The Victorian Age: history, Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte and their works, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica The Victorian Age: history, Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte and their works e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! English The Victorian age HISTORY THE VICTORIAN AGE (1837-1901) The Victorian Age was marked by complexity: it was a time of unprecedented change but also of great contradictions, often referred to as the ‘Victorian compromise’. It was an age in which progress, reforms and political stability coexisted with poverty and injustice. At the end of the Industrial Revolution, Victoria came to the throne, being the Queen of the most powerful nation in the world and with the longest kingdom before Elizabeth II; from her this period take its name. The economy of the manufacturing industry and international trade took the place of the old agricultural economy. It was a period of great imperial expansions and political development. Since the social class was dangerous and she was scared they would have started a revolution, a series of reforms and progressive polices were established. By the 1850s, the nation was constituted by town dwellers: people were attracted to cities (mainly London, Liverpool, Manchester) because of the promise of the work as factory workers. Of course the upper and middle classes found themselves in a good position thanks to the expansion of the industry, meanwhile the poor were in less favourable circumstances, living in overcrowded slums, with poor igiene conditions that led to deadly diseases like cholera and tuberculosis. There was a high risk of epidemics, even for the wealthy classes, so the government promoted a campaign to clean up towns devoted by epidemics, and built modern hospitals. REFORMS She ruled constitutionally, in contrast with the other European monarchs. Social classes wanted reforms, especially one about the right to vote (not to all, but mainly men). Initially both Tories and Whigs were fearful about this. The 1830s had seen the beginning of what was to be called an “age of reform”. 1. The First Reform Act (1832), also called the Great Reform Act had transferred voting privileges from the small boroughs, controlled by the nobility and the gentry, to the large industrial towns. These factors gave rise to the Chartist Movement, whose goal was to gain political rights for the working classes. They took their name from its formal petition, the People’s Charter (points: votes for all men over 21, the secret ballot, annual elections). It was rejected 3 times, in 1848 it ends. 2. The Factory Act (1833) had prevented children aged 9 to 13 from being employed more than forty- eight hours a week. 3. The Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) had reformed the old Poor Laws, dating from Elizabeth I, with the creation of workhouses (Charles Dickens was an opponent of this law, because it was inhuman, he wrote about it in Oliver Twist). 4. The Corn Laws (1815-1846), maintained the price of corn in Britain at an unrealistically high level by taxing imported corn. They were seen as a symbol of aristocracy’s feudal power over the poor. So the Anti-Corn Law League was created (mainly Whigs) and Robert feel, a Tory prime minister repealed the law because of the potato famine (caused by bad weather and unknown plant disease), during which a lot of people died and many emigrated, mostly to America, in search of a better life. THE WORKHOUSES Life in the workhouses was appalling on account of their system of regimentation, hard work and a monotonous diet. Prisons for the poor who had to wear uniforms and their families were split. This apparent hard line was due in part to an optimistic faith in progress and to the Puritan virtues of hard work, frugality and duty. The idea behind the workhouses was that awareness of such a dreadful life would inspire the poor to try to improve their own conditions. As much as they wanted to be more independent, they had no possibilities. Workhouses were mainly run by the Church. Poor had to do unpleasant jobs such as picking oakum or breaking stones. THE EMPIRE 1 English The Victorian age Britain’s empire was expanded all over the world, due to the need to protect trade routes to and from India, the “Jewel in the Crown” of the empire. In 1877 Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India. So, Britain annexed many territories like South Africa, Egypt (they built the Suez Canal), Afghanistan and so on. Political instability led to wars in these territories. THE LATE VICTORIAN PERIOD She still remained an important figure even though the political panorama was changing with the regrouping of the parties. The Liberal Party, as it was called from the 1860s, included the former Whigs, some Radicals and a large minority of businessmen; the party was led by William Gladstone (1809-98). The Conservative Party, which had evolved from the Tories in the 1830s, reaffirmed its position under the leadership of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81). They both advocated a policy of gradual incorporation of the working classes through reforms, to avoid the same rebellions as the ones in foreign countries. They supposed the: 1. Elementary Education Act (1870), all children had the right to a basic education. Boys and girls were separated. The teaching methods were mechanical and based on learning by memory and repetition. Later in 1944 there will be a new Education Act that recognised education as a universal right and extended the age of compulsory schooling. 