Scarica Victorian Age, Dickens, Stevenson e Wilde e più Dispense in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! VICTORIAN AGE CONTEXT During Victorian age there was a communion of interests between writers and readers. One reason was the growth of the middle class into the society who was an avid consumer of literature. In fact, the novels became the most popular form of entertainment. A lot of novels were written by woman however it wasn’t so easy to publish so they’re usually used a male name. The main representative novelist of this period is Charles Dickens. GOAL The novelists had a social and moral responsibility: denounce the evils of their society making the public aware of it. WHAT’S THE DEFINITION OF VICTORIAN AGE? The Victorian age was the era of progress, stability and social reforms but it was also characterized by injustices, poverty and social unrest. VICTORIAN VALUES Victorian age promoted some values based on personal duty, hard work, charity and respectability that distinguished the middle from the lower classes. MEAN OF RESPECTABILITY: 1. Ownership of a comfortable house with servants and carriages. 2. Charity activities 3. Possession of good manners 4. Regular attendance at church BOURGEOIS IDEALS: 1.Family was a patriarchal unit 2.The man was the authority 3.Women had the key role regarded the education of children and the managing the house. WHO WAS NOT ACCEPTED IN THIS CONTEXT? “Fallen women”, adulterers, prostitutes or unmarried women were condemned and emarginated. Sexuality was generally repressed in all its form. CHARLES DICKENS’S LIFE After the success of the Pickwick papers Dickens started his career as novelist creating very complex works such as: “Oliver Twist”, “Nicholas Nickleby” or “American Notes”. The protagonists of his autobiographical novels became the symbols of an exploited childhood confronted with the realities of slums and factories. STEVENSON, THE VICTORIAN HYPOCRISY AND THE “DOUBLE” Stevenson captured the “mood of change” and the dichotomy between evil and good in his novel “The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where the double is a recurrent theme. He created a symbolic relation between them. In fact, the protagonist is a man divided into two personalities: a respectable man (Jekyll) and an evil genius (Hyde). Once Hyde is released from hiding he achieves domination over the Jekyll aspect. So, the protagonist has only two choices: living in crime and depravity or the suicide. Jekyll’s suicide is the final and only choice. THE DUALITY OF HUMAN NATURE “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is an examination of the duality of the human, expressed in the revelation that Mr. Hyde is the
