce's common man. During his wanderings he meets the indigent writer Stephen Dedalus (he is considered Joyce alter ego). Stephen momentarily becomes Bloom’s adopted son: the alienated common man rescues (salva) the alienated artist and takes him home (e lo porta a casa). At home there is Molly, the Bloom’s wife, a voluptuous singer who is planning an afternoon of adultery with her music director. The relation to Odissey Ulysses is related to Homer’s great epic the Odissey. Joyce used the Odyssey as a framework for his book, arranging its characters and events around Homer’s heroic model, with: Bloom as Ulysses; Stephen as his son Telemachus; Molly as the faithful Penelope. Ulysses is divided into three parts, imitating the three parts of Odyssey. The setting The set is in Dublin, in the street that Joyce knew, in the house that he knew and in the pub he had frequented. He made the very air of Dublin, the atmosphere, the feeling, the place. Consequently, Dublin becomes itself a character in his novel. The mythical method Joyce’s method is a new form of prose based on the “mythical method”. This allowed (ha permesso) the author to make a parallel (di fare un parallelo) with the Odyssey. Joyce wanted to write a “modern epic prose” and he achieved (ha realizzato) a new form of realism. The representation of human nature Stephen Dedalus, Ms Bloom and Mrs Bloom represent different aspects of human nature: Stephen is pure intellect; Mrs Bloom represent sensual nature and fecundity; Mr. Bloom is everybody, the whole of mankind (l’intera umanità). Joyce’s prose Joyce combined several methods to present a variety of matters (stream of consciousness technique, the cinematic technique, flashbacks, suspension of speech, etc) creating the so-called “collage technique”, quite similar to the techniques used by the cubist artist who depicted (che raffigura) a scene from all perspectives (tutte le prospettive). Joyce use the interior monologue and there are two levels of narration: One external to the character’s mind; The other internal with the character’s thoughts flowing freely (con i pensieri del personaggio che fluiscono liberamente) without any interruption coming from the external world. The language is rich in images, contrasts, paradoxes, symbols etc. He use also the slang, nicknames, foreign words, literary quotations and allusions to other texts. Dubliners Dubliners consists of fifteen short stories. The stories are arranged in four groups that correspond to four “phases” of life: childhood; adolescence; maturity; public life. A significant theme in all the stories is the feeling of paralysis that many of the characters experience as a result of being tied (legati) to antiquated and limited cultural and social traditions. The last story, “The Dead”, can be considered Joyce’s first masterpiece. It stands out (si distingue) from other fourteen stories because however similar in theme it is denser. Narrative technique The omniscient narrator and the single point of view are rejected: each story is told from the perspective of a character (dalla prospettiva del personaggio). The linguistic register is varied, since the language used suits (si adatta) the age, the social class and the role of the characters. The use of epiphany In 1821 he was called the cockney poet, to make fun of him (for his language – cockney = dialetto volgare londinese). He died for tubercholosis in 1821. The life George Orwell is the pseudonym of Born Eric Blair. He was born in India in 1903, because he was the son of minor colonial official, but he was taken to England by his mother when he was a small child where he was sent to a preparatory boarding school on the Sussex coast, where he was distinguished among the other boys by his poverty and his intellectual brilliance. Orwell won scholarship to Eton's University where he stayed from 1917 to 1921. From 1922 to 1927 Orwell returned to Burma (India), to work as assistant district superintendent in the Indian Imperial Police. His first novel, Burmese Days, is inspired to his colonial experience. In 1928, he took the decisive step of resigning from the imperial police and became novelist and journalist. He went to report on the Civil War there and stayed to join the Republican militia. Orwell was a prolific book-reviewer, critic, political journalist and pamphleteer. In 1944 Orwell wrote Animal Farm, a political fable based on the story of the Russian Revolution under Joseph Stalin. This small masterpiece made him famous and financially secure. Orwell’s last book was Nineteen Eighty-four, he started writing it in 1946 when he was seriously ill with tubercolosis. He worked between bouts of hospitalization. The book was published in 1949 and soon became a best-seller. Orwell died the following year (1950) in a London hospital. Social Themes Orwell believed that writing meant to interpreter reality and had a useful social function. However Orwell believed that the writer should be independent. He wrote about social theme and used realistic language. He insisted on tolerance and justice in human relationships (nei rapporti umani), and warned (ha messo in guardia) against the increasing artificiality of urban civilisation (l'artificiosità crescente della civiltà urbana). He criticized totalitarianism and the tyranny in all its forms. Animal Farm Stalin’s Purge Trials (which led to the death of three million people and sent many others to forced labour camps) and non-aggression pact between Stalin and Hitler provoked Orwell’s indignant reaction. So he decided to write Animal Farm where he expressed his disillusionment with Stalinism and totalitarianism in general in the form of an animal fable. The plot The book is a short narrative set on a farm where a group of oppressed animals, capable of speech and reason and inspired by the teachings of an old boar (vecchio cinghiale), overcome (vincono) their cruel master (padrone) and set up (creano) a revolutionary government. The pigs lead and supervise (i maiali sono alla testa e sorvegliano) the enterprise under Napoleon’s leadership. At first the animal’s life is guided by Seven Commandments based on equality; however these are gradually altered by the pigs who become increasingly dictatorial and arrogate to themselves (si arrogano) the privileges previously exercised by humans (i privilegi prima esercitati dagli uomini). At the end only one commandment remains: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. Animal Farm can be interpreted non only as a satire on the Soviet Union but also as a satire on dictatorship in general. The animals Each animal is an symbol, for example Farmer Jones is Zar Nicolas II and Napoleon is obviously Stalin who used terror and force in order to assert and maintain his power over the animals. The book blends (mescola) humour and