the romantic age ( XVIII secolo - XIX secolo), Appunti di Inglese

Scarica the romantic age ( XVIII secolo - XIX secolo) e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! BRITAIN AND AMERICA George III (1760 – 1820) He’s George II’ grandson. He reigned for 60 years from the 1760. To reduce the public debt for the Seven Years War, he introduced new duties on corn, paper and tea. That caused some oppositions, so the English Parliament was forced to reduce some of them (excluded the tax on the imported tea). The Declaration of Independence At the Boston tea in 1773 some rebels, dressed as Native Americans, threw the British tea into the harbour, with the motion that taxes were unjust. So, the Americans divided into Patriots, who wanted independence, and Loyalists, who wanted to remain part of Britain. The War of Independence began in 1775. The Americans set up an army under George Washington. On 4th July 1776 in Philadelphia, it was signed the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson. In the end it was established that governments can only claim the right to rule if they have the approval of those they govern. In 1781, at the Battle of Yorktown, the British army was defeated, and Britain recognized the independence of its colonies with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. America became a land where the races could melt; in 1787 it became a federal constitution and George Washington became the first President in 1789. William Pitt the Younger After the loss of America, George III needed help, so in 1783 he asked William Pitt The Younger to become Prime Minister. He did a lot of important things, but especially he reduced the national debt and stressed the division of labour. The new United Kingdom In 1791 a group of Catholics and Protestants founded a Society who wanted to form their own republic. So, they organised a revolt that was foiled. To prevent other rebellion, Pitt allowed Irish representatives to sit at Westminster. In 1801 with the Act of Union it was constituted a new United Kingdom, formed by Britain and Ireland. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Economic change At the end of the 18th century, some changes would transform England from an agricultural to an industrialized nation. This change started from the Black Death. At first, open fields were enclosed into smaller portion to make space for more efficient farms. Then the soil was drained and made more fertile. Then animals were bred to produce more meat. But the real beginning of the Industrial Revolution started with the consumption of machine-made goods. Cotton was the leading sector of industrialization. Technological innovation In the 18th century there were some changes like the invention of a steam engine, which made pumping water out of coal mines possible; also, it was patented a steam engine that was more powerful and wasted less fuel than its less predecessors. The workers’ life Industrial cities lacked elementary public services. Women and children were highly prized by employers because they could be paid less and were easier to control. Children could also move easily in mines or crawl between the machines in cotton industry to carry out repairs. There were long working hours: 65-70 a week. Food prices rose, diet and health deteriorated with an increase in the mortality rate. A NEW SENSIBILITY Towards subjective poetry In the second half of the 18th century a new sensibility emerged. A new generation of poets established new trends. The later poets tended to use subjective and autobiographical material moving towards the expression of a lyrical and personal experience of life. They were less intellectual than Augustan poets and more intimately emotional. Many factors produced this change, for example the noisy activity of the industrial town was compared negatively with the serenity of the countryside. A new concept of nature There was also a revolution in the concept of nature. The classical view of nature as an abstract concept (a set of divine laws and principles established by God, which man could control thanks to the faculty of reason) was replaced by the view of nature as a real and living being. The sublime The distinction between the beautiful and the sublime became a main theme of the 18 th century. Sublime is whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger. Terror and pain are considered the strongest emotions and there’s a pleasure beside these feelings; whatever provoked these emptions could be defined as “sublime). THE GOTHIC NOVEL New interests in fiction In the second half of the 18th century there was an increasing interest in individual consciousness revealed itself in fiction. It was marked by a taste for the strange and the mysterious, and by an impulse for freedom and escape from the ugly world. This kind of novel is called “Gothic novel”. The adjective “Gothic” was first applied to architecture long before it connoted literature. The writer Horace Walpole was the first to establish a link between the two. Features of the Gothic novel Gothic novels wanted to arouse fear in the reader. The setting was influenced by the concept of the sublime, and it includes ancient settings, like isolated castles. The most important events take place at night because darkness can easily create an atmosphere of mystery. The Gothic hero is usually isolated, and the heroine is persecuted by a villain, who is the embodiment of