L'Età Vittoriana: una società in cambiamento, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica L'Età Vittoriana: una società in cambiamento e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! EARLY VICTORIAN AGE: A CHANGING SOCIETY Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, so her reign lasted nearly 64 years. Her reign is one of the most interesting and complex periods of British history, Charles Dickens wrote about this age: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness… it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”. She became queen at the age of 18 after her uncle Willian died. Victoria married her cousin Albert Coburg-Gotha, and they had nine children. They believed that a good family life and Christianity were very important, so in general English people followed their example. Thanks to her example she restored the reputation of the monarchy. Manners, morals and style were very important. During the Victorian Age Britain was to become the most powerful nation in the world, and in 1851 for the first time in english history, the urban population exceeded the rural. The Victorian compromise The Victorian age was an age of contradiction due to the industrial revolution It was an age in which OPPOSITES COEXISTED: - on one hand we have WEALTH, PROSPERITY, PROGRESS, INNOVATION, BRITISH EMPIRE, COLONIZATION, people moved from the countryside to the towns because they found work in factories and industries; - On the other hand it was an age of POVERTY, there were people living in SLUMS with a lack of hygiene and terrible conditions, also many people worked in WORKHOUSES. The working class did begin to demand more rights, especially the right to vote. The First Reform Bill of 1832 had excluded them, because it had given the vote to the male middle class. The workers began to organise themselves into a movement to demand the vote for all men (in other words:“universal male suffrage”). This movement became known as Chartism or Chartist Movement. The Chartist Movement paved the way to the Reform Bill of 1867 that had given the vote to the workers in towns and later the Reform Bill of 1884 which gave the right to vote to the workers in mines and agricultural workers. It was a big step for democracy. Other important were: - Factory Acts: limited working hours and regulated child and female labour. - education act: made elementary education compulsory Landowners wanted in 1804 the Corn Laws, that established a taxation on the production of corn, to protect their profits, and this led to high bread prices. In 1846 Corn Laws were abolished and this showed how Britain was changhic: from an agricultural to an industrial economy. POLITICAL PARTIES The Victorian age was dominated by two main political parties: the Whigs and Tories. Both parties changed their names during the period: the Whigs becoming known as the Liberal party and the Tories as the Conservative party. The liberal leader was Gladstone, He tried to face the “Irish question” by proposing the Irish Home Rule but his attempt was unsuccessful. The conservative party’s leader was Disraely who was more modern than the Liberalparty: indeed he was responsible for passing the Reform Bill of 1867(the second) and for passing the Trade Union Act which legalised trade unions for the first time. THE RAILWAYS Sthephenson’s first steam locomotive, used for a coal mine, led the Railway Age begun. The first passenger service opened in 1829. The railway stimulated industry, because the manufacture or railways and trains stimulated the iron foundries and engineering works. Also communication became faster and cheaper thanks to the invention of the telegraph and to the Penny Postal System. URBAN PROBLEMS AND IMPROVEMENTS The Victorian age was an age of contradiction due to the industrial revolution It was an age in which OPPOSITES COEXISTED: - on one hand we have WEALTH, PROSPERITY, PROGRESS, INNOVATION, BRITISH EMPIRE, COLONIZATION, people moved from the countryside to the towns because they found work in factories and industries; - On the other hand it was an age of POVERTY, there were people living in SLUMS with a lack of hygiene and terrible conditions, also many people worked in WORKHOUSES. Slums were overcrowded, and people lived in miserable conditions. Other problems were poverty, poor sanitation, the air was heavy (pollution). Sewage was thrown directly into the river Thames. Sanitation improvement was the first demand: to solve this problem were built kilometres of tunnels to direct sewage outside the city. Another big problem was the increase of crimes, like pickpocketing and shoplifting. During those times Sir Robert Peel founded the New Metropolitan Police Force, also known as Bobbies (diminutive or Sir Robert Peel nickname) THE GREAT EXHIBITION Two keywords that we can use to refer to the Victorian Age are optimism and modernity and The Great Exhibition