THE AGE OF REASON (1648 – 1728).
“…a unique fusion of ingenuity with traditionalism, of decamp with realism, of stoic coolness with sentimentalism, of simplicity with rococo ornamentation. It preserves the restoration love of simplification in life, thought & love. It endorses the Restoration confidence in common sense as contrasted to logic-chopping; it trusts empirical thinking rather than “high prior” road to metaphysical something, it sustains the Restoration skepticism, as far as the application of finite reason to problems of the infinite is concerned. The ideas of the later 17th century confine in the 18th”.
Every age has its favorite genre: for Renaissance it’s drama & the 18th century was represented by Novel. The novel as a genre belongs to fiction. The novel appeared at the turn of the 18th century it manifested the change in man’s interest. Nothing that preceded it could explain it. There are no classical models of it. The only book that may be considered as a novel is Servantes’s “Don Quixote”, but still there is no evidence that it influenced English authors.
The novel is a genre that deals with the past, present & future. The novelist must deal with men in a specific place & time. The novelist is very much conscious of time. A talented novelist can distinguish its difference from other times. Still the Shakespearian drama had a great influence upon the novel, as Shakespeare & his contemporaries were able to create life-like characters.
Every novel should be populated with characters, who serve as pivots. The novel & the plot evolve around a character. The novel imitates life & at the same time it may be regarded as a model of life.
If in the theatre the public takes part in the performance, in the novel the character is the bridge between the invented episodes & the experience of the reader (We have the author’s ability to sum up the experience & we have reader, who compares his own experience with the experience of the characters).
The novelist is able to depict any relationships of life: man-man, man-society, man-nature, man-sign etc. Only novel can afford it, because of its unlimited size. The novel may be regarded as a unity consisting of every word in it (every word on its right place) – this makes fiction credible. The novel imposes its own moral code.
Features of novel:
ü The novel is fiction
ü It evolves around a character
ü The character is a pivot
ü The action is presented against a background
ü The novel presents all sorts of relationships
ü The novel possesses an aesthetic function: it relates not facts as such, it expresses the attitude of a writer & has some emotional impact on the reader
ü The plot is a model of life
ü The character is a bridge between the writer & the reader
Daniel Defoe (1661 – 1731)
He was born in a family of a butcher 7 naturally had a surname Foe. At the age of 60 he added De to his name. Born in London he tried his hands on all sorts of things until he became a journalist. He engaged himself in pamphlet writing. He was a man of extraordinary industry 7 wrote a lot of books (375).
Defoe relies upon facts. It’s not the situation that’s life-like, but the facts that make it so. When Defoe wrote the 1st part of “Robinson Crusoe” – “The life & surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe”, he was 59. There was hardly any device for creating illusion of reality that Defoe did not employ. His characters themselves narrate their story & Defoe gets under the skin of his fictitious narrators. He keeps himself out of sight & this is apparent artlessness which becomes in the long run artfulness. He makes reader believe our imagination is captured by the constant nibbling.
In “Robinson Crusoe’ Defoe has an excellent subject, which may have come out as a box of tools. Defoe is curiously multileveled. It may be treated as a historical-philosophical level.
Crusoe is naked humanity grappling with its daily needs. All the problems he is confronted by are urgent & at the same time Crusoe is mostly a prototype of Englishman increasingly prominent, during the 18th a man from lower classes whose tunes was connected with strong sense of personal responsibility. Man of this kind made the industrial revolution possible. He’s self-reliant, energetic, a person who is in direct relation with God made ion his own image.
A symbol of humanity
This is a type of an Englishman from lower classes who had his own vision of life & sense of responsibility.
When Crusoe comes to an inhabited island those things like these would happen to a man like this. Defoe’s little lies has conditioned us to accept his bigger lie. We believe it because it’s a prose.
28 years 2 months & 19 days – Defoe captures time in the net of calendar.
The stress is not on the island, but on the man himself. It’s the 1st time we have a fictitious character. It’s Crusoe who fills the picture, he, who’s complete, a man dominating the nature. Crusoe relied upon his own ability to change the circumstances.
Crusoe was a very religious man. He can be described as God’s Englishman, as he believes, that God helps those who help themselves. The sense of partnership of God & man never leaves Crusoe. By describing his adventures Defoe did more. Now Crusoe’s island symbolizes the earth & Crusoe symbolizes humanity. Defoe had limitations. Being a stiry of adventures “Crusoe” is utterly automatic. These limitations turn into advantages, because any picturesque situation can make the story incredible. It remains one of the great romantic stories in the world.
“Robinson Crusoe” does not possess features of a novel. It’s the first sample of fiction in English literature. Defoe wrote some more books that were more like novels (Moll Flenders).
It’s “Robinson Crusoe” that is considered to be the book that influenced the works of many writers not only of the epoch, but of the century to come. It influenced a great deal the works of Jonathan Swift.
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745)
He wrote a lot of books. The main ones are “Battle of the books”, “Tale of a Tub”, “Gulliver travels”, “Modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden for their parents & country” etc.
Swift inherited from Defoe: to make his books credible Swift gives us true-to-life details, but if Defoe uses enumeration, Swift resorts to comparison as the main means for creating his images. Sometimes he compared things & events, belonging to the same class, sometimes he used analogy for comparing things from different classes, and very often he used contrast. He developed Defoe’s devices that were meant to create perfect credibility. At the same time his book “Gulliver’s travels” was as much popular among children as Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”. This is even more surprising because reading this book one finds out that this is the most savage satire on human race.
The life of Jonathan Swift was very unhappy. He was born several months after his father’s death. He graduated from the university with little credit & then compensated this by years of studies. His attitude to humanity was formed by the bitterness of his own expectations. It was his critical mind & the developing feeling of hatred for the humanity being an animal. His early books (“Battle of the books”, “Tale of a Tub”) describe humanity not at its very best.
