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British Literature II - Coggle Diagram

- - - - When talking about how much hearing Chapman speak changed his life, he says, "Yet did I never breathe its pure serene till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold." Keats claims that Homer brought him to life, and any life he had before hearing Homer was incomplete.
      - He also explains the experience of hearing it for the first time, and says, "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken." Keats had an out of body experience, and his whole world shifted. He makes a statement about how important poetry is in life. While in a different situation he could be considered a little biased because he is a poet himself, in this situation, Keats is not just a poet, but the consumer.
  - - - He sees it as almost a kind of history book, and when he looks at it, he describes it as a "Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme." When he looks at it, he sees how beautiful he is, and he is able to see human nature in it because of its beauty.
      - Keats believes that even when the artist has died, a part of them lives on in their artwork. His perspective during this poem falls in line with aestheticism, and he likes art for what it is. He explains that art includes the artist within it, so he says, "When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain."
  - - - In "To one who has been long in city pent," Keats talks about how refreshing nature is, and when he describes his first moments in the country, he says, "'tis very sweet to look into the fair and open face of heaven." He admires the beauty of nature, and he relates it to what one would see when they enter heaven. The countryside is his paradise, and he uses religious imagery to imply that nature is where one feels closest to God.
      - He also goes into the simplicity of the countryside, and says that in nature, "Who is more happy, when, with heart's content, Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair." For Keats, nature is a place where he can rest and find relief from the hassles of city life.
  - - - He goes into how pain and suffering is inevitable in life, and suffering is needed to grow in life. He says, "Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a soul?"
    - - When he looks at the painting, Death on a Pale Horse, he says it is fine, but nothing special. He complains that, "It is a wonderful picture, when West’s age is considered. But there is nothing to be intense upon; no woman one feels mad to kiss, no face swelling into reality." This also sounds similar to what is believed during aestheticism, and Keats evaluates how the painting makes him feel when he looks at it.
    - - In this letter, Keats has been overcome with sickness, and he mentions what will happen if he does not recover. While most of his letter makes efforts to seem lighthearted, his anxieties come through occasionally. For example, he says, "for it runs in my head we shall all die young."
- - - - He says he dislikes stories because "a story is a catalogue of detached facts." He also believes that because stories are longer than poems, they have less meaning. He claims that, "Time, which destroys the beauty and the use of the story of particular facts." I do not necessarily agree with this because I think in many instances, having more time in a story makes you feel more connected to what is happening.
      - He compares a story to poetry, and says that "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Shelley believes that poetry says more about the feeling of humans than stories do. While I do not entirely agree with what he has to say about stories, there is something to be said for poems and how they give a brief glimpse into humanity.
  - - - When describing the physical appearance of the king, Shelley says that he is "blind." While he is describing the characteristics of the king, it is hard to tell if he is saying that the king is physically blind, or that he is blind to what the people in his kingdom are going through. This was intentional because Shelley wants to make it clear that the king does not seem to care about his people enough to stay educated on what their life is like.
      - When describing what the people in the kingdom are going through, Shelley says that, "A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field." While the king sits inside safe, pampered, and taken care of, his people are suffering and dying. While they are dying, the nobility are described as, "Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leechlike to their fainting country cling." He says they are leeches to their own country because they are benefiting from their people's suffering and hard work.
      - This poem is still relevant today, and rulers still do not completely know what their people are going through. The laws they put into place change life for the people they have power over, and many times their decisions regarding these laws they make are not made with their people in mind, but instead for political power and monetary gain.
      - This is a comment on social class, and how the lower classes suffer, and no one that rules them seems to care or try to make changes to help them.
  - - - Shelley uses the statue that Ozymandias had constructed for himself as a metaphor for the desire for eternal fame and glory. By the time that the traveler is telling him this story, the statue that symbolized his own ego and obsession with fame is smashed into pieces. He says that, "Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away."
      - The people that are remembered throughout history are not the people who make art to get glory, but instead make art to contribute to society and because they love it. Shelley recognizes that many people do not care about the art itself, and he wants to publicly call them out in front of society.
- - - - In one part of the poem, he speaks as the land itself, and says, "Im swordy well a piece of land Thats fell upon the town Who worked me till I couldn't stand & crush me now Im down." By speaking as the land, he gives a voice to nature, and he makes people more likely to feel for what is happening.