of 1851 can be seen as the symbol of Victorian wealth, power and progress. This event established Britain as the greatest industrial nation in the eyes of the world. The exhibition was held in a Crystal Palace, built especially for the occasion, completely made by iron and glass. Thanks to the profits of the Great Exhibition, today in London we can see the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Albert Hall WEALTH AND POVERTY were indicators of moral value. Poverty was a crime, and if you were a debot you could go they would send you to prison. On the contrary, rich people were classified as good people, examples of virtue and respectability. EVANGELICALISM derived from Methodism,a religious movement based on the teachings of John Wesley. Another important evangelical leader was William Wilberforce. Evangelicalism was characterised by puritanical attitude and by excessive moralism and prudery. Evangelical were committed to social reform (like in the capmpaign for the abolition of slavery) but they were also deeply moralistic. The Feminist question By th end of the cenury there was a reaction against the traditional values ov vistroian society, but the end of the century also witnessed the beginnigng of the feminist question. the condition of the woman has always been characterized by a situation of inferiority on social, political and juridical plain. But during the second half of the 19th century, women began to question new values and to emerge as a political force; so during this age women’s meetings and demonstrations started to be common. In this way, some women gained access to colleges, for a better education, professions, and also the right to vote. America was an expanding nation, and the war with Mexico added the territories of Texa, California and New Mexico. But the political situation was tense because of the growing division between North and South. The economy on the Northern states relied on indusrtry and small farms and small farms that employed free labour, on the contrary the economy of the South was based on large farms, vast plantations of tobacco, cotton and slavery was the main labour force. northerners helped escaped slaves on their way to freedom in the Northern states or Canada (underground railroad) THE CIVIL WAR When Abram Lincol, who was anti-slavery, on the presidential elections, the southern states saw secession as their only option. Eleven southern states left the Union and formed the Confederacy, with Jefferson David as president. This division resulted in the Civil War which broke out in 1861. During the war Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which free all slaves in enemy territory. Thousands of lives were lost before the south surrendered in 1865. It was a terrible conflict. Abram Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 was evidence of the on-going tensions. The Fifteenth Amendment gave black men the right to vote. LITERARY BACKGROUND: In the Victorian Age literary production we find two main trends: - Victorian Compromise or Victorian Writers: the authors of this phase wanted to instruct and entertain the reader without criticising the world they belonged to. The authors also tried to combine problems of daily life, so writing in a realistic way and with a moral aim, like charles dickens who dealt with social and humanitarian themes. - Anti-Victorian reaction or Anti-Victorian writers: the authors belonging to this phase criticised the values of their era and exposed all of its contradictions. They were influenced by the birth of Realism, a literary movement that gave importance to the realistic representation of the world without the use of imagination and the author’s personal opinions. Realism was influenced by Positivism, that had a pessimistic view of life. Novels became the leading literary genre of the Victorian Age. The great success of the novel in this period may be the result of different factors. - there was a growing number of people who were able to read. - The popular idea of publishing works in installments in newspapers and magazines reduced their costs, making them more accessible. - also, the idea of publishing works in installments in newspapers created more and more interest in the plot and how it would develop. - novels could be read anywhere, they were easily portable - people could borrow books from circulating libraries The general features of Victorian novel - novels had a clear moral aim and a happy ending - they represented human conditions in a very realistic way, using the third person omniscient narrator - plots are complex , adventures , rich in characters and especially for the reason that the author had to write in order to satisfy the reader’s taste, novels were often full of pathos and humor and so the style was exaggerate and grotesque - novels were usually structured in three volumes (triple-deckers) Early Victorian Novelists: the first phase included authors who made a realistic portrait of the society without criticizing the contradictions of their era. Their aim was to instruct the reader and to make them aware of the social problems of his time. - Charles Dickens:is the best example of an early Victorian writer, maybe the most important novelist of the Victorian Age. He is a great observer, he vividly described Victorian society. In his novels he used realism to deal with the social problems of his time. He started his career as a journalist and became a famous writer thanks to his work Pickwick Papers. He produced a huge number of novels, initially in instalments in magazines and then as complete books. His masterpieces were Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Hard times, Great Expectations; in those novels Dickens didn’t analyse the psychological aspects of his character, because he focused himself in the living conditions of the poor (workhouses, slums etc). His novels are tragicomic: the author denounced the contradictions and the evils of the time using a coming tone, in order to make clear his message. Dickens's stories generally have a happy ending and also the protagonists are usually children - The Bronte sisters: three women, Emily, Charlotte and Anne. The first two are considered the most talented and published two important novels, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, that explored the world of passion and feelings. . The Bronte sisters were 2 women who were allowed to publish with their own names and their novels were the first to explore the world of passion and feelings, rather than focusing on social issues. This is what made the Bronte sisters a unique case in English literature. Late Victorian Novelists: in this phase writers started to critic and to denounce the evils of society. Unlike the early Victorian literature, they adopted a pessimistic point of view. Another important theme is the duality of human nature or the idea of the “divided self” - Lewis Carroll: he wrote his novels especially for children. His masterpiece and also one of the classics of world children’s literature is Alice’s Adventures in wonderland. Carrol’s narration is full of examples of nonsense poetry and deals with questions related to growing up. - Robert Louis Stevenson is another key figure of late Victorian literature. The late Victorian literature was characterised by a sense of anxiety, fear and dissatisfaction. Stevenson’s masterpiece was The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a short novel that analyzed the theme of the double, so the idea that every human being has a double nature). Stevenson drew inspiration from another author, the american Edgar Allan Poe, especially for the dark and mysterious atmosphere - Oscar Wilde: His masterpiece was The Picture of Dorian Grey, that is considered the Manifesto of English Aestheticism, a movement based on the principle: “art for art’s sake”. This movement saw beauty and art as being above all else. - Thomas Hardy had a pessimistic view of life and his novels were pervaded by a tragic fatalism. His most famous novel is Tess of the d'Urbervilles, in which the protagonist, the beautiful Tes, becomes the victim of the powers of fate. Her life is dominated by a dark fate - Rudyard Kiplin is an exponent of the colonial novel. The Victorian age was also the time when British colonial expansionism reached its climax, so this author, with his works, explored the complex relationship between the English and the Indians in colonial India. About Kipling’s novels, we remember, Kim, in which the author showed the idea that the British had dhe duty to civilise other people they considered inferior, like the Indians, using their own system of values and often against their will; another masterpiece was the Jungle Book, a book of short stories for children. The American Renaissance The period between 1850 and 1855 is commonly called the American Renaissance as some of the greatest American works of literature were published at this time. - Nathaniel Hawthorne: she wrote The Scarlet Letter, a novel that inaugurated this new trend in America; it is set in the Puritan America, the 17th-century, and focused concepts of sin, guilt, the power of love and the struggle between good and evil - Herman Melville: he wrote Moby dick, a philosophical allegory of life and death, a discussion of fate, economic expansion, moral values and the struggle between man and evil - Mark Twain: his novels focus on the process of growing up of young male characters who feel struggled between social conventions, respect and freedom. His novel Tom Sawyer represents youth rebellion. - Henry James: He is an American author who spent most of his life in Europe. His masterpieces was The Portrait of a Lady; that analyzes the encounter between two worlds, Europe and America. James also examined the deepest parts