“…what is Man himself but a38 Micro-Coat, or rather a compleat Suit of Cloaths with all its Trimmings? As to his Body, there can be no dispute; but examine even the Acquirements of his Mind, you will find them all contribute in their Order, towards furnishing out an exact Dress: To instance no more; Is not Religion a Cloak, Honesty a Pair of Shoes, worn out in the Dirt, Self-love a Surtout, Vanity a Shirt…” (“The Tale of tub”)
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my Acquaintance in London; that a young healthy Child, well nursed, is, at a Year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome Food; whether Stewed, Roasted, Baked, or Boiled; and, I make no doubt, that it will equally serve in a Fricasie, or Ragoust.” (“Modest Proposal”)
“Gulliver Travels”
“Travels into several remote Nations of the World. By Lemuel Gulliver” appeared when Swift was already middle-aged & then he became famous almost immediately. “Gulliver’s Travels” speaks of 4 journeys made by the main character. It describes Gulliver’s voyages to exotic countries. He made use of the fact that his country-men were very much interested in traveling. His intention was t to pack his ideals & satire into a case made of stories about different countries. That’s why his books are very much popular among children & his country-men swallowed up the most bitter & biting satire on the political, moral & social drawbacks. Swift commented on life & compared these exotic countries to the life that people led in England.
The 1st voyage is the voyage to the country of Lilliput. These people are very small & live in the world where practically everything is 12 times smaller than in real life (the exact proposition is observed; comparisons make the book life-like). After a shipwreck Gulliver reached the shore of a strange country & remained senseless. He was captured & spent several months among his captors. This very fact serves Swift to create the satire on his own country. The small size of the lilliputes gives Swift an opportunity to show the pettiness of their desires & by this contrast he manages to criticize all the political sides of life in GB. It’s court of George I, Vigues & Tories & the religious controversy of England. The High-heel are Tories, the Low-heels are Vigues. The Big-Endians & the Little-Endians are Protestants & Baptists.
“He is taller by almost the Breadth of my Nail, than any of his Court; which alone is enough to strike an Awe into the Beholders. His Features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian Lip, and arched Nose, his Complexion olive, his Countenance erect, his Body and Limbs well proportioned, all his Motions graceful, and his Deportment majestick.”
In the 2nd part (The voyage to Brobdingnag) the device that Swift uses is quite opposite in direction but similar in function. This is his voyage to the country of giants, who are 12 times bigger than a human being. Gulliver is taken to the court as an insect – he learns the language – tells the emperor about his country – the Emperor wonders now such insects can be so blood-thirsty. This proportion enables Swift to show how ferocious human beings are & this gives Swift an opportunity to criticize the wars & the intention of Britain to conquer the world.
Swift uses these two books to accumulate necessary details.
The 3rd voyage is the voyage to Laputa – a flying island. The inhabitants of the island live on the taxes they impose on the population of towns that are below, because they had managed to install magnets & if people do not pay they can descend & crush the town.
The 4th voyage is the voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms. The name of a country was invented to resemble the neigh of a horse, because this is the land of clever horses. Here Swift’s fancy runs ride.
Swift wanted to prove that clever horses were wise, honest, truthful, because they did not have pockets. They couldn’t pile up problems. They had no sense of money. They knew nothing about property. It did not guide their lives & they did not depend upon it. But there were the other creatures in the country – Yahoo. They were human beings without reason. All of a sudden Gulliver, a human being, comes to the country. Horses cannot accept Gulliver because he very much reminds them of yahoos, & yahoos cannot accept him because he looks too civilized. Gulliver’s superiority in reason is recognized by the clever horses & all of a sudden it causes much embarrassment. The horses cannot understand how a human being makes use of a reason. Horses did not know anything about cunning & wickedness. This enables Swift to explain everything in the tale.
The device of presenting the human as they would have been presented to a naïve & ignorant listener must be regarded as one of the most effective stylistic descriptions. This is the way Swift wants to emphasize what he wants to bring to the reader. This brings a pre-planned result.
We’re obliged to consider yahoos in a new light. They are more primitive, dirty, & filthy, but they are not human beings with their complex diseases, moral as well as physical. Swift describes the behavior of yahoos. Yahoo is a mirror, in which human nature must see itself. Horses lack emotions – they do not know what live is. They feel no sorrow at the death of their relatives, they marry according to the wishes of their parents, and they can not make their life exciting even if they try to. They have all the reason & the yahoos have all the life.
Swift argues through images, gives images to prove who is right & who is wrong. This device was absolutely new. He uses & arranges facts like Defoe, but invents proportion, comparison, uses images, not words as arguments.
Swift’s book is a multi-leveled investigation of life & its wisdom lies in the fact that reading of it acquires experience of literary criticism though at the same time it’s read & praised by common people; and Swift himself inevitably takes on the status of a tragic hero. He is big to the imagination; a kind of Promethean defiance is forever revealing itself in his attitudes.
Samuel Richardson (1689 – 1761)
He preserved the same factual approach to literature as Defoe did. Some scholars consider his name must follow Defoe, because his novels came to possess some characteristic features of the genre Swift’s stories lack.
He was a book-seller & did not come to novel-writing until he was 50. There was new reading public composed chiefly of women, belonging to middle-classes. Richardson featured it. He also captured the most famous theme of this time: Russo spoke of him as of Homer of 18th century. We take into consideration his 3 novels: “Pamela”, “Clarissa Harlow”, Sir Charles Grandison”. All the novels are written in the same manner & not only the manner, the atmosphere & the method were the same. The 3 novels were told in letters & the letters were of such immense length that the writer had to scribble them day & night in order to produce them at all. Never were the letters longer than they were in Richardson’s stories. The stories themselves were thin & slight, particularly if we compare them to the time it tries to tell them. One can’t read Richardson for the story but for the sentiment, which is the key.
Not a tear or a sight was overlooked. He gave a record of characters, emotions & the way they were expressed & the circumstances under which they were experienced. At that time Richardson was the only who could liberally share his emotions with the others. This explains Richardson’s manner of writing. You have to spend a week reading a day’s experience of his character. The preparation for wedding takes 70 volumes. Richardson put a human heart under the microscope. His sentiment was their sentiment.
