山东师范大学-英国文学课堂课件(考研必备资料)Victorian Age

1、1,The Victorian Age(1832-1901),Historical Background Sub-divided into three periods The early period (1832-1848)was a time of troubles The mid-Victorian period (1848-1870)was a time of economic prosperity The third phase of the Victorian age witnessed the decline of the British empire and the decay

2、of Victorian values.,2,The Reform Bill of 1832选举法修正案 Not only re-apportioned representation in Parliament, making that body more accurately represent the citizens of the country, but also gave the power of voting to those lower , extending the right to vote to any man owning a household worth 10, ad

3、ding 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000. The Reform Act opened the way to further changes in the future of British politics ( the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884, as well as the Factory Acts and the Abolition of Slavery Act, both of which were soon to follow).,3,Industry and commerce developed

4、fast. The affluence of the middle class increased. The lower classes, thrown off their land and into the cities to form the great urban working class, lived ever more wretchedly. Development of science and technology The Chartist Movement (Chartism): a movement for social and political reform in the

5、 United Kingdom during the mid-19th century. It gains its name from the Peoples Charter of 1838, which set out the main aims of the movement.,4,Literary Current Novel: Victorian era was the age of the English novelrealistic, thickly plotted, crowded with characters. It was the ideal form to describe

6、 contemporary life and to entertain the middle class. Charles Dickens William Makepeace Thackeray George Eliot The Bronte sisters Poetry Alfred, Lord Tennyson Robert Browning Matthew Arnold Nonfiction Thomas Babington Macaulay John Henry Newman Thomas Carlyle,5,Realism,The presentation in art of det

7、ails from actual life. During the last part of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th, Realism enjoyed considerable popularity among writers in the English-speaking world. Nowhere, perhaps, was Realism more evident than in the novel. Novels often dealt with grim social realities and present

8、ed realistic portrayal of the psychological states of characters.,6,Victorian Literature,1. Novel The English novel came of age suddenly, swiftly, and dramatically. Realism, which presented a detailed portrait of life in nineteenth-century England. The Victorian novelists were primarily concerned wi

9、th people in society and with their relation to other people. The function of a novelist was also extended from mere description and moralization道德说教to social criticism.,7,All the evils of the existing institutions government, law, church, education and penal刑事的systems, with their injustice and corr

10、uption and the wretchedness caused by themand the society itself with its corrupted, vain空虚的and evil members were mercilessly exposed and criticized by them. Novels were published in installments in weekly magazines. This style of presentation often affected the content of the work, as popular novel

11、s were stretched out to prolong their success and unpopular ones were altered in attempts to win the public affection.,8,The major Victorian novelists are: Charles Dickens William Makepeace Thackeray Charlotte Bront Emily Bront George Eliot Thomas Hardy,9,2 Non-fiction Prose Famous historians, criti

12、cs, scientists and essayists abounded. Thomas Macaulay麦考利represents in the fullest degree the Victorian vigor and delight in material progress. Thomas Carlyle, the historian, social critic, and prophet, wrote a major history of the French Revolution. John Stuart Mill, better known as the author of P

13、rinciples of Political Economy, was the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century. John Henry Newman, one of the prime movers of the Oxford Movement, wrote a series of essays on religion, philosophy, and education. John Ruskin, the foremost English art critic, revolutio

14、nized art criticism and wrote some of the most superb prose in the English language.,10,3 Poetry Victorian poetry is obsessed by the great ideas of a fictionalized past, it functions as a popular encyclopedia or commentary to myth or folklore and it is a fashionable manneristic commentary to a varie

15、ty of ideas. Its most representative poet is Alfred Tennyson. His production of poetry was steady, and its variety great. The influence of the classic literatures on his style and expression is great; no poet combines more harmoniously classic perfection and romantic feeling. Tennyson is an independ

16、ent thinker, a conservative liberal, and is so widely popular because he expresses in frank but reverent fashion the moderately advanced convictions of his time. His social ideals are those of Victorian humanitarianism.,11,Robert Browning stands in striking artistic contrast to Tennysona contrast wh

17、ich perhaps serves to enhance the reputation of both. Browning is the most thoroughly vigorous and dramatic of all great poets who employ other forms than the actual drama. Brownings favorite heroes and heroines are men and women much like himself, of strong will and decisive power of action, able t

18、o take the lead vigorously and unconventionally and to play controlling parts in the drama of life. His poetry constitutes a very extended statement of his philosophy of life. The foundation of his whole theory is a confident and aggressive optimism. In form and spirit Matthew Arnolds poetry is one