2. Trade Union Act (1871), legalisation of trade unions. These led to the formation of an Independent Labour Party in 1893. A TIME OF NEW IDEAS This was the age in which modern democracy, feminism, the unionisation of workers, socialism, Marxism and the other modern movements took form. National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and then Woman’s Social and Political Union (known as the Suffragettes), fought for the right to vote. The shift of more progressive and Liberal politicians was assisted by the London Fabian Society. THE UNITED STATES During the 19th century, the United States began to grow into the rich and powerful nation it is today. Cities and railroads were constructed. There was great innovation in productive technology, which saw the invention of the refrigeration and the factory assembly line, solutions to how to increase productivity and profits while reducing costs. SLAVERY AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (1861) Later than in Europe, the abolition of slavery took place in America. The movement to abolish it was stronger in the northern states, led by Frederick Douglass. Northern abolitionists, who included writers, intellectuals and religious associations, began to organise themselves into a political movement. In 1860 the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) won the presidential election. Soon after, 11 southern States seceded and formed the Confederate States of America, under the presidency of Jefferson Davis (1808-89). War followed because Lincoln, supported by a majority of northerners, refused to concede that any American State had the constitutional right to withdraw from the Union. The Civil War broke out in 1861 and lasted four years, ending in 1865, with he victory of the Union over the Confederacy. Five days later, President Lincoln was assassinated by a southern fanatic. The Civil War determined what kind of nation the United States would be: an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government, and it ended the institution of slavery. THE AMERICAN DREAM While the economy of the South had collapsed during the war, the northern factories had increased their output to supply military needs. The country’s natural resources, including coal, copper, iron and oil, were fully exploited. Big fortunes were made, and financial empires were created by men who rose from nothing. They embodied a new version of the “American dream”: the myth of the self-made man who went from “rags to riches”. The other side of the coin was that the majority of workers were exploited 2 English The Victorian age the students at his school. In accordance with her father, Louisa marries Josiah Bounderby, who is 30 years older than her, because her brother Tom works at Bounderby’s firm. Louisa is unhappy with her marriage and is distracted by a politician who arrives at Coketown, James Harthouse. In the meantime, Tom robs his employer and tries to blame an honest and innocent man. When Harthouse tries to seduce her, Louisa goes to her father for protection and Gradgrind understands that in reality, his rational world with no feelings is limited. At the end, Louisa and Harthouse get separated and Tom is discovered and has to leave the country. CHARLOTTE BRONTE LIFE Charlotte Bronte comes from one of the most famous families in British literary history. Born in 1816, Charlotte Bronte was the third child of a Protestant clergyman. The four children started writing fiction and poetry as teenagers. In 1846, the poetry of the three girls was published under pseudonyms. Charlotte’s pseudonym was ‘Currer Bell’. JANE EYRE -The novel is given an autobiographical feel through the use of the first-person narrator, so we can see things from Jane’s point of view. -Her life description is highly influences by feelings and emotional responses. -She mixes the elements of he Bildungsroman with several conventions of Gothic fiction, like the disquieting atmosphere of some settings and off mysterious events. - Jane’s character is conditioned by her childhood experiences. - Jane and Bertha represent a double-figure. Bertha as “the mad woman in the attic” can be seen as the repressed side of Jane. She embodied the mad women in history literature who didn’t have the opportunity to tell their stories. Bertha and Jane are complementary figures (Jane looks in a mirror and see Bertha). PLOT Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a book about an orphan who endures a harsh childhood, Jane Eyre becomes governess at Thornfield Hall in the employment of the mysterious Mr. Rochester. Jane’s moral pilgrimage and the maturity of Charlotte Bronte’s characterization are celebrated aspects of the novel, as is its imagery and narrative power. Rapidly reprinted following its first publication in 1847, Jane Eyre still enjoys huge popularity as one of the finest novels in the English language. Poor and plain, Jane Eyre begins life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression she endures at home, and the later torture of boarding school, Jane manages to emerge with her spirit and integrity unbroken. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she finds herself falling in love with her employer—the dark, impassioned Mr. Rochester. But an explosive secret tears apart their relationship, forcing Jane to face poverty and isolation once again. One of the world’s most beloved novels, Jane Eyre is a startlingly modern blend of passion, romance, mystery, and suspense. EMILY BRONTE LIFE English novelist and poet who produced but one novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), a highly imaginative work of passion and hate set on the Yorkshire moors. Emily was perhaps the greatest of the three Brontë sisters, but the record of her life is extremely meagre, for she was silent and reserved and left no correspondence of interest, and her single novel darkens rather than solves the mystery of her spiritual existence. WUTHERING HEIGHTS Elements of the Gothic fiction are treated in a more essential and lessa artificial way. It seems to have arisen from the untamed elements of the nature. The setting is as important as the characters: the two houses represents the 5 English The Victorian age Romantic world of destructive passion and the neo-Classical world of civility, order and repression. We find certain influences of William Blake, in particular the idea of divine energy and the unity of contraries. The novel has a multi-level narrative structure. It has two main narrator: Lockwood and an internal narrator. PLOT Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before. What unfolds is the tale of the intense love between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff’s bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past. Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father. After Mr Earnshaw’s death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine’s brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature. 6