Richardson spent more time among women than among men. He wanted to give his audience what they wanted. His “Sir Charles Grandison” is a spinster’s idea of a fine gentleman & Lovelace is the idea of a wicked man. Richardson shaped his characters accordingly. His strength as a story-teller lies not in the plot but in the steady movement of his story. It captures you & you can’t get rid of it.
He was more popular in his time than any of his contemporary writers. But all of a sudden he lost his popularity. There were many reasons for that – Richardson demanded much leisure time. Now we realize that what he thought to be fine morality ran false with the readers.
The main character of his 1st novel “Pamela” was a servant girl, who after the death of her mistress was persecuted by her young master. Pamela used many tricks to escape from him. She did it successfully & at last he married her. Analyzing her behavior we understand that she is not that innocent as she pretended to be. Richardson writes that Pamela was kid & tolerant.
“She is a broad, squat, pursy, fat thing, quite ugly if anything human can be so called: about 40 years old….”
Clarissa Harlow is even a more sentimental novel. The intrigues against Clarissa are so pervasive that she can’t escape like Pamela. She becomes a victim of Lovelace & finally she dies. The public asked Richardson save Clarissa’s life but he refused.
“Sir Charles Grandison” – Richardson’s 3rd & weakest novel, was not very popular with the public.
The atmosphere that Richardson showed was an atmosphere of a hot house. Literature could not develop under such circumstances & needed a man who could smash two men in a hot house.
Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754)
His works:
“The adventures of Joseph Andrews” (1741)
“Tom Jones, a foundling” (1749)
“Amelia” (1751)
“History of the life of the late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great”
It was Fielding who created a whole panorama of contemporary life. People belonging to different societies show how these societies come to operate. It was Fielding who was used by W. M. Thackeray as a sample.
Fielding has written a few different comedies that were of no success. Then the success of “Pamela” tempted Fielding to parody it – “Joseph Andrews” (a story of a virtuous footman, who equally resisted an attempt of his mistress to seduce him). It was only in the beginning of a comedy that Fielding tries to parody. Then he built another novel “Tom Jones” that was far more elaborated. Then he was old enough to compose his 3rd novel.
“Joseph Andrews” is full of criticism & humor. It produces an impression of a light breeze. And in it he gives us an opportunity to regard even the saddest scenes with a grain of optimism.
“Tom Jones, a foundling”
This is on e of the best books in the history of literature & all of a sudden we find out that the intention of Fielding was very much from his intention, when he started writing “Joseph Andrews”. Tom Jones is not presented as such a virtuous character as Joseph – he’s more credible. Tom & his beloved Sophia have many problems to overcome. Tom is an intelligent person & this tells on the development of the story. Tom wanted to marry Sophia & the fact that she is above him on the society ladder does not trouble him. What really troubles him is that he is not able to say “no” to a lady. Fielding believes in personal qualities 7 he believes that they are far more important than social standing.
Tom is tempted & fails to resist it. But he is so much sincere that he keeps to his only love Sophia & tries hard to win her love. If you’re influenced by passions they cam cause collapse in a good person, and if you are sincere & honest you will achieve whatever is good & honest.
Ton Jones is reared by Mr. Allworthy, a gentleman of high moral standards, who loves Tom & tries to preserve his attitude whatever Tom does. A nephew of Mr. Allworthy is a hypocrite. He always tells on Tom & tries to poison Mr. Allworthy’s heart against Tom. Finally he manages to do it & Tom is sent away. We find him traveling through the roads of England trying to search London. Sophia learns about it & sets along the road in order to catch up with Tom. Both Sophia & Tom are up against a lot of misfortunes but they are brave enough to overcome them. Finally they get married.
It is not the plot that matters. We’re given Fielding’s attitude to life & the structure of the novel itself helps us to realize what Fielding really wanted to say.
The first chapters illustrate Fielding’s attitude to life. He was a master of composition & his book was perfectly planned. “Tom Jones” can be regarded as a picture of manners that characterizes people of all times.
ROMANTICISM
The word “romance” meant originally the literature written in this language. The adjective “romantic” first appeared in English in the 17th century as a word to describe fabulous, extravagant, fictitious & unreal. Gradually the term “romanticism” was applied to designate the birth of literature depending on instinct & emotion. The romantic literature came to oppose the rational literature of the 18th century.
The literature of romanticism is very much diverse in all European countries. There it was characterized by features that weren’t represented in other countries. In every country it had its peculiar features. We can say that even in borders of one country the manifestation of romanticism is not the same. In England romanticism had no rigid program & we can’t speak of a simple school. Usually romantic writers are divided into 3 groups. This subdivision depended upon the vision of this or that writer. Some of them connected their hopes & desires with the future development of humanity. Some relied upon the past & the heroes of the past 0 served the subject matter for their writing. Others relied upon the human instincts of the human being & disregarded the outer world as being unworthy & corrupted.
The Romanist is a person who is amorous of the far (he’s not satisfied with the present); he is not satisfied with reality & this shadow-show called reality. They certainly saw details as points of departure & still they went to the marvelous, unreal, and remote. They all were against this vegetable reality. They relied upon the imagination as the only release of spirit. The attempt to find correspondence between actuality & desires results in joy.
A romantic writer is very sensitive trying to find some manifestations of his desires in the outer world. He usually realizes every single change that may be suggestive. He’s much sensitive to change it. This constant practicing makes people, who employ romanticism as an outlet for their feelings, profit.
The scale is very wide from fantasy to disillusionment. Looking for perfection romantic writers come to understand it’s unattainable. This brings misanthropy & the desire to escape from the actuality into the innermost castle of their spirit. So they concentrate upon a special wind of experience – the inner experience of human being, which is based upon the workings of spirit.
