Important Dates:
1830: 7 years before Victoria cam to the throne. Why? The Industrial Revolution and the expansion that it caused
1832: First Reform Bill
1837: Victoria becomes queen (18 years old)
1846: Corn Laws repealed
1850: Tennyson succeeds Wordsworth as Poet Laureate
1851: Great Exhibition, London
1859: Darwin’s Origin of the Species
1870-71: Franco-Prussian War
1901: Victoria dies (longest lived monarch)
Expansion and Industrialization:
• Industrialization of England – England got the industrial revolution first in Europe because of the French Revolution and shipping to get the products back and forth across oceans. They were growing so fast, it caused all kinds of problems. The infrastructure, child labor, and crime were just three of the problems.
• Status of London – London became the center of European power more than ¼ of the world was controlled by the British Empire (the Victorian Empire).
• Economic advance – Victorian Empire acquired enormous wealth
• Territorial Expansionism
In Victoria’s lifetime:
• London grows from 2 million to 6.5 million
• Fast trains and ships; mechanized looms, mechanized printing presses; combines; telegraph; intercontinental cable; photography; anesthetics; universal education; vacuum cleaner – great time of invention and change
Effects on the Victorian mindset: sense of excitement, sense of loss (the “Victorian Paradox” – we are on top of the world coupled with the sense of loss)
• Ethnocentrism – we’re on top of the world and nobody can mess with us – writer’s acted against this
• Exciting, but felt loss of traditional rhythms and patterns of loss – (along with grief) strain of sadness and melancholy that things will never the same again romantic longing for the past this caused disorientation
• Emphasis on practicality and industry creates a sense of dullness and boredom – particularly regarding faith, Darwin, and the discovery of dinosaur bones – gave a sense of nothing to believe in - all about money – empty and soulless
Early Victorian Period (1830-48): “Time of Troubles”
Period of loud cries for reform – Carlyle, Disraeli, Tennyson, all decried violence, anger, and social injustice
1830: 1st railway open to the public – (beginning of the Victorian Period) expansion – easy transportation, people could move to cities, made the workforce grown – pretty ugly, nasty times – Dickens had an ugly view of London because of this – crime rates, sewage, smog, slums, misery, child labor, before universal education, only few prospered, no safety regulations – you had to own land to vote
1832: Reform Bill – you owned material property or land you could vote – you only needed 10 pounds of property to vote
• “Growing Pains”: problems associated with growth near revolution
• “The Hungry 40’s”: famine and potato blight – Potato famine – Irish poor – most moved to the U.S.
Disaster / revolution averted: 1846: Corn Laws abolished – Corn Laws: putting tariff on imported grains, poor people in London started starving because they lived off of potato flour
Mid-Victorian Period (1848-70): “Age of Improvement”
1. Economic Prosperity
• Solid comfortableness, contentment, pride in England, strong moral values
• Confidence in ability to fix problems: optimism, complacency
o Effects of free trade
o Effects of Factory Acts – regulating factories’ safety – hours worked – child labor
• Great pride in technical progress: Great Exhibition of 1851 – Queen Victoria and husband throws invention exhibition in their symbol of pride, The Crystal Palace
2. Growing Religious controversy: Utilitarianism vs. Philosophical Conservation
• Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham – boring writing – practical is the way to go: wants to ban religion – everything should be put to the test of reason: does something enhance the happiness of the highest number of people, if not, then ban it
• Philosophical conservationism: Coleridge
Two types of philosophical conservatives:
• Wants to get rid of traditional religion but retain belief (Carlyle) – Coleridge
• Wants to strengthen traditional religion (Tractarianism) – Victorians are going to hell in a hand basket – responsible for strict, moral, prudish behavior (especially sexuality)
3. Science Intensifies the Religious Debates:
• 1859: Darwin’s (devout Catholic) Origin of the Species (sense of isolation from God and other people)
• “Higher criticism” – intellectual movement began in Germany – they said let’s study the Bible as if it were any text and not be biased by the fact that it was a religious document