of human psychology. Victorian Poetry In the Victorian period poetry is not the predominant literary genre, and only two important poets emerged: they are Alffred Tennynson and Robert Browning - Alfred Tennyson who wrote Ulysses, about the theme of the end of heroism - Robert Browning invented the dramatic monologue, a long poetic composition in which the speaker is not the poet but a single character addressing a listener who is - An Urban novelist: he was fascinated by urban life and many of his novels were set in London. He described gentlemen, lawyears, industrialists, teachers, labourers etc, but also criminals and pickpockets. There were exceptions: Hard times was set in Coketown, a grim town, maybe inspired by the industrial town Preston - Dickens’ Legacy in the English Language. He influenced english language thanks to his use of slang- expressions like butter.fingers (that means drop things) and it is an expression that we use today in colloquial english. Another example is Scrooge that means miserable and mean person. Oliver Twist Plot. Oliver is born in a workhouse, to a mother not known to anyone in the town. She dies right after giving birth to him, and the child is sent to the parish orphanage, where he and the other orphans are treated terribly and fed very little. When he turns nine, he is sent to the workhouse, where again he and the others are treated badly and practically starved. When Oliver asks for more food at the end of one evening meal, provokes a furious reaction from the officials who decide to send him away to work as an apprentice for an undertaker (one who arranges funerals). He is sold for 5 pounds; but again he is ill-treated. Oliver runs away to London and he falls among a gang of thieves. They teach him about pickpocketing but the first time he is sent out with two other boys to steal, Oliver is arrested. Fortunately Mr Brownolow, the pickpocket's victim, feels bad for Oliver and takes him to his house. Here Oliver, for the first time in his life, is happy and treated with compassion, But Fagin’s gang of criminals are not happy to have lost Oliver, who may reveal their hiding place. So one day the gang takes him back to Fagin and obliges him to burgle a house with Sikes, Fagin’s accomplice, but during the robbery he cries out to warn the people living there; Oliver is wounded (ferito). The owner of the house, Mrs Maylie takes care of him. Meanwhile Nancy, a prostitute who takes part of Fagin’s gang, discovers why Fagin and his gang want to capture Oliver. Monks, another Fagin’s accomplices, is in reality Oliver’s half brother. Monks wanted to discredit Oliver’s reputation in order to exclude him from their father’s inheritance. It also discovered that Oliver’s dead mother and Rose Mayle were sisters. At the end Nancy is murdered by Sikes for revealing this information to Rose and Mr Brownlow, Sikes dies as he is trying to escape arrest. Fagin with his group of thieves is brought to justice, and also Monks dies in prison. Oliver is finally adopted by Mr Brownlow POOR LAW AND WORKHOUSE Charles Dickens himself had had personal experience of poverty and child labour and throught Oliver Twist he wanted to attak the treatment that the poor received. His target was the new Poor Law of 1834, which considered poverty as a sort of crime to be cured by housing poor people in workhouses. There were very strict rules: labour was required, families were almost always separated and there were only small portions of food, so people were starving . The only alternative to this suffering in the workhouse was a life of crime and prostitution VICTORIAN MORALITY AND A HAPPY ENDING In spite of his attacks on the institutions, the hypocrital middle class, the suffering of children and the suffering of the poor, Dickens never gave voice to a radical change in the structure of the society, or to a reform in the Victoria mindset. However all novels have a happy ending. Oliver’s happy ending is a result of the discovery of his true identity so he simply returns to his original status. Another important aspect is coincidence: we can do a lot of examples such as when Oliver is forced to go with Bill Sikes to burgle a house one night. The burglary goes badly, and the same family felt pity on Oliver and cared for him. The owner of the house, a certain Mrs. Maylie, has an adopted daughter called Rose. In one of the many astonishing coincidences in the book, Rose just happens to be Oliver's aunt, the orphaned sister of his mother. Also Mr Brownlow, the victim of the theft, had been Oliver’s father’s best friend. So Coincidence is stretched to the limits of credibility. I WANT SOME MORE The action take place in a workhouse and in particular in a large hall where all the little boys were fed. They were fed with gruel that is a porridge like meal. After that lots were casted, oliver had to walk up to the manster and ask for some more