L'età vittoriana in Inghilterra, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'età vittoriana in Inghilterra e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! LETTERATURA INGLESE THE VICTORIAN AGE 1837-1901 The age takes its name from queen Victoria, who ascended the throne in 1837, at the age of 18 years old, and died in 1901, after a long reign lasted 64 years. She married her cousin Albert, to whom he gave the title of prince consort; they lived in close harmony and they had nine children. victorian compromise The central element of this period is the victorian compromise: a contrast between prosperity and poverty, progress and degradation. Prosperity, optimism and progress were due to the rapid growth of technology and industry, to the increasing wealth of the nation and to the British empire that was expanding. Despite this positive aspect, the majority of people lived in poverty, injustice, degradation, terrible working conditions (such as the exploited natives in the imperial lands). This situation causes a double morality: moralism, philantropy and respectability often hid capitalistic greediness, corruption and vice. * * * * workhouses: a place where poor people did very unpleasant jobs in return for food and shelter * slum: a very poor and crowded area, especially of a city, where the houses are in an extremely bad state and the living conditions are very low * charter: a document which describes the rights of a particular group of people or which demands rights for them * trade unions: an association of workers, traders, or any other profession; formed to protect and promote their rights and interests * * * social problems When queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 there was significant discontent among the working classes: * factory workers asked for better wages and improvement in their living conditions (they lived in small houses without hygiene in complete misery). The poor law amendment act of 1834 wasn't a solution to the immense problem of poverty; the poor were amassed in workhouses and in the slums, that were in the great cities. * farm workers asked for reforms because they lived in desperate conditions after a long period of bad crops (raccolti). Those years were in fact known as the “hungry forties” during which a lot of people died for hunger. A direct consequence of this crisis is the development of the “chartist movement”. chartist movement 1838-1857 “chartism” was a working-class movement asking for social and political reforms, that existed in Great Britain for about twenty years. It was so called because its members presented to the Parliament “the people’s charter”, a petition on six points asking for social and political reforms, such as the workers’ right to vote, better living and working conditions, free education and a modernization of the British parliament. Many of chartism's petitions were rejected by the Parliament and soon the movement came to an end. social reforms The chartist movement paved the way to the social reforms that were passed: * the second reform bill of 1867 gave the right to vote to male workers in towns * the third reform bill of 1884 gave the right to vote to male workers in mines and countries (the first reform bill of 1832 gave the right to vote to all the middle class men) * series of factory acts passed from 1833 to 1878, which progressively limited working hours, improved working conditions and regulated child and female labour * the elementary education act of 1870 made primary school attendance compulsory *the trade union act of 1875 legalized the activities of the workers’ unions. Until then, workers’ meetings awere strongly repressed by the government (Peterloo Massacre was a clear example). The trade unions turned into the labour party from 1892, which had soon its representatives in the British parliament. political reforms and changes (modernization of the British parliament and two new political parties) England has the oldest parliament in the world. The English parliament met for the first time at the Palace of Westminster in 1265, but it took more than four centuries before the concept of “political parties” emerged. The first English political parties began to take shape in the seventeenth century, when the members of the English parliament formed two parties: Whigs and Tories. * the Whigs were the party of the liberal, modern and reforming aristocracy (favourable to social reforms). In 1832 they passed the first reform bill, which led to a parliamentary modernization, expanding the electoral base to the middle classes. In the 1850s, the Whig party evolved into a union formed by the Whigs and the middle-class men: the “liberal party”. * the Tories were supporters of the monarchy and of the aristocratic power, they were conservative and adverse to reforms. During the eighteenth century the Tories played a very limited role in the political life of the country. Things changed in the last three decades of the eighteenth century, when the rise of the Empire, gave a new impulse to defenders of conservatism. The Tories re-emerged as a major force in British politics as a modern party in favour of maintaining the best traditions of Britain, but at the same time supporting the new opportunities created by the industrial revolution and imperial expansion. In 1834 the Tory party evolved into the “conservative party”. During the 19th century it was torn between its traditionalists and its reformers. Benjamin Disraeli, the conservative prime minister from 1874 to 1880, was one of the greatest reformers of Victorian age, focusing on foreign affairs and imperial policy. He believed in the British empire and wanted Victoria to be crowned “empress of India”. It was ironic that Disraeli, the conservative, was also responsible for passing the second reform bill and the trade union act. In 1892 a new party, representative of the working class, was founded: the “labour party”. The first labour MPs were elected in 1900 and since then, the power of the British parliament was shared by the conservatives, the liberals and the labour party. The actual prime minister of the United Kingdom, nominated in 2019, is Boris Johnson, leader of the conservative party. Johnson, a strong anti-European and supporter of the Brexit, in these years has led the negotiations for a Brexit withdrawal agreement with the European parliament and has finally obtained it in december 2020. UK is definitely out of the European union from 1st january 2021. technological advance The triumph of industry coincided with the invention of