• Geology / astronomy – estimates of the age of the earth / discovery of dinosaur bones
Summary: mid-Victorian period is a time of great prosperity, but everything people have always known (social systems, government systems, economic systems, religious systems) are being challenged. Serious religious and philosophical problems result. Extreme religious reactionary prudishness
The Late Victorian Period (1870-1901): Decay of Victorian Values
Glow of contentment continues, but cracks begin to show: England’s still #1
• “The Irish Question: – problems with Ireland (Oscar Wilde)
• Bismarck’s Germany – dominance in the ocean is threatened
• America’s recovery from Civil War
• 1873-4: major economic depression: mass immigrations from Britain
• Growth of labor as political / economic force – trade unions established, brings salaries up and profits down
Result: increasing cynicism, criticism of traditional mid-Victorian values – mid-Victorians were a bunch of idiots – Oscar Wilde
1890’s: Bridge between Victorian and Modern periods
1. “The Gay 90’s”: Prince Edward’s influence
2. Fin du siecle melancholy, despair, endless seeking for new pleasures: “The Aesthetic Movement”
Characteristics of Victorianism
1. Earnestness or “eagerness;” “seriousness of purpose;” respectability – have a lot taken away from them
Lady of Shalott – Tennyson
The Harlot’s House – Oscar Wilde
• role of writer to reform to make society better both physically and morally
Cry of the Children – Elizabeth Browning – child labor
Porphyria’s Lover – Robert Browning – the treatment of women
Lady of Shalott – Tennyson – the treatment of women
• want to actually achieve, not just strive (a practical age) – because there is a lot of stuff to clean up because of the early industrial revolution
• Great concern with moral issues (role of women, religion, etc.)
• evangelical movement: strict morality / purity issues
TIES TO:
2. reactive against the romantics – romantics were mopers and dreamers, they admired the beauty because it lead to nowhere
Sonnets from the Portuguese #43 – Elizabeth Browning – I love you level headedly
Lady of Shalott – Tennyson
Ulysses – Tennyson – how noble is the romantic quest
Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold – nature cannot save us
Harlot’s House – Oscar Wilde
• strongly influenced by Romantics, but see the romantics as a doomed quest
• move gradually away from excesses of Romantics; stricter, more disciplined poetry (forms)
• saw Romantics as mopers and dreamers; wanted to be productive
3. ethnocentric / patriotic / and reactions against it
Mother and Poet – Elizabeth Browning – against Britain’s politics
• result of political / military / industrial advances
4. Poetic experimentation in forms (use of the word I to third person in creating a persona) / themes / settings (foreign settings), etc. (glorification of myth, legends, etc.) TIES TO #7 (critique of how dull things are)
• boredom with “practical age”
• reaction against strictness of moral codes
• attempt to “wake people up” from complacency
Sonnets from the Portuguese #43 – Elizabeth Browning – reviving sonnets
Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood – Christina Rossetti
The Lady of Shalott – Tennyson
Robert Browning – Porphyria’s Lover, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister – (the idea of the unreliable narrator and dramatic monologue: all new techniques, settings)
5. religious / moral questioning / doubts – strain on religious belief
• desire for stability in a fast-changing world
• new scientific discoveries challenge old beliefs
Sonnets from the Portuguese #43 – Elizabeth Browning – questioning faith
Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold -
Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti
God’s Grandeur – Gerard Manley – don’t question faith
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister – Robert Browning – even the most faithful are sinful
6. focus on practical / social issues (see #1 & #2)
Cry of the Children – Elizabeth Browning – child labor
Mother and Poet – Elizabeth Browning – the treatment of women
Robert Browning – Porphyria’s Lover (the treatment of women) & Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister (even those with power are not perfect; greed)
Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti – we live in a society that has everything, but we want more; greed –– Dead before Death – everybody was dead before they have a chance to live