evil. The plots are often complicated by embedded narratives and supernatural beings like monsters, which increase the suspense and mystery. The first novel of this kind is “The Castle of Otranto”. DRACULA Origins Bram Stoker took the name Dracula from a book that talks about Vlad the Impaler in the 15 th century. Dracula in Wallachian language means Devil. Plot Dracula can be divided into four parts: - The first is when Jonathan Harker goes to Dracula’s castle; - The second is when Dracula travels to England; - The third is when some characters join together to fight Dracula; - The fourth is when we have de destruction of Dracula within his castle. Themes There are lots of themes, but we surely remember: - The double, because Dr. Frankenstein and the monster are two aspect of the same being; - The usurpation of the female role, since it’s impossible create a human being without women; - Social prejudices, through the figure of the monster as an outcast. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Life and works William Wordsworth was born in Cumberland in the English Lake District in 1770. In 1791 he graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge and fell in love with Annette Vallon, who bore hum a daughter. The brutal developments of the Revolution and the declaration of war between England and France in 1793 brought him to the edge of a nervous breakdown. In 1795 he moved to Dorset with his sister who always supported him. In the same year he wrote with a friend a collection of poems called “ Lyrical Ballads”, which appeared anonymously in 1789. He also wrote a series of five poems between 1798 and 1801, called “Lucy poems”. In 1805 he wrote his masterpiece “The Prelude”, an autobiographical poem in 14 books, which was published only after his death. In 1843 he was made Poet Laureate. He died in 1850. The Manifesto of English Romanticism For Wordsworth poetry was a solitary act, originating in the ordinary. He delt with man, nature and everyday things, trying to make then interesting for the reader. Wordsworth’s aim to the 18 th-century poetry was its elevated language, which he called “poetic diction”. He explained that the subject matter should deal with everyday situation and the language should be simple. The relationship between man and nature Wordsworth believed that man and nature are inseparable. He saw nature as something that includes both inanimate and human nature: each is a part of the same hole. Nature is a source of pleasure and joy; it comforts man in sorrow and teaches him how to love and to act in a moral way. The importance of the senses and memory For Wordsworth nature was also a world of sense perceptions and he used especially the sensibility of the eye and ear. Memory is a major force in the process of growth of the poet’s mind and moral character, and its memory allows Wordsworth to give poetry its life and power. The poet’s tasks and style The poet has a great sensibility and an ability to see into the heart of things. His tasks consist in drawing attention to the ordinary things of life, to the humblest people. He almost always uses blank verse, through he proved skillful at several verse forms such as sonnets. JANE AUSTEN Austen and the novel of manners She is regarded as the master of the novel of manners; she learned insight into the psychology of the characters and the subtitles of the ordinary events of life. She derived the omniscient narrator and the technique of bringing the character into existence through dialogue. Her style was also characterized by the use of irony. She restricted her view to the world of the country gentry. Austen’s analysis of character Austen had no place for great passions: her real concern was with people, and the analysis of character and conduct. Her work deals with matters of love, marriage and parenthood. The happy ending is a common element to her novels. Her treatment of love is in line with her general view (strong emotions should be controlled and brought to order by private reflection to fulfil a social obligation. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Plot and setting The plot is that of a romantic comedy because it deals with the fortunes of young lovers. It is set in Longbourn, a small country village where Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters. A rich man, Bingley, falls in love with Jane and Darcy begins to feel attracted to Elizabeth, but she rejects him. Darcy writes her a letter about Wickham, who elopes with Lydia. Bingley comes back and becomes engaged to Jane, so the novel ends with the happy marriages of the two couples. Characters The main characters are Elizabeth and Darcy. Darcy is self-centred and unsociable, while Elizabeth has a lively mind. She has a strong spirit of independence. They both show an imperfect understanding of themselves and each other. She accuses him of pride, while he accuses her of prejudice. Some of the minor characters are caricatures, others are flat or objects of ridicule. Themes The novel involves the main characters in a journey towards self-knowledge. Other themes are love, marriage, status and wealth, property (marriage is presented in terms of independence). Style It comes alive in the vividness of the characters and the bightness of dialogue. She uses third-person narration. The epistolary technique is used more frequently in the later chapters. Irony is used as a technique in relation to the characters.