19、of the very best later reflections of that of Greece, dominated by thought, dignified, and polished with the utmost care. In substance Arnolds poetry is the expression of his long and tragic spiritual struggle.,12,Charles Dickens (1812-1870),A genius revealing the very pulse of life,13,The First Per

20、iod of His Literary Career (18361841),Marked by youthful optimism The Pickwich Papers Oliver Twist Nicholas Nickleby The Old Curiosity Shop,The Second Period (18421850）,A period of excitement and irritation Martin Chuzzzlewit Dombey and Son David Copperfield,The Third Period (18511870),Marked by pes

21、simism Hard Times Great Expectations A Tale of Two Cities (the French Revolution as the background),14,General Comments,“Dickenss novels combine brutality and fairy-tale fantasy; sharp, realistic, concrete detail and romance, farce, and melodrama（情节剧）; the ordinary and the strange. They range throug

22、h the comic, tender, dramatic, sentimental, grotesque, melodramatic, horrible, eccentric, mysterious, violent, romantic, and morally earnest.”,15,One of the first novelists to write about the poor and disadvantaged from the point of view of the lowest classes; A fierce critic of the poverty and evil

23、s of Victorian society; Dickens has a tendency to depict the grotesque (very odd or unusual, fantastically ugly or absurd怪诞的) characters or events; Use of comedy as relief from the serious and unhappy sections; Use of suspense and mystery in constructing his novels to hold the readers interest; Char

24、acters reveal their natures through action and conversation, rather than passages of exposition and interpretation; Dickens habitually gives life to inanimate（无生气的）objects and attributes human qualities to animals; Fondness for coincidence; Dickens is noted for his description of pathetic scenes tha

25、t aim to arouse peoples sympathy. His novels are marked by a large number of deaths and violence. His writing style is florid（华丽的） and poetic, with a strong comic touch; His later novels rely heavily upon use of symbolism. His “dense thematic compositions, striking use of imagery, rhetoric and drama

26、tic device advanced fiction technically to the threshold of modernism.”,16,A master story-teller:a genius in Story telling; known for the construction of plot Characters:best at child character portrayal ; famous for the characterization of horrible and grotesque figures Humour and pathos:life is it

27、self a mixture of joy and grief; To match his humourous genius, Dickens is also very good at painting pictures of great pathos Language: has a richness of expressions; succeeds in using the right words and phrases at the right moments,Main Features of His Works,17,William Makepeace Thackeray,Novelis

28、t and Satirist,18,Novels,The Books of Snobs 势力者脸谱 Vanity Fair 名利场 The History of Henry Esmond, 亨利艾斯芒德 The History of Pendennis 潘丹尼斯 The Newcomes 纽卡姆一家 The Virginians 弗吉尼亚人,19,His masterpiece Vanity Fair, A Novel without a Hero,There are no exactly positive characters. Not one is really good enough t

29、o be a hero. This is a novel not about some particular person but about society the upper-middle class society. It can be a book about women instead of men.,20,Character Analysis,Rebecca Sharp: an ambitious girl of mental and physical charm, a social climber who makes her way to the highest levels o

30、f society at all costs through her own resources, with determination, intelligence , hard work, and talent. She has become one of the most well-known and most argued-about characters in literature. Amelia Sedley: just the opposite of Sharp, a conventional girl who is sweet, tender, loving, obedient,

31、 self-sacrificing, credulous易受骗的, weak and selfish.,21,Features of his works,1.Thackerays criticism of the society is seldom directed at the inhuman social institutions and corrupted government 2. Dickens strikes us as always “in” the play while Thakeray is constantly “out”. Th. always speaks in an

32、ironical, sarcastic and cynical tone of an on-looker. 3. His works are known for their fine language, careful overall planning, mastery of detail, vast scope of view and a faithfulness to the history.,22,George Eliot (1819-1880),23,Victorian writer, a humane freethinker, whose insightful psychologic

33、al novels paved way to modern character portrayals,24,novels,Adam Bede (1859) 亚当彼得 The Mill on the Floss (1860) 弗洛斯河上的磨房 Silas Marner (1861) 织工马南 Romola (1863) 罗慕拉 Felix Holt, the Radical (1866) 菲利克斯 Middlemarch (1871) 米德尔马奇 Daniel Deronda (1876) 丹尼尔狄隆达,25,Writer of New Novel,Two ways of presentatio

34、n: External (objective) Internal (subjective) Psychological study of human nature Join the two ways of presentation By placing the responsibility for a mans life firmly on the moral choices of the individual, she changes the nature of English novel: character becomes plot.,26,She is the first to “pu