Harlot’s House – Oscar Wilde – everybody was dead souls
7. Sense of loss, decay, collapse, dullness, etc.
• loss of “magic” of Romantic period
• result of extremely practical, task-oriented society
Pre-Raphaelites – Christina Rossetti – Goblin Market – the more people have, the more they want
The Lady of Shalott – Tennyson – treatment of women
Porphyria’s Lover – Robert Browning – way women are treated
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister – Robert Browning – religious instability
Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti – contrasted the sense of loss, decay, collapse, dullness – this poem was all about richness and greed
Dead before Death and Cobwebs – Christina Rossetti – reflected this by talking about how everyone was dead inside
8. “Victorian Paradox”: desire for new coupled with fear of change
Pre-Raphaelites – Dead before Death – Christina Rossetti – we are all dead inside
Harlot’s House – Oscar Wilde – we are all like puppets all controlled with the same mind; we are all dead souls
Cry of the Children – Elizabeth Browning – reform for child labor
The Lady of Shalott – Tennyson – the treatment of women
9. theme of humanity’s dominance over / destruction of nature
• loss of Romantic vision of nature – God – nature is no longer God – disconnect from nature
• result of intensive industrialization
Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold – nature has nothing to offer
God’s Grandeur – Gerard Manley – man cannot destroy nature because of God. He keeps it full of life
Harlot’s House – Oscar Wilde – last stanza (nature creeps in like a little girl; nature is afraid of the acts of men
10. theme of human isolation / desire for intimacy – turn to relationships to fix the dilemma (a lot of love and relationship poetry)
• result of massive societal / cultural changes and physical relocations people are really disoriented intimidating and frightening (Victorian Paradox)
• result of religious / social / philosophical loss of certainty
Sonnets from the Portuguese #43 – Elizabeth Browning – need to be with a man; need for love an intimacy
The Buried Life – Matthew Arnold – “Alas! Is even love to weak / To unlock the heart, and let it speak? / Are even lovers powerless to reveal / To one another what indeed they feel?” (Society rules how even lovers can speak to one another. I don’t want to play by society’s rules.)
Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold – “The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear / And naked shingles of the world.” (Many have lost their faith)
October 13, 2006
One of the themes of Victorian authors is taking shots at the Romantic authors
The three chunks of the Victorian Period are
1830-48 – early
1848-70 – mid
1870-1901 – late
England was the top empire
This is the time of the industrial revolution
Sense of massive change that people cannot keep up with
In Victoria’s Empire
London grows 4.5 million more people
Quality of life is pretty grim
Health problems – sewage
Education problems – make them work
Housing – slums
The Victorian Paradox
Coal dust was so thick that it fell like snow and piled up
Part of the reason that all of this was happening
People had to own land to vote – when they moved out of the rural areas to the cities, they gave up their land to move
100 people = 4 seats in Parliament so there were still 4 seats for 25 people
Mid-Victorian period – wealth & excess
Ironically – bizarre paradox – very sexually oppressed, but pornography and prostitution was very popular – prudish and uptight even at home
Extreme polarization between the liberal and conservative
Bentham – Utilitarianism – if something enhances the happiness of the highest number of people then do it
Willed his body to science
Publicly dissected
Was stuffed and still attends meetings at college he worked at
Coleridge – tell into 1st camp – wanted to get rid of traditional religion, but retain belief
October 18, 2006
Elizabeth Browning
“Cry of the Children” – she is saying listen to me about what is going on – let’s get some reforms in the factory – line 51 – “It is good…” it is better for the children to die because they haven’t been given the chance to live
90% of women writers had to use a pseudonym (could not publish under their own name)
Bronte sisters – under men’s names – Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights…etc. – women had few rights than 1000 years earlier – it was legal fro a man to beat his wife as long as the stick he beat her with was only as big around as his thumb (the rule of thumb) – Rossetti was able to publish under her own name because her brothers owned the literary magazine called the germ and they published her
Reason browning was able to publish under her own name is because she was 13 when she had her first poem published – she was a child prodigy – people were comfortable with her
“Sonnets from the Portuguese” are love letters to Robert browning / she lied to her father and told him that she was translating the Portuguese sonnets – hence the name
“Mother & Poet” – the woman has 2 jobs – she is a mother and a poet – she does as a woman is supposed to but she still lost both of her sons, because of that, she lost her ability to be a poetess. She will not write a song for patriotism
October 23, 2006
Tennyson – Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood wanted to bring back the exuberance and mysticism back to literature and art:
“The Lady of Shalott” fits into the Victorian women theme. She sees the world out her window (through the mirror) Sir Lancelaot comes by and she is sick of her life in the tower. She looked upon the “forbidden fruit.” She goes down and gets in the boat and she dies. (Dante Gabriel Rossetti made engraving of Lady of Shalott)
What does it mean? The women in the Victorian period are “trapped in a gilded cage.” She is trapped in her cage only to weave. Her enslavement in Victorian society. Mother and Poet keeps the rules and gets slammed; the lady of Shalott breaks the rules and gets slammed. She is memorialized by Lancelot and says she’s pretty, so God take pity on her soul.