      - He criticizes how the Parish overworks the land, and says, "Yet gain comes yearly with the plough & will not let me be." He writes about how enclosure is bad and also about the harsh realities of what life is like in the Parish.
      - He goes into the poverty and overworking that people in the Parish experience, and he says, "Prides workhouse is a place that yields From poverty its gains & mines a workhouse for the fields A starving the remains." Not only is the land being overworked, but the people living there are suffering and starving and no one is helping them.
  - - - He talks about all that the tree has survive, but also what the elm tree meant to other people. He says, "The childern sought thee in thy summer shade & made their play house rings of sticks & stone." By bringing children into the conversation, he gives the tree a sense of innocence and purity, and it makes it all the more upsetting when we find out what happens later in the story.
      - After talking about how much the tree as endured and what it means to other people, he then goes into the fate of the tree, and he says, "With axe at root he felled thee to the ground & barked of freedom—O I hate the sound." The imagery in this part is really good, and you can picture the sound of the tree falling.
      - He describes what kind of people would cut down a tree that means so much to other people, and says, "Self interest saw thee stand in freedoms ways So thy old shadow must a tyrant be Thoust heard the knave abusing those in power Bawl freedom loud & then opress the free."
  - - - He reflects on what is life is like, and when he thinks about it, he believes that "Where there is neither sense of life or joys, But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems; Even the dearest that I loved the best Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest."
      - Following all the despair in the poem, he suddenly seems to find peace when he thinks of the time in heaven that awaits him. He says, "I long for scenes where man hath never trod A place where woman never smiled or wept There to abide with my creator, God, And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept, Untroubling and untroubled where I lie The grass below—above the vaulted sky."
- - - - She wonders how women will ever be able to be truly educated if women are not even allowed in certain educational buildings. When describing her attempt at going in a library to read a certain text, she says, "I must have opened it, for instantly there issued, like a guardian angel barring the way with a flutter of black gown instead of white wings, a deprecating, silvery, kindly gentleman, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction."
      - Woolf blames the education system available for how dependent women have to be on the men in their life. She says, "If only Mrs. Seton and her mother and her mother before her had learnt the great art of making money and had left their money, like their fathers and their grandfathers before them... we might have dined very tolerably up here alone off a bird and a bottle of wine." She wants women to be educated the same as men because she believes when that happens women will get a chance to prove that they are capable of providing for themselves.
  - - - She also goes into the wasted potential of her and her friend, Peter. She recalls the moment she found out he married someone else, and she says, "the horror of the moment when some one told her at a concert that he had married a woman met on the boat going to India!" She goes on to later say that "his whole life had been a failure. It made her angry
        still." Clarissa realizes that she and Peter had potential as a couple, and any opportunity was squashed. This adds to the gloomy feel of the story.
      - As we follow Mrs. Dalloway throughout the day, the mood of the story is sorrow and isolation. Even when she passes people to talk to, a lot of the conversation is about somber topics. For example, when she passes one of her childhood friends, they talk about how his wife's health is declining. "Times without number Clarissa had visited Evelyn Whitebread in a nursing home. Was Evelyn ill again? Evelyn was a good deal out of sorts, said Hugh."
- - - - When she she Poinciana trees in London, she is reminded of what those trees look like in Jamaica, and she thinks, "But it is to the flaming glory of Poinciana trees in fair Jamaica That my lone heart is homing."
      - She also says she feels called to go home, and says, "[it] Calls to me across the distance, Calling, calling me home." Marson feels desperate to go back home to Jamaica, and everywhere she turns she sees another sign to go back.
- - - - She argues "that the instruction which women have received has only tended, with the constitution of civil society, to render them insignificant objects of desire; mere propagators of fools!" Wollstonecraft blames the education that the women are receiving for their reputation as being "silly." She points out that the men groom women to be unthinking, but then they refuse to give women responsibility because they are less educated. If the women where given the same opportunities of men, Wollstonecraft argues that women would not be as concerned with typical feminine things.
      - Wollstonecraft says that men will always have an edge on women physically, so why make women even weaker by not educating them? "but why should it be increased by prejudices that give a sex to virtue, and confound simple truths with sensual reveries?"
- - - - Immediately after, she repeatedly mentions beggars that she encounters, and how they have gone through bad times. "At Rydale a woman of the village, stout & well-dressed, begged a halfpenny—she had never she said done it before—but these hard times!" People in the village are suffering, and many of them have to turn to begging for money. She contrasts the pretty nature outside with the hardships people are going through, as it was a battle between the two.