the steam engine by James Watt in 1775, that could be used in all sorts of industrial applications. Steam, that replaced all sorts of sources of energy, was created by the combustion of coal, raw material in Britain. The increased demand in domestic and colonial markets, the low price of iron and the supply of coal, transformed Britain from an agricultural country into an industrial one. The transport of coal and coal itself was the heart of the industry. the railway boom In 1820, George Stephenson, created the first steam locomotive to transport coal and in 1829, the first permanent passenger service from Stockton to Darlington (line Liverpool-Manchester) was opened. The railway age had begun. The 30s and 40s saw a very rapid development of the railway network, covering all the country, and both goods (merci) and people could be transported over long distances. On 9th january 1863 was opened the first underground railway in London. The metropolitan railway was a great success, a socially egalitarian and liberating phenomenon, whic helped London to reach its expansion and let suburb-living people get to work on time. the transport revolution in art The transport revolution of the victorian age was represented by many painters in their pictures. The railway station, one of the most iconic buildings of the industrial revolution, had a rich iconography. William Powell Frith, defined as " the greatest British painter of the social life” because he painted buildings and scenes The economy of the northern states was based both on agriculture and industry. Agriculture was organized in small farms and the farmers were free men, often the owners of the farms. The industry was rapidly expanding all over the country. On the contrary the economy of the southern states was based only on agriculture, which was organized in large farms, called plantations, that produced sugar, tobacco, cotton and rice. The people who worked in these plantations were black slaves who were bound to the land in which they worked and did not get any wages in exchange for their hard work. the civil war Northerners believed that slavery had to be abolished and the question of slavery became a dominant issue, creating tension between the northern abolitionist states and the southern states. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States and during his mandate he opposed slavery. He was so unpopular in the seven southern states of Georgia, Louisiana, Carolina, Mississipi, Florida, Alabama and Texas that seceded (si separarono) from the Union and created the independent government of the “confederate states of America”, also called the “confederacy”, with Jefferson Davis as president. The government of the United States (the union, “unionists”), under its president Lincoln, declared the confederacy illegittimate and in 1861 a bloody civil war broke out. The conflict, which lasted four years, cost over half a million lives; in 1865 it came to an end with the surrender (la resa) of the confederate forces. In 1862 Lincoln passed the emancipation proclamation, an act that freed all the slaves. Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and in 1867, the new president Andrew Johnson, passed the reconstruction act, which readmitted the southern states to the union. The 14th amendment of 1868 gave American citizenship to the slaves and the 15th Amendment of 1870 gave black men the right to vote. the American west and the native Americans After the civil war the slaves found themselves free in a totally hostile environment, in fact many southeners joined in racist organizations such as the “ku klux klan”, founded in 1866 to assault and even murder black men. For this reason many of them migrated to the north. The government encouraged them and also the immigrants coming from Europe to move to the west, which was seen as a land of new opportunities (“go west young man!”). However the west was not a desert area, it was inhabited by the native Americans who had lived there long before the arrival of the first European settlers. The native Americans were pushed westward by the newcomers. They began to fight and started a resistance to defend their lands, but they were soon defeated by the military force of the US government which intervened in defence of the new settlers. The massacre of wounded knee in 1890 put an end to the Indian resistance and most of the tribes were confined to reservations. the age of fiction The triumph of the novel can be explained by different reasons: * there was an increase in the number of people who read (elementary act) * the books became cheaper * people could borrow books from “circulating libraries” * entertaining and realistic plots * novels were often publoshed in instalments in nwespapers or magazines Victorian novels were characterised by common features: * they tend to satisfy the needs of their readers, who wanted to be entertained and instructed * they want to make the reader reflect on the complexities of the world * they have a moral aim and the writers want to be examples of virtue * they represent human conditions in a realistic way * plots are complex with a lot of characters and surprises * there was the third person omniscient narrator * they were usually structured in three volumes Trollope, one of the leading intellectuals of the Victorian age, says that “the writer must please and must teach […]; they should teach virtue and at the same time make themself a delight to his readers […]; if the writer has a conscience, he must preach his sermons, as the clergyman, and he must have his own system of ethics”. This period coincides with the birth of realism (naturalism in France and verismo in Italy), an European literary movement that gives importance to the realistic representation of the world without the author’s personal intervention or moral judgement. Victorian age can be divided into two different phases: Victorian compromise and anti-Victorian reaction. * in the Victorian compromise there was an optimistic approach to progress and social and economic development. The writers used literature to create a realistic portrait of the society in which they lived, instruct and entertain their readers and make them aware of the social evils of their time. They were conscious of the contradictions of the industrial revolution and of the Victorian moral values, but they never criticised them. This ambivalence is exactly what stands at the core (nucleo) of the Victorian Compromise. * the anti-Victorian reaction coincides with the end of optimism. The writers used literature