A rational writer is a member of an organized society – a romanticist is a rebellion against this society, because they have regulations & this can be regarded by the romanticist as limitations. Being mystical romanticists invent demonic characters: if it’s a woman – it’s femme fatale. The typical romanticist is a dreamer; a great significance is attached to symbolism. Romanticists give types, not characters; their works are full of symbolism; there are lots of overtones; dreary associations prevail. Romanticist tries to get away from the world, relies more upon his own associations than on logic; polysemy of words & structures.
William Blake (1757 – 1827)
One of the major romantic poets, whose verse & outwork became a part of a wider movement we call romanticism. W. Blake was an artist, an engraver& a poet. He was one of the most prominent writers in English culture.
His writing combines a variety of style. He’s an artist, a lyric poet a mystic, a visionary & his works had an inspiration on many poets of & bewildered readers ever since. For the 19th century reader he imposed one question. Blake could be difficult at times. His vision is very much different from the vision of an ordinary person. His works are multilevel. His desire was to create a philosophical system. His works range from deceptively simple & lyrical style of “Songs of innocence” & “Songs of experience” to the most sophisticated in “The Marriage of Heaven & Hell” & “The Book of Urizen”.
“Tiger
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered Heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
It describes the terror & beauty of one of God’s creations. Who can create such a fearful creation? Who possesses fierce strength? The gentleness of the lamb & the fierceness of the tiger are reconciled by God. The illustration of the biblical fact that the lamb 7 the lion will live peacefully.
First we see these evil eyes of the tiger that burn in the nigh. They are fury & can’t be tamed. Then comes the idea of some elaborative work that has been done to create such a creature & the insistence of Blake questioning “What for? Why?” This makes us think that God could not do this. The theme is seemingly commonplace & simple, but it focuses on a deep & sharp psychological content. It’s an endless philosophical discussion. The tiger symbolizes the qualities of the human being. The author contrasts gentleness & aggressiveness of our spirit.
We come to the level of passions we can speak of this verse as representing roth passions& fears. It’s the idea of being vulnerable & at the same time unbending (ability to forgive & forget). We associate tiger & lamb with our potential feelings & attitudes that are stimulated by the language of the poem.
The poem though seems simple on the surface becomes more complex when viewed on different levels. It would be bad mistake to ignore.
Blake’s short poems are much better than his long books. His poems rely upon the reader’s response, their bitter communication. They rely upon the human experience & for the most part it’s the inner experience of the human being. Blake is wrestling with the moral & psychological problems of people. They are regarded as symbols. The main problem Blake tries to solve is the problem of tyranny – of God, of the father of the family, of time, of society etc.
Robert Burns (1754 – 1796)
Robert Burns is quite a difficult poet for discussion. The attitude to him is very different (if we mean critics). The idea that he was peasant poet endowed with genius is partially true. He was quite an educated man, knew French was not good at Latin. He is shown by artists as a true representative of soil, some other artists show him as a gentleman poet.
“Holy Fair”
“Twa Dogs”
“Twa Herds”
“holu Willie’s Prayer”
“Address to the Deil”
“Death of Doctor Hornbook”
“The Jolly Beggars”
“To a Mountain Daisy”
“To a Louse”
“Is there for Honest Poverty”
“The Vision”
“Tam O’Shanter”
Burns is a romanticist but his romanticism is different from that of Blake, whose romanticism is philosophical. Burns may be considered as a contrast to Blake’s vision of life. His romanticism has a real world for a background, the world of everyday life. Burns understanding of democracy is very much different & was influenced by some historical events.
Magna Carta (1215)
The great charter of England signed by king John under pressure of barons & the archbishop of Canterbury. As a statement of law the charter was chiefly intended to guarantee feudal rights against royal abuse & maintain baronial privileges. By demanding reforms in local government and insisting on the freedom of the church & the rights of the merchants, it did provide safeguards for other sections of community besides the baronage.
Declaration of Independence (1775)
“We told these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these rights are life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness.”
These 2 documents are no righter documents of democracy than verses of Burns. Being a peasant Burns understood the democratic doctrine – everybody & everything has a right to exist. The idea of mice & men is Burns’ idea, it’s an idea that people should bear it in mind that the world of animals & plants is as important as their own.
“To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November, 1785.
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!”
Burns was a true poet & voiced a wide range of human experience. He wrote verses about things that are close to poor people. He was a poet of the working humanity. He grew up in a rural district speaking a dialect unintelligible at all. He made this dialect world-famous. He has given the literary expression & form to the most cherished feelings & tastes of all people. His poetry came into being at a time when the ballad was killed. The poetic genre of Scotland took a long sleep until it woke up once more in the works of Burns.
“To a Louse, On Seeing one on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
Ha! whare ye gaun, ye crowlan ferlie!
Your impudence protects you sairly:
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gawze and lace;
Tho' faith, I fear ye dine but sparely,
On sic a place.
Ye ugly, creepan, blastet wonner,
Detested, shunn'd, by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her,
Sae fine a Lady!
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner,
On some poor body.”
Here Burns shows us a lady. She goes to the church not to pray but rather to show her new hat. But she is still unaware. Burns expresses his comparison with a louse because it had worked its way to the top of the hat but there is nothing to eat there
Burns imagination runs riot. He says that there’s no single louse, because the whole population of lice torture humanity.
“Swith, in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whare horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle,
Your thick plantations…
… O Jenny dinna toss your head,
An' set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin!
Thae winks and finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin!”
Then Burns becomes philosophical & comes to the all embracing conclusion.
“O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!”
The verse itself is a satire different from the satire of other poets. It’s irony, not sarcasm that Burns relies upon. This small verse gives us an opportunity to understand Burns’ methods; from small detail to generalization & philosophical conclusion.
Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
“Hours of idleness” (1807)
“English bards & scotch reviewers” (1808)
“Child Harold’s pilgrimage” (Cantos 1-2) (1812)
“The bridge of Abydos” (1813)
“Corsair” “Lara” (1814)
“Child Harold’s pilgrimage” (Cantos 3-4) (1815)
“Manfred” (1816)
“Beppo” (1818)
“Don Juan” (1823)
“Heaven & Earth” (1821)
The perceptible limits of a literary period coincide so close with the political events & Romantic Movement. At the beginning of his career Byron was a romantic poet, in the end – realistic poet.