OR
A parable against the Romantics – the deadliness of the infinite striving – 1st stanza the focus is on the real – once she made a quest for the ideal, it killed her. If you strive for the ideal it will kill you
“Ulysses” – man with mid-life crisis, he has been gone for 20 years. He gets back and after three years wants to leave once again – line 53 – we can still strive with Gods. His old goal was to get back to Ithaca. His new goal is to sail as far as he can until he dies. He wants to sail beyond the stars. Reaching the ideal would make you bored and miserable. He is happy until he gets to the goal and when he gets there he is bored. He wants to dump all on his child. How noble is the romantic quest? It is great for the romantic, but destroys the family of the romantic.
October 25, 2006
Robert Browning is buried in poet’s corner in Westminster’s Abbey next to Tennyson – These poems come from a collection called life in the asylum – the unreliable narrator. He creates a narrator in his poems that is not himself and in fact the opposite of himself. – Dramatic monologue is usually in plays. He started out as a play write so he took the dramatic monologue out of the theater and put it in his poems – Critiquing the most powerful society by shocking them and doing so from a distance. Trying to shock to create social change
“Porphyria’s Lover” starts out like romantic poetry with nature. He is misleading the reader – female expectations – submissive, sexual, eager to please, not irritated, trusting, beautiful – the first muscle he moves in this poem is to strangle her. Just from the list, she looks pretty good for Victorian times. He knows she loves him so he kills her to make the moment last forever. He nervously opens her eyes because he is afraid that loving gaze is gone. Neither character is active while the other is because in Victorian era women and men cannot be equal in society and Victorian society strangles the life out of women and props them up as trophies
Grotesque Diction
“Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” 2 monks – religious icon is cursing hating – brother Lawrence is boring and only talks about crops – one track mind – stanza 4 – brother Lawrence is lusting, but he does not let it show – stanza 5 – accusing him of gluttony and does not make a cross with silverware when he is done – Lawrence is not a good Christian – stanza 8 – he is going to slip porn into brother Lawrence’s basket
October 27, 2006
Matthew Arnold lived in his father’s shadow
“The Buried Life” – massive limestone cliffs; has always been a tourist spot; even British people tend to go for the natural beauty of it – he is talking to a person and not to nature – buried life is our true selves that we cannot show to anybody – 1st stanza – they are having a light conversation; talking on a surfacey level; joking around rather than being intimate. He is sad because of this, just hush and let me look into your soul – stanza 2 – he tries to have a deep conversation, but it did not work. We are afraid if we show our true selves we will be rejected – stanza 3 – do we have to be that way? We are lucky if we can do that for just one moment – stanza 4 – fate because it knew we would crew it up if we showed our true selves bade us to hide our true selves – stanza 5 – it is there and we want to know. People want to really explore themselves and find out who we really are, but we cannot dig deep enough to find our true selves because we do not know how. How do you let down our masks? We get frustrated because we get tire of this inward striving. So we go through the daily tasks so we don’t think about the deeper level, but every now and again the deeper levels seep out and depress us – stanza 7 – is there a cure for human isolation? Yes! How do we fix this? There is one way, desire for intimacy, one on one intimate companionship. That is the only way we can find the cure for this connecting on a deep level is the only way we can get there.