to stress all the contradictions of the age in which they lived and to denounce and criticise the evils of their society with evident realism. The realistic writers did not describe the objects in an idealized way, but as they really were. They had a pessimistic point of view. This pessimistic approach to life was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution and by philosophical theory of positivism. * Darwin’s theory of evolution redefined the role of man in the universe; “on the origin of species” of 1859 he says that men and animals share a common origin, nature is ruled by the law of natural selection: the strong survive, the weak perish. He challenged the importance of religion and the role of God in the universe. * positivism was a theory inspired by the French philosopher Auguste Comte. According to him, human knowledge is based on experience and reality can be explained through objective mathematical laws. CHARLES DICKENS life Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth; his formal education did not last long. When he was still a child, his father was arrested because of debts and Charles was forced to work in a factory of shoe polish (lucido da scarpe). The difficult experiences of this period will serve him for his future work as a writer. He began his wrtiting career as a journalist (parliamentary reporter); he published also some sketches under the name of “boz”; his first novel was “Pickwick papers”. His novels were published in instalments in magazines, and only some years later as complete books. In 1836 he married Catherine Hogarth, with whom he will have ten children. He travelled also to America, to manifest against slavery, and to Italy. He wrote also for the theatre and he performed in front of queen Victoria. He left his wife in 1858 for his mistress (amante), the actress Ellen Ternan. He died in 1870 and was buried in Westminster abbey. major works and themes The great gif of Charles Dickens was inventiveness; he created exaggerated but unforgettable characters. He was against social injustice and he wanted to portray the oppressed of society. * “Pickwick papers” was a great success, because the readers were every month curious about what would happen in the course of the story. The situations described were comic and the three characters traveled to discover England (typical Dickens' humor). * “Oliver Twist” was published between 1837 and 1839 and marks the beginning of social criticism. It is the story of an orphaned boy, through which the author investigates the exploitation of children and the cruelty of workhouses. * “a christmas carol” is the a gosth story about the spirit of christmas. *“David Copperfield” is the most autobiographical novel and a coming-of-age novel, where a main character is followed through aspects of sentimental and moral life, towards the discovery of his true identity. * “hard times” is a novel about the difficult condition of the working class during the industrial revolution. Dickens' novels are said “humanitarian novels”. Dickens' plots There are some effects on the structure, tone and content of the novels when they are published in instalments. Deckens needed to maintain interest from one episode to another, in fact he tried to provoke suspense at the end of the episode. The features are: abundance of characters, improbable coincidences, a plot and a sub-plot. Dickens' characters Dickens' characters are often portrayed as caricatures, embodying particular vices or virtues. The characters created by the author are unforgettable and famous, becoming emblems of the English reality of the period. the condition-of-England novel Dickens' purpose was to denounce the social evils of the time and make his readers aware of them. He believed in the ethical and political potential of literature. an urban novelist Dickens' social world included people from all walks of life; many of the characters are city dwellers, in fact Dickens was fascinated by urban life and many of the novels are set in London. In the case of “hard time” the place where the novel is set is Coketown, a typical grim town probably inspired by Preston (industrial city in the north of England); probably the name resumes the term 'coal'. London, in “Oliver Twist”, is described as a city abounding in pickpocketing and criminals, where the poor live in appalling conditions. “OLIVER TWIST” “Oliver Twist” (or “the parish boy's progress”) was written between 1837 and 1839 by Charles Dickens. plot Oliver Twist is an orphan, born in a workhouse; his father is unknown and his mother dies in childbirth. In the workhouse the boys suffer from hunger, so when Oliver is obliged to ask for more food, he is sent away from the workhouse, considered as a rebel. Initially works for an undertaker (impresario delle pompe funebri), but then escapes from London and becomes involved with a gang of thieves, led by Fagin. On his first mission as a pickpocket, Oliver is arrested, but then rescued by mr Brownlow, the victim of the theft (furto). Fagin's gang capture Oliver and bring him back. In another crime, Oliver is shot and abandoned by the gang; mrs Maylie nurses Oliver back to health and he spends summer with her and her adopted niece Rose. Nancy, a prostitute, discover that Fagin's gang is determined to recapture Oliver because one of the member, Monks, is the half-brother of Oliver and their father left his fortune to Oliver's mother. Monks wants to kill Oliver to get the entire inheritance. It turns out that Rose is the sister of Oliver's mother. Nancy is murdered for revealing this information to mr Brownlow and to Rose; Fagin is arrested and Monks died in prison. Oliver receives is inheritance and is adopted by mr Brownlow. Oliver can now live a peaceful life (for this great change in his life, he is called Oliver “Twist”). poor law and workhouses In Oliver Twist, Dickens expresses his anger for the poor law of 1834, which established charity through the workhouses. Poverty was seen as a sin (peccato), and in the workhouses conditions were as harsh as possible in order to discourage the poor to depend on public charity. According to puritain mind, people had to work hard and have no fun. In the workhouses the families were separated, they had to work hard and they had to wear the uniform. Victorian morality and a happy ending Oliver's redemption is not offered to the other poor characters of the novel, because the protagonist has a good and pure heart and Oliver's happy ending comes as a result of the discovery of his tue identity. Oliver simply returns to his rightful