Most romantic poets were acutely aware of their environment & their best works came out on their desire to come to turn their environment. Historically the beginning of this period is the time of colonist rebellion in North America, their achievement of independence. The American Revolution was a stimulus for those who were oppressed by the existing order & the regulations imposed on people by society. The fall of Bastille was a stimulus & a symbol of progress & these achievements of freedom-loving forces were considered by romanticists as the fairest gift that showed that there was a way to get rid of opposition. But in England this process was very soon ruined by the reaction of the ruling classes to the aspiration of most of the population.
One should remember that social development in the past decades of the 18th century decisively insured the emergence of Britain as a new type of industrial town which reached maturity. The storm of the French revolution frightened the ruling class.
The beginning of the 18th century was the time when new ideas & reforms came to England. They were caused by several events. By that time capitalism reached maturity & was a solid adversary. The defeat of French revolution was taken by the reaction forces as a stimulus to distinguish new thoughts.
Byron’s life was very much influenced by those circumstances. The proud personality whom the 18th century gave the exaggerated opinions of powers of human minds inevitably clashed the reaction & being defeated & convinced of his inability to win became anguished & disappointed. His own grief was aggravated by his certain personal misfortunes that told on his life & work. His childhood was very unhappy. His father married not for love, but for money. He died when Byron was only 3 years old. His mother was left a widow with an income a little more than 100 ponds per year. She was passionately fond of her son but capricious & violent in temper. Byron loved her but could not respect. He was handsome in features but clubfoot. He was painfully sensitive of this defect. To 1798 he went to Harrow (a famous school) & there he made his first essays in verse. In 1805 he went to Cambridge & 2 years later he published his first collection of verses “Hours of Idleness”. None of those poems are of great merit, but they may be regarded as a promise of future excellence. An insulting notice of poems appeared in “Edinburg review”. Byron responded in a no less insulting article “English bands & Scotch reviewers”. Immediately after the publication Byron set up on his travels & went to the East – went to Lisbon – visited the battlefields of Spain – Malta – Greece – Constantinople. The experience Byron acquired gave him an opportunity to write his first two cantos of “Child Harold’s pilgrimage”. This book was entirely different from his publications. It showed that now there was a poet no one could compete with in talent & poetic imagination. The first two cantos gave birth to a new type of character – Byron’s character.
These two cantos describe a man who was dissatisfied with the world & the society, bored by the life of aristocracy, who sank in misanthropy. The book was written in a Spenserian stanza (consisting of 9 lines, 5-foot iambic lines, followed by the iambic line of 6 feet, the rhyming scheme is abab bcbcc).
The splendid descriptions contained in “Child Harold” opposed the identity between the hero & the poet. The first two cantos of “Child Harold” are followed by “Giqour”, “The bridge of Abydos”, “Corsair” “Lara”. Russian poets were influenced by the spirit of the poems.
Byron invented a new type of character – a very cynical, proud man, with defiance on his brow & misery in his heart, despising his fellow-creatures, implacable of revenge, yet capable of strong & deep affection in love. Child Harold of the first two cantos & Byron’s character are transpositions of one & the same character. He tries to find some atmosphere in catastrophes he is worn out by repentance. He is unable to carry the burden of existence he can’t give love to. He wants to do good, but at the same time he is misanthropic to an extreme, he is dissatisfied with himself, falls into pessimism. The character suffers a lot because of his insufficiency & extreme individualism. At the same time the poems are poetically so beautiful, that you can’t refrain from reading them though sometimes you disagree with Byron’s attitude to humanity.
After an unfortunate marriage Byron decided to leave England. This was his reaction to the attitude of the society that could not tame the poet. He decides to make his life miserable by slender – society turned fiercely against him & did everything to discredit him.
He went to Brussels – to Switzerland & there he wrote his famous drama “Manfred” (the best of all his dramas). There are lots of effective descriptions there. Manfred is a person who is stranger than any human being, closer to God than human beings & most unfortunate, because he does not know where to apply his extraordinary strength & godlike abilities.
“MAN.
She was like me in lineaments - her eyes -
Her hair - her features - all, to the very tone
Even of her voice, they said were like to mine;
But softened all, and tempered into beauty;
She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings,
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind
To comprehend the Universe: nor these
Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine,
Pity, and smiles, and tears - which I had not;
And tenderness - but that I had for her;
Humility - and that I never had.
Her faults were mine - her virtues were her own -
I loved her, and destroyed her!
WITCH.
With thy hand?
MAN.
Not with my hand, but heart, which broke her heart;
It gazed on mine, and withered.”
This was the end of Byron’s being romanticist, which led him to realism.
“Don Juan” is the last great work of Byron (1818). The poem was begun when he left Italy for Greece. The poem records 6 major adventures of his hero. It opens with the description of his childhood & his early love affair with Donna Julia – a married friend of his mother. The love affair was discovered & this discovery led to Don Juan’s being sent away from the country. The first half on canto 2 contains the account of the shipwreck & Don Juan’s sufferings in an open boat. The beginning of the novel shows that Byron has changed his method, that the character is much different from the previous ones. Byron shows that he became the realistic writer & the sign that makes us be convinced of it is that we know a lot about the character’s background.
We know nothing about the past of Byron’s romantic characters. With Don Juan things become different – we know much about his childhood, we’re given much information about his parents & the society he grew up in.
From the first 2 cantos we can see that Byron pays much attention to the realistic details. Describing shipwreck & the character’s wanderings in an open boat, Byron shows us that one & the same thing may be treated s taken of passionate love & the instrument of cannibalism.
The third adventure involves Haidee – the daughter of a Greek pirate. Haidee finds Don Juan unconscious on the shore – she becomes his lover – her father’s unexpected return – Don Juan is seized & sent into slavery. In Constantinople Don Juan has courage to resist the advances of the sultan’s favorite wife. Byron describes his solitude from the 4th canto till the end of the 6th canto.