“Dover Beach” – stanza 1 – writing this on his honeymoon. He is standing at the window and looking out at the beautiful cliffs of Dover (closest point to France). He calls his wife over. He can see France. It is gorgeous, but he is sad – stanza 2 – he heard the same sadness brought on by the ocean. Sophocles (the ebb and flow of human misery). – Stanza 3 – sea of faith (religion). The religious controversy because we don’t know what to believe at all – stanza 4 – the solution is to be true to one another.
October 30, 2006
Christina Rossetti
“Goblin Market” fruit. If you see fruit it is probably Goblin Market. What does it mean? Fruit is addictive. The more you eat, the more you want. Sin and sensual desires, and temptation are like fruit, forbidden fruit. Possible sexual temptation, impure thoughts, fixated on sex. Rossetti is saying there are more things in life than sex, possibly greed, bounty, excess that comes along with wealth. We have all this money and all this power, but we want more and more. Anything that we covet instead of God. Not a time of moderation ( Victorian Period), but a time of excess and we are letting our priorities get out of whack. Rich, lush imagery, but sonnets are cold flat and bare. We have all this stuff but we are not yet satisfied.
“Dead before Death,” and “Cobwebs” – much knowing, little wise. We know a lot, but we don’t know the most important things. We are all dead inside. We are corpses, Zombies
Oscar Wilde was eccentric, good looking. He even has an art deco type of tomb. He too thought we were corpses. The only great Victoria that we will read. Thins are changing. Witty and clever. Spent his career making fun of the mid-Victorian period.
“Harlot’s House” – harlot sales something valuable for worldly goods. Skeleton’s dancing – dead souls – marionettes – puppets with the same mind. Temptation. Nature is afraid – no power in nature that we can control. Nature is not our salvation.
November 1, 2006
Gerard M. Hopkins – A lot of his poetry was written about places and things around Oxford. He is fascinated with nature. Hopkins’ poetry was not published until 1918 (28 years after his death). His poetry was willed to Robert Bridges. His philosophy was from an admired medieval writer named Duns Scotus (where we get the word dunce). Hopkins liked his idea of inscape (which is like landscape) every created thing has selfness. The most inscaped of all creation is humans because we can imagine ourselves with the inscape of something else. This process is called instress. It is to feel the selfness of another created thing. This is the highest form of worship to God. There is no iambic rhythm to his poetry. He gets away from rhythm. Worshipping by instressing to nature. The hurl and gliding – Why? Short circuiting the brain, he messes with the synoptic. He makes you feel it. Groans of emotion.
In the “Windhover” diving is more spectacular because it is more dangerous. Christ died on the cross. Hovering bird makes a cross shape. Coming down off of the cross and he’s being raised. Becomes dangerous to no believers – stanza 3 – just walking makes the earth shine. Dirt and fire if injured if cut become more beautiful worship to experience of Christ.