35、t all actions inside,” the pioneer of modern psychological novel. She seeks to present the inner struggle of a soul and to reveal the motives, impulses and hereditary influences which govern human actions.,27,Features:,Real pioneer of modern psychological novel: her interest in the interior life of

36、human beings, moral problems and anticipated the narrative methods of modern literature and paved the way to modern character portrayals. Field of observation: rural social life (farmers, small land-owners, clergymen for whom she showed sympathy and pity) Her interest is not merely in the depiction

37、of people and their life, but in the discovery and analysis of some fundamental truth about human life. In her works, she seeks to present the inner struggle of an individual and to reveal the motives, impulses and hereditary遗传的influences that govern human actions.,28,Eliots Concept of determinism,I

38、ndividuals are shaped by a number of determining forces, The forces of human and natural, moral and animal, civilized and primitive are all interwoven in determining the fate of an individual If one fails, he himself is as much to blame as the society. Tragedy as part of human life: not inevitable d

39、eath, but failure of individual ideals,29,Style,Clear and well balanced sentence structures; combination of plain statement and irony with poise平衡; dialogues shot with夹杂着rustic expressions,30,Adam Bede,It deals with English rural life toward the end of the 18th century, and satirizes the hypocrisy a

40、nd social inequality in the feudal-bourgeois society in England.,31,The Bronte Birthplace,32,Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855),A little, plain, provincial, sickly-looking old maid George Lewes described to George Eliot.,33,Novels,The Professor 教授 Jane Eyre 简 爱 Shirley 雪丽 Villette 维莱特,34,Jane Eyre,“I will

41、 show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself” - Charlotte,35,Characters,Mrs. Reed (Gateshead Hall) Miss Temple (Lowood) Mr. Edward Rochester (Thornfield) St. John Rivers,36,Characters of Jane Eyre,Stereotype of women: submissive, dependent, beautiful, but ignorant Jane: a heroine who possesse

42、d the antithesis of these traits Plain but intelligent Rebellious and strong-willed Poor but with human dignity Triumphant over male power Self-confident and independent Morally conscious,37,Features of Jane Eyre,First-person point of view Rejection of the conventional beautiful heroine Gothic featu

43、res Feminist message,38,Theme,The criticism of the bourgeois system of education The position of women in society the Lowood school is the embodiment of the bourgeois principles of education, the aim of which is to bring up obedient slaves for the rich.,39,Significance,Ahead of her time in the area

44、of realism: explorations of emotional repression and the feminine psyche. The earliest major feminist novel Spoke out strongly against the injustice suffered by women. Realized modern womanhood: a need for independence along with a need for love.,40,Emily Bronte,“Emily Bronte is the sphinx of our mo

45、dern literature.” - Clement Shorter a novelist and poet,41,Novel: Wuthering Heights 呼啸山庄,Themes love and revenge a tragedy of social inequality a cosmic harmony of the universe and the destruction and re-establishment of this harmony,42,Wuthering Heights can be appreciated on several levels:,As a so

46、cial novel treating Victorian class: the educated and cultured professional middle class, the rough yet propertied farming class, and the workers (maids, farmhands, etc.) As a psychological novel tracing the development of consciousness, the sense of self and others, through experience and dreams (h

47、ence the placement of Lockwood) As a symbolic novel The Romantic/Gothic forces of Nature oppose the day-to-day tangible forces of Culture, yet connect through the cycles of life.,43,Structure,The most obvious thing about the structure of the story which deals with three generations is the symmetry o

48、f the pedigree家谱祖先录. Mr. conventional plot replaced by 3-dimentional structure,61,Originality:deviation from the norm, or from usual reader expectations 2. Anti-realism Preference for allusion rather than description World seen through the artists inner feelings and mental states Themes chosen to qu

49、estion the conventional view; two basic themes of modernism: alienation and loneliness No stereotype characters,62,3.Individualism Promotion of the artists viewpoint, at the expense of the communal Cultivation of individual consciousness, which alone is the final arbiter Estrangement from religion,

50、science, nature, economy or social mechanism,63,64,The Mayor of Casterbrideg 卡斯特桥市长 The Woodlanders 林地居民 Tess of the DUrbervilles 德伯家的苔丝 Jude the Obscure 无名的裘德,65,Hardy is regarded as a transitional writer, in whom we see the influence from both the Victorian and the modern. “Hes intellectually adva

51、nced and emotionally traditional”. He holds the pessimistic and deterministic notion that mans fate is predeterminedly tragic, and that as everything is fated,the characters can only suffer as they follow their appointed courses. He sees the world as the expression of a mysterious, unconcious “will” uncaring to the individual will, hope, passion and suffer