In “Don Juan” Byron reveals many topics^ love, fame, politics etc. he voices quite explicitly his ironic but finally compassionate sense of human comedy.
The intention of the novel is to represent like in “Canterbury tales”, “Don Quixote”, “Tom Jones” the human comedy, that changes with the time but in reality remains the same. In this respect Byron employs traveling, adventure to give us a model of different situations & these different parts are united by the main character, who serves like a pivot around which the whole world evolves. But Don Juan is a special type of character – he is the center of the plot, but excites practically no interest on his account. Our attention slips poet Don Juan. We are interested in the people he meets & the settings in which he meets them. In this we come realize that Byron gives us an opportunity to attach importance even to secondary characters.
Byron’s tone differs sharply when he deals with different characters, tries to represent their speech. This quality makes the novel sound dramatic. We have a lot of conversation. In some parts of the novel Byron himself comes to the proscenium & addresses to the public. But even in the time when his characters speak he tries to realize his dramatic method, he brings himself in. He is ever-present – he doesn’t pretend to remove himself from the stage. As a commentator he is rather witty. In “Don Juan” he sentimentalizes occasionally.
Normally his fundamental comparison shows itself through high-spirited mockery which is typical of him.
He may use some literary digressions, but soon returns to his habitual tone – irony & mockery – which becomes keen when in the last 6 cantos he is admitted to British polite society.
“ In the Great World, - which being interpreted
Meaneth the West or worst end of a city,
And about twice two thousand people bred
By no means to be very wise or witty,
But to sit up while others lie in bed,
And look down on the universe with pity, -
Juan, as an inveterate Patrician,
Was well received by persons of condition..”
He employs all sorts of devices:
- alliteration (West, worst, World)
- puns (west – worst)
He gives us a picture which is very vivid, but at the same time it’s open, unveiled satire.
“But Juan was a bachelor - of arts,
And parts, and hearts: he danced and sung, and had
An air as sentimental as Mozart's
Softest of melodies; and could be sad
Or cheerful, without any 'flaws or starts,'
Just at the proper time; and though a lad,
Had seen the world - which is a curious sight,
And very much unlike what people write.”
“Don Juan” was never completed. Within a year poet’s life was ended. Byron was an arrogant lover of liberty, fought in the revolutionary Italy. As many great poets Byron predicted his fate & death.
“”Don Juan” is … misanthropical to the bitterest savageness, tender to the most exquisite delicacy of sweet feelings” – Goethe.
“Neither “Child Harold” nor any of the most beautiful Byron’s earliest tales, contain more exquisite poetry, than is to be found scattered through the cantos of “Don Juan” amidst verses, which the author appears to have thrown off with an effort as spontaneous as that of a tree resigning its leaves to the wind.” – Walter Scott
REALISM
Charles Dickens
“Sketches by Bog” (1833 – 1836)
“The Posthumous Papers of Pickwick club” (1837)
“Oliver Twist” “Nickolas Nickleby” (1838)
“The Old Curiosity shop” (1840 – 1841)
“Barnaby Rudge” (1840 – 1841)
“Martin Chuzzlewit” (1843 – 1844)
“Christmas Carol” (1844)
“Dombey & Son” (1848)
“David Copperfield” (1849)
“Bleak House” “Hard Times” (1851)
“Little Dorrit” (1855)
“A Tale of Two Cities” (1857)
“Great Expectations” (1860)
“Our Mutual Friend” (1864)
“The Mystery of Edwin Drood”
His father was a clerk at Portsmouth Dockyard. When Charles was 2 years old, they moved to London & when he was 9 the year of mystery began for him. He related this experience in “David Copperfield”, for his Mr. Micowber seems to be Dickens’s own father. His father after struggling in vain with money difficulties was carried away to prison telling the broken-hearted boy that the sun set upon him forever. The boy was sent to work at the blocking factory. He felt forlorn. But brighter days were coming. His father was released from prison & Charles soon after was sent to school to study for an attorney clerk. A bit later he became a reporter, first in the Law Courts, then in the gallery of House of Commons. His first essay in fiction was an accusing sketch “Mr. Minns & his cousin” (1833). Other sketches followed in some magazines. These sketches are collected in 2 volumes called “Sketches by boy”.
Dickens created very realistic people but they are never down to earth, they are concrete & individual at the same time being types, generalizations. Every type represents an attitude, a quality or a feeling. This quality becomes prominent against the background of innocence & sincerity.
Some critics say that Dickens’s world is full of caricatures but this is misunderstanding. It’s an advantage because you can project a type on any human character. If character is unaware that he is matched he is sure to show one of Dickens’s generalizations. Some critics say that Dickens’s novel is of episodic nature & it’s partially true, because when he developed his craft & his ability he gave us tightly plot all of a piece. His novels are vast improvisations.
Pickwick Club
At first sight the book represents separate episodes within the line, friends, their innocence & their ability to enjoy life, their desire to explore it. We can say that the background for these episodes is a solid basis for a great novel, great description of contemporary life in England.
The character of Sam Willer & his comments have an opportunity to unite the episodes into one whole.
After “Pickwick Papers” Dickens gradually heightened & elaborated his construction & went to work more deliberately with greater effort. His technique improved, the force of his natural genius weakened. His later stories are better than earlier but they are not better Dickens. His early stories are sometimes filled with melodrama. Nevertheless the fire of his genius burns more brightly in them.
“Little Dorrit” is a far better piece of work. Looking at it as a specimen of a writer’s craft we can say that it’s better 7 more mature than his “Martin Chuzzlewit”, which may seem a vast improvisation. But there are so many passages in it that only Dickens could have written. One period of Dickens’s life when craftsman is awake & alert the original inspiration has not weakened & this gave us “David Copperfield”.
David Copperfield
Dickens’s biography presupposes his attitude to the events & characters he described. When we speak about “David Copperfield” we should remember his phrase: “I seem to descend some part of myself into than shadowy world.” Dickens was in all his books when he was writing them. He sat in his study speaking his characters’ speeches when he has written them.