food. Oliver’s request provoked a grotesque reaction of the master that even made him clung for support. Alle the assistants were paralyzed with horror so they took him to the parish. Everybody thought that Oliver would end up on the gallow (la forca). At the end they decided to sell Oliver for five pounds. In this passage Dickens uses the third-person obtrusive narrator Hard Times The novel is set in an imaginary town called Coketown, similar to the industrial cities of the time like Liverpool, Manchester. The protagonist is an advocate, Thomas Gradgrind, who rules a school where education is strictly functional; the arts and literature are totally excluded because they have no use, and students must learn nothing but facts and reject any form of imagination. In this way he brings up his two children, Lousia and Tom. As Louisa grows old she agrees to marry Bounderby, who is twice her age, only to help her brother Tom who is employed by Bounderby and proves to be an inefficient and dishonest employee. Louisa is unhappy and she runs back to her family; Old Gradgrind begins to understand and protects her from her husband. Meanwhile Tom steals money from Bounderby’s bank, but in a first moment the blame falls on Stephen Blackpool, an honest worker has left Cocketown; when he returns to prove his innocence, he falls down a mine and he dies. After a while it comes out that Tom is the robber. Gradgrind is devastated when he realizes that he has ruined his daughter’s life and that his son is a criminal. At the end Tom is arrested, but as manages to escape abroad he dies; Bounderby loses his reputation and dies of a stroke; Louisa finds happiness in the love of her friends and family and Gradgrind became a different person, he finds his own humanity, asks forgiveness of his daughter and starts to helps people. Themes - Criticism of the evils of Victorian England (industrialization and materialism) - the condition of young characters growing up in this hostile world - representation of the conditions of the poor - contrast between the rich and the poor (hardship of the working class) - Attack against Utilitarianism: a materialistic philosophy that only considered the practical aspects of happiness and ignored emotional, spiritual and moral values (what is useful is good), all the important aspects of education. In these schools students become numbers rather than people, they don’t have the opportunity to learn to open their mind and to confront each other. Style - Satirical tone - Use of symbols and a lot of similes - Strong sense of humor - Mix of pathos and realism NOTHING BUT FACTS Their faces are all the same and nobody seems to put on a smile. They look very focused and alert and submitted to strict rules. The action take place in a schoolroom. the speaking character is Mr. Gradgrind. The name of the protagonist (Gradgrind) is an example of a compound word, that is made up of two different words: Grad(=grade, gradient) + Grind (to crush, to pulverise). These words make me infer about the character’s attitude: he relies only on scientific measurements, observable facts and numbers, not considering human nature. Dickens in this passage uses mainly the third person narrator and it is intrusive. In the first paragraph the word “facts” is repeated many times, and the effect created is hammering. The listener feels intimidated. There is also an adjective used a lot in the description of the speaker : square, it is repeated 3 times. This repetition suggests and adds details to the description of the school, that is narrow-minded. Dickens uses worlìds like plant and root out to show that pupils are seen as gardens to be tilled and there is no consideration for the pupil’s personality. The passage suggests that pupils in Mr. Gradgrind’s school are not free to develop as human beings. They can’t develop their passions, ideas, thoughts and opinions. DICKENS AND VERGA They both wrote about the social problems of their time (children exploitation in workhouses and mines, poverty, “roba” theme in “Scrooge” and “La Roba”) Many works are about autobiographical characters (Verga’s ‘Ntoni, Dickens’ David Copperfield ) They write about flat characters (not round) without a personal development, because they embody particular vices or virtues (caricatural language). They both criticize the social evils of the time, just to instruct the readers, without a revolutionary purpose. Differences Dickens’ novels were published in instàllments: this increased the reader’s curiosity, but brought to a lack of unity. On the other hand Verga’s works were uniform and complete. Dickens’ novels lacked of psychological depth, while Verga’s gave a psychological insight to his characters. Happy ending (Dickens) vs Tragic ending (Verga). On the other hand, Verga’s main characters can be defined as “vinti”, since they are overwhelmed by the violence of progress and they’re destined to fail.