1 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Rural to urban societal shift
Social upheaval, loss of traditional life patterns
Reformist writings: E. Browning – “Cry of the Children;” R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister;” Tennyson – “The Lady of Shalott;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
2 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Rural to urban societal shift
Social upheaval, loss of traditional life patterns
Desire to find security (in human relations, honor, duty): Hopkins – (turning to God in a new way) “Windhover;” E. Browning – “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” “Mother and Poet;” R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover;” Tennyson – “Ulysses,” “The Lady of Shalott”
Rigid social / moral rules
Tractarians: strictness – didn’t read anything by them, but read plenty against them
Reaction against rigid morality: R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover”
3 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Rural to urban societal shift
Social upheaval, loss of traditional life patterns
Desire to find security by clinging to old beliefs
Rigid social / moral rules
Tractarians: strictness – didn’t read anything by them, but read plenty against them
Reaction against rigid morality: R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover”
4 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Intellectual upheaval, challenge to traditional beliefs
REACTIVE
Desire to find security by clinging to old beliefs
Rigid social / moral rules
Tractarians: strictness – didn’t read anything by them, but read plenty against them
Reaction against rigid morality: R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover”
5 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Intellectual upheaval, challenge to traditional beliefs
Desire to throw out old beliefs and re-examine them: Arnold – “Dover Beach”; Hopkins – “God’s Grandeur,” “The Windhover” (look at god in a new way – inscape, instress)
6 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Intellectual upheaval, challenge to traditional beliefs
Grief loss of faith: Arnold – “Dover Beach;” E. Browning – “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (lost saints); Rossetti – Cobwebs (loveless sea – sea of faith)
7 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Moral complacency
“pro-England” writings: Kippling; Tennyson – “Lady of Shalott;” “Charge of the Light Brigade”; AGAINST: Browning – “Mother and Poet”
8 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Moral complacency
Reformist writings: E. Browning – “Cry of the Children” (can-do practical spirit); R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister;” Tennyson – “The Lady of Shalott;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
9 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
“pro-England” writings: Kippling; Tennyson – “Lady of Shalott;” “Charge of the Light Brigade”; AGAINST: Browning – “Mother and Poet”
10 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Faith in ability to create positive change
Reformist writings: E. Browning – “Cry of the Children” (can-do practical spirit); R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister;” Tennyson – “The Lady of Shalott;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
11 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Faith in ability to create positive change
Emphasis on reason vs. imagination
Utilitarianism (Bentham)
Sense of dullness, loss of magic
Writings to reflect dullness: Rossetti – “Dead Before Death;” Wilde – “Harlot’s House;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
12 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
New scientific discoveries (Darwin, geology, astronomy, etc.)
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Faith in ability to create positive change
Emphasis on reason vs. imagination
Utilitarianism (Bentham)
Sense of dullness, loss of magic
Writings to contrast dullness (grotesque diction, sprung rhythm, exotic settings, etc.): Rossetti – “Goblin Market;” Hopkins – “God’s Grandeur,” “The Windhover;” R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover;” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”
13 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Expansionism / Colonialism
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Moral complacency
“pro-England” writings: Kippling; Tennyson – “Lady of Shalott;” “Charge of the Light Brigade”; AGAINST: Browning – “Mother and Poet”
14 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Expansionism / Colonialism
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Moral complacency
Reformist writings: E. Browning – “Cry of the Children” (can-do practical spirit); R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister;” Tennyson – “The Lady of Shalott;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
15 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Expansionism / Colonialism
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
“pro-England” writings: Kippling; Tennyson – “Lady of Shalott;” “Charge of the Light Brigade”; AGAINST: Browning – “Mother and Poet”
16 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Expansionism / Colonialism
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Faith in ability to create positive change
Reformist writings: E. Browning – “Cry of the Children” (can-do practical spirit); R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover,” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister;” Tennyson – “The Lady of Shalott;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
17 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Expansionism / Colonialism
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Faith in ability to create positive change
Emphasis on reason vs. imagination
Utilitarianism (Bentham)
Sense of dullness, loss of magic
Writings to reflect dullness: Rossetti – “Dead Before Death;” Wilde – “Harlot’s House;” Arnold – “The Buried Life”
18 Industrial Revolution Hits England First
GIVES
New inventions/technologies give England an economic advantage of going first
Expansionism / Colonialism
Wealth, excitement, “can-do” attitude, ethnocentrism, practicality: we can get things done
Faith in ability to create positive change
Emphasis on reason vs. imagination
Utilitarianism (Bentham)
Sense of dullness, loss of magic
Writings to contrast dullness (grotesque diction, sprung rhythm, exotic settings, etc.): Rossetti – “Goblin Market;” Hopkins – “God’s Grandeur,” “The Windhover;” R. Browning – “Porphyria’s Lover;” “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister”
No comments:
Post a Comment