In 1869 (the year before he died) Dickens wrote that Copperfield was still his favorite child. His contemporaries suppose “David Copperfield’ to be his disguised biography. It was his first novel written in the first person singular.
David is a novelist, who started his carrier as a political reporter. If you analyze the novel & its title you’ll see that the initials are the same but reversed. Now when it’s more known about Dickens’s life it’s quite clear that he changed the facts a great deal.
Plot
The day David is born his own eccentric aunt B. Trotwood enforces a way of disapproval, because the baby is not a girl. David was raised by his young mother, who became a widow before he was born. Then Mr. Murdstone begins to court Mrs. Copperfield. David comes back after his visit of Peggoty family – Mr. Murdstone & his mother become married – not long after Mr. Murdstone’s sister Tane moves in – hard times are coming (Murdstones intimidate David’s mother & terrorize David to obedience – David bites Mr. Murdstone’s hand – David is sent to a school where he feels miserable – there he makes 2 friends Tom, James – all the students whom David idealizes…etc.
The characters whom Dickens describes never change, never develop & we come to meet characters time & again & they are all the same & they’re credible. Sometimes they (as B. Trotwood) change their views, sometimes their fates are unpredictable (as the fate of Steerforce), but these are rare cases.
David
Many people assume that he is self-portrait of Dickens. Their personalities are similar but David is not Dickens. David is a portrait of a typical young gentleman of early Victorian age. To analyze the character one should analyze the time, the atmosphere he breathes. David has a good secondary education but no university degree. He holds some liberal beliefs. He is a supporter of establishment. He does not question the social inventions. When his friend Emily is judged to be ruined because of an affair, he does not believe it & treats Emily as he ever did. He is convinced that it’s important to work hard. He succeeds in his carrier, believes in God. He places a high value on a domestic harmony & thinks that woman’s place is at home. David is good but he has his drawbacks.
The noel has several plots & in some cases David is an observer. The hero of David’s type is a person who deserves the credit for his success & happiness. He does not feel himself as a hero. The protagonist is the hero who is in the focus of all the scenes in the book.
Betty Trotwood
Some critics say that Dickens could not write a credible personage of a woman (they’re the same & there is a pattern according to which Dickens wrote his stories). Aunt Trotwood is quite believable. And from her appearance in 1st chapter she is one of the strangest Dickens’s characters. After David instinctively flees to her cottage in spite of all stories he heard about her. When we come to analyze her inner qualities we see her as a soft & kind person. Aunt Betsy may first seem as a modern feminist, protesting against male-dominating system, appraising only of girl-babies & teaching her girl-servants to give up men. But her servant girls are often married. She comes to love David far more than if he were born a girl. She is not going to substitute David’s mother: she does not have that affectionate nature. She seems awkward taking care of a little boy. But she becomes like a second father for David. She protects their home, she shields David physically against Murdstones, she arranges David’s schooling, she changes her will making David her heir.
Mr. & Mrs. Micawber
They are totally iresponsible & lovable. Mr. Micawber losses his job, his debts pile up, the family keeps growing, but they have a genuine respect for each other. In spite of their troubles they are cheerfully optimistic. They are very honest, affectionate, ready to help, descent. They are not caricatures as many people believe. They show psychological growth. They are not very much realistic, but still very much credible.
Oriagh Heep
Eh is a hypocrite. He relies upon being humble is a panacea from all the illnesses. He understands that human nature is not perfect & when a person is humble people feel superior & they come to pay more attention to him when her deserves. He is cunning & clever in his own way, persistent in achieving his aim. Here Dickens gives us a person study of hypocrisy. Oriagh has wet plans you come to know.
Themes
The theme of makings of a writer:It’s the lessons the would-be writer warns. As many novels “D.C.” shows the characters grow up. The lessons David has are important for his profession. This concerns all the stages of his development. David plays a special accent on the diligence & discipline. He registers his life episodes as a writer should – drawing conclusions. He suffers a bit.
The theme of marriages: the book presents a spectrum of marriages. David learns that romantic live & domestic happiness do not come in the same package.
The Theme of discipline
The theme of parents & children: Practically no one in the book has a complete family – there are orphans, children with single parent…etc. Family life is a tragedy for children here. May be this very thing makes children understand the value of kindness. They are very responsive to good impulse.
Tone
Dickens is unsurpassable. He has a wide range of tones. He may be ironical, indignant, melodramatic, and sentimental. Dickens supplies the nostalgic attitude. He is not very much sentimental, but he is soft.
Point of view
It’s dominated by the main character, but it’s not whole of it. When we speak about point of view, we should speak about Dickens’s attitude to writing drama. He often simply lets the dramatic, but as if it were on the stage. Then we come to Dickens as an actor. We come to understand that by the time he started “D.C.” he became aware of the fact that any writer should enact his book.
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 1863)
“The Paris Sketch Book” (1840)
“Fitz-Bood’s confessions & professions” “Irish Sketch Book” (1843)
“Memoirs of Barry Lyndon” (1844)
“Snob papers’ (1846)
“Vanity Fair” (1848)
“Pendennis” (1850)
“The History of Henry Esmond” (1852)
“The Newcomers” (1854)
“The Virginians” (1857)
Thackeray’s success as a novelist was inseparable from his explorations of certain effect of England’s expanding economy. He is not the first novelist of his age to fix the way in which the middle class translated superior animal cunning & luck speculation into success confirmed by religion.
Thackeray’s legacy is divided into 2 parts – before “Vanity Fair” & after it. It was a fashion to compare Dickens & Thackeray. These two authors belong not only to the English literature, but to the literature of the world, because they both added a lot to the development of human comedy that is the world literature. It’s natural to consider Thackeray as rash & wild, but in fact he was neither – he was very vulnerable & it was impossible for him to realize how to deal with evil. In fact he could not think away evil; he could not even grapple with it; but he was hurt by evil & started his creative life by reporting evil to people. The words of the preacher characterize his attitude to world & people & he repeated them as “vanity of vanities”. It was this rare case when the comedy got different name & it was addressed to not. He called it “Vanity Fair” trying to show the essence of it.