sarcasm with horrifying scenes and a painful (dolorosa) atmosphere. The main theme is that all revolutions fail to achieve the expectations of their promoters. Virgina Woolf Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882. She grew up in a literary and intellectual atmosphere: in fact her father’s friends were some of the most important 19th century writers. Her life was marked by mental problems. Virginia had three major mental breakdowns during her lifetime, and she would die during a fourth. Her first breakdown occurred after her mother’s death, when she was only 13 years old, which Virginia later described as "the greatest disaster that could have happened". She married Leonard Woolf, a publisher. Virginia Woolf and her husband took part in the "Bloomsbury Group”, a group of intellectuals that reacted against Victorian society and values. A number of her writings are autobiographical. After the final attack of mental illness, Woolf loaded her pockets full of stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near her Sussex home on March 28, 1941. She feared her madness was returning and that she would not be able to continue writing Mrs Dalloway (published on 14 May 1925) is one of Woolf's best-known novels. Was created from two short stories, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street" and the unfinished "The Prime Minister". The novel's story tells a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, the heroine of the novel, in the period of post-World War I England. Clarissa Dalloway, married to the conservative Richard Dalloway, it’s a London society lady of fifty-one years old. Ostensibly, the novel tells the events about preparations for a party but this is mixed with flashbacks of a summer some thirty years previously. She reminisces about meeting her husband, Richard and the rival for her love, Peter Walsh. Clarice at the end married the reliable Richard Dalloway instead of the less reliable Peter Walsh. Jack has invented an alter ego (un suo doppio), a younger brother called Ernest who lives in the City. Even Algernon pretends to have a friend, called Bunbury, whose invalidity requires (la cui invalidità richiede) frequent attention, so ensuring (che gli assicura) his departure to the country. The story develops around the two young men’s attempts to marry Gwendolen and Cecil. They have to overcome (superare) a lot of obstacles but in the end both men, who discover they are brothers, succeed in marrying their girls. A new comedy of manners The Wilde’s theatre was a sort of new comedy of Manners (nuova commedia di costume), in which the problems of his age were reflected through his witty remarks (le sue battute di spirito). The institution of marriage The play presents an aristocratic society whose members are typical Victorian snobs; they are often arrogant, formal, and concerned with money. The story is based on the problems of marriage. Wilde makes fun (prende in giro) of the institution of marriage which he saw as a practice surrounded by hypocrisy and absurdity. He shows that aristocracy doesn’t see marriage as the result of love but rather as a tool for achieving social stature. Irony and Imagination The whole play is built on witty dialogues (dialoghi spiritosi), amusing puns (giochi di parole divertenti), misunderstandings (equivoci) and paradoxes. The title is a pun in itself: the name Earnest (misspelling (errore ortografico) for Ernest) evokes the adjectives “earnest (vero), honest and sincere”, while none of the characters is truthful. The characters are used to criticise Victorian prudery and exaggerated seriousness. Irony is a dominant feature of the play. The Plot The protagonist is Dorian Gray, a young man whose beauty fascinates a painter Basil Hallward, who decides to portray him. Once the picture is finished, Dorian, expresses a wish of eternal youth (desiderio di eterna giovinezza): the portrait would absorb all the signs of age while he remains forever in his youthful perfection. The wish comes true (il desiderio viene esaudito), over the years while the portrait grows old and ugly (diventa vecchio e brutto) while Dorian’s appearance remains unchanged. Dorian lives only for pleasure, making use of everybody and letting people die because of his insensitivity. When Dorian, totally corrupt and evil, sees the corrupted images of the portrait decides to destroy the portrait and begin a new life. But in doing so he kills himself. The portrait is magically restored to its original image of Dorian’s youthful perfection while the real Dorian’s features in death become those of a hideous (orribile), disgusting old man. Narrative Technique The story is told by a third-person narrator. The settings are vividly described and the characters reveal themselves through what they say or what other people say of them (typical technique of drama). Allegorical meaning Is an allegorical story with a Faustian theme. The myth of Faust is the story of a man who sells his soul (vende la sua anima) to evil so that all his desires might be satisfied (ogni suo desiderio deve essere esaudito). Wilde believes in the Renaissance idea of correspondence existing between the physical and spiritual realms: beautiful people are moral people, ugly people are immoral people. So in “The picture of Dorian Gray” the picture is the dark side (il lato oscuro) of Dorian’s personality and records (registra) the signs of time, the corruption, the horror and the sins (peccato) of Dorian. Picture is a symbol of the immorality of the Victorian middle class and Dorian, apparently pure and innocent, is a symbol of bourgeois hypocrisy. The picture restored to its original beauty means that the art survives, is eternal. Shelley Shelley was born in Sussex in 1792. Educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, Shelley was eventually expelled from university for circulating a pamphlet he had co-written, “The necessity of atheism”. In 1811 he married the sixteen year old Harriet Westbrook causing a permanent schism with his father. However, their marriage soon collapsed and Shelley ran abroad with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, famouse feministe) and her stepsister Claire Clairmont. During this period Shelley wrote two famous philosophical poems influenced by Wordsworth. In 1816 Harriet drowned herself in Hyde Park and Shelley immediately married Mary. The couple moved to Italy permanently in 1818, living first in Lucca, then in Venice and Este. 1819-1820 was Shelley’s most productive period. He wrote a number of major poems inspired by political events in England, including “England in 1819”. This relatively calm was not to last. Mary at their beach house in Lerici had a miscarriage, and finally, Shelley drowned when his boat (the Ariel) went down in a storme in the bay of Spezia.