Thackeray portrays the world he knows best. The evil of self-interest, of parasitism, of snobbery released in him a detached ferocity. In the world as portrayed by Thackeray there is no place for intelligent will & performance. Individuals appear to be swept up & carried along. The cunning & the unprincipled winning of the weak are helpless & they get no sympathy from Thackeray because they are always affectual.
Thackeray’s preparation for “Vanity Fair”, his undoubted success was “Book of snobs” (1846). A snob – is a person who greatly respects social status & wealth & who looks down on people of a lower class. “I have (and for this gift I congratulate myself with a Deep and Abiding Thankfulness) an eye for a Snob. If the Truthful is the Beautiful, it is Beautiful to study even the Snobbish; to track Snobs through history, as certain little dogs in Hampshire hunt out truffles; to sink shafts in society and come upon rich veins of Snob-ore. Snobbishness is like Death in a quotation from Horace, which I hope you never have heard, »beating with equal foot at poor men's doors, and kicking at the gates of Emperors.« It is a great mistake to judge of Snobs lightly, and think they exist among the lower classes merely.”
“Vanity Fair” is the best creation of Thackeray. Its subtitle is “A novel without a hero”. There Thackeray gives us a panorama of English life & he shows us the world as it really is evolving around all sorts of hunting – money, husband, fame etc. the novel has a multitude of characters & these characters are haunted by a strong desire to prosper & all these characters try very hard to find a place where it would be easier to use the others. It’s like a puppet-shoe & Thackeray himself seems to be a puppet-master. Thackeray is above; his hands are full of strings & all sorts of people go round & round & he manipulates them. The pole is Becky Sharp – an embodiment of Thackeray’s major strategy for total organization of “Vanity Fair”. He uses Becky as a pivotal figure & for his minor strategy too. This is the opposition of 2 fates – the fate of Becky Sharp & Amelia Sedley
Becky is very credible. About matter how critics try to praise or run down Thackeray, these people always accept this fact. Becky enables Thackeray to show the whole society in motion, because his whole society gravitates around her. Characters gain their vitality from Becky. Thackeray creates Becky cumulatively. She begins with her departure with Amelia from Pinkerton’s school & Thackeray shows in dramatic particularity from the very beginning that Becky goes on challenging people.
Thackeray takes us step by step through the graded challenges of Jos Sedley, sir Pitt Rawdon & Styne, through the challenges of George Osborne. The challenges of Crawley family promote Becky’s social extension.
Thackeray gives us balance in Becky. Thackeray uses all sorts of technical recourses to show that Becky does what she wants to because she likes it. He gives her an elbow room in surveying & planning the energy in the social game that is played. She is not an exaggerated figure. All the others seem to be exaggerated as they deal with Becky. Becky begins with nothing & this gives her an opportunity to try her hand on practically everything. She has good humor in defeat. She possesses practically no ill-humor; she does not expose any savage intensity, meanness in her self-interest. Becky is at her best when she miscalculates, but she is able to laugh at disastrous miscalculation.
Thackeray has almost affection for his Becky puppet. He shows no hatred for Becky. Her sins are terrible: she is incapable of affection & love, loyalty is alien to her; but Thackeray does not make Becky suffer deeply. On the other hand his characters suffer for the most part: he visits Mr. Osborne with the death of his own son; he pursues all Sedley in his wife through the ruined, broken & merciless beggary; in the end he reduces sir Pitt to a hopeless maniacal infant. Every character but Becky is given his or her due.
Thackeray achieves in good measure the very intention of “Vanity Fair”. He makes Amelia & Dobbin ineffectual creatures. For him Amelia is a silly thing who would cry over a dead canary or a mouse & all of a sudden we come to realize that Thackeray gave Amelia certain selfishness. She possesses selfishness of a deeply-rooted parasite vine. She uses Dobbin, who is absolutely helpless & ineffectual. All of a sudden we come to realize that she uses his passive helplessness as a weapon. But she is coward; she is stupid to organize anything more affectual.
Thackeray “combines a wide band of comic vision of the social scene with a few moments of drama; he lights up half a hundred characters for us & keeps them all in motion; he bathes everything in this atmosphere & never sacrifices the effect of ordinary reality; he can always keep time ticking, flowing on, unlike most novelists, who must either get inside altogether or can only move it forward, in big jerks…” (J. B. Priestley)
Thackeray owes a lot to Fielding. It’s the same strategy to make the novel move around one character, the same strategy to address the reader directly, coming to the proscenium & talking to the reader, giving us a human comedy in a chaotic movement, making the characters create situations that are as versatile as life itself. But what is good humor. Fielding is bitter satire in Thackeray. Bothe writers are absolutely realistic & make the reader believe & more over participate in every episode & situation.
Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
“Departmental Ditties” (1886)
“Plain Tales from the Hills” (1888)
“Soldiers Three” (1888)
“Barrack-Room Ballade” (1893)
“Seven Seas” (1896)
“The Light that Failed” (1891)
“Many Inventions” (1896)
“Jungle Books” (1894; 1896)
“Just so Stories” (1902)
“Debits & Credits” (1926)
“The Five Nations” (1903)
“Actions & Reactions” (1909)
“Captains Courageous” (1897)
Romanticism as such finds its ways in the minds of people & in the trends that somehow come into being in literature. We can speak here of periodic reoccurrences in literary history. Reoccurrences of Romanticism: the most important one occurred about 1800 in continental Europe (Blake, Burns, Byron etc.). A revival of this movement began at the turn of the 20th century. It formed a part of a literary reaction against realism & naturalism in particular. The authors that participated in this movement shared an interest in the exotic & unusual as opposed to prosaic & ordinary (J. Galsworthy, S. Maugham vs. near Romantic Movement R. Kipling).
Kipling was attracted by the unusual & exotic, heroic & superhuman. At the same time he was down to earth. He was an advocate of an ordinary soldier.