      - Another example of begging that Wordsworth gives is a little girl. "A little girl from Coniston came to beg. She had lain out all night-her step mother had turn'd her out of doors." The contrast of the innocence of children with the sorrows of begging makes this story more striking and sad.
      - Wordsworth begins by going on and on about the nature that she is surrounded by, and goes into detail about what flowers and other plants she sees. One example is a "A beautiful yellow, palish yellow flower, that looked thick round & double, & smelt very sweet—I supposed it was a ranunculus."
- - - - He draws this comparison between getting sold into marriage and prostitution when he says, "What is any respectable girl brought up to do but to catch some rich man’s fancy and get the benefit of his money by marrying him?—as if a marriage ceremony could make any difference in the right or wrong of the thing! Oh, the hypocrisy of the world makes me sick!"
      - He also points out that women do not have any other option besides to be given over to a man, and if there were more options for women she would not have to turn to prostitution.
      - Shaw was also a firm opponent to the aestheticism movement, and believed that works of art are meant to benefit someone else or to make some kind of statement. In Mrs. Warren's Profession, he points out the unfair treatment of women by society.
- - - - Oscar Wilde does not hide his feelings on how one should view art, and he claims that "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming." He believes that art needs to be admired and critiqued for how it makes you feel inside. He also thinks that a work of art can be beautiful and it does not need to have meaning attached to it.
      - Wilde believes that "It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors." This can be further seen in the rest of The Picture of Dorian Grey, because as Dorian Grey becomes more corrupt, he sees himself become uglier and uglier in the painting that he looks at.
- - - - When describing what the world looks like in this fictional reality, Bowen describes how "London looked like the moon's capital shallow, cratered, extinct." Here, she condemns war for its influence on every part of life, including its environmental impact.
      - She also talks about what life was like for civilians during the war, and how their life was changed drastically, even though they were not physically fighting. "By the time we've come to the end, Kor may be the one city left." War has the capability of destroying homes, families, and even whole cities, and Bowen points out how big the scope of people is that is affected by war.
- - - - She wants someone to tell their story in the same way that Waris Shah previously had. "Where should I search out Another Waris Shah. Waris Shah Open your grave; Write a new page In the book of love." Pritam wants the violence towards women in her area to end, and she wants someone who will stand up for them.
      - Pritam laments the suffering of her people, especially the women. Shy says, "O friend of the sorrowing, rise and see your Punjab Corpses are strewn on the pasture, Blood runs in the Chenab." She heartbreakingly tells of how her people are suffering, and she wants people around the world to hear their story.
- - - - Bennett talks about how many Jamaican people are moving to England, and she says, "Jamaica people colonizin Englan in Reverse Be the hundred, be de tousan Fro country and from town, By de ship-load, be the plane load Jamaica is Englan boun."
      - She also encourages Jamaican people to move to England to colonize them right back, just like England did to Jamaica. She says, "pack dem bag an baggage An turn history upside dung!" She is happy at the idea that Jamaica would colonize England because England colonizes many different places around the world, even if those places want nothing to do with them.
- - - - Darwin uses logic to convince people to agree with what he argues. He urges people to look outside, and gives many examples of how natural selection can be seen all over nature. He says, "we see beautiful adaptations everywhere
        and in every part of the organic world."
      - He also discusses the struggle for existence that all organisms on life have to go through. He says, "We will now discuss in a little more detail the struggle for existence [...] Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult—at least I have found it so—than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind."
- - - - Rosetti stresses the importance of familial and sisterly bonds, and when her sister is in need, Lizzie decided to try to save her. "Till Laura dwindling Seem'd knocking at Death's door: Then Lizzie weigh'd no more Better and worse." Lizzie and Laura have such a close bond, that Lizzie would do whatever it takes to save her sister. Rosetti seems to be making a statement about how vital having tight familial bonds are.
      - She also makes a statement about temptation, and how giving in to one seemingly simple temptation can have fatal consequences. When Lizzie told Laura not to be tempted, Laura was not swayed and ate the fruit anyways. "'Oh,' cried Lizzie, 'Laura, Laura, You should not peep at goblin men.' Lizzie cover'd up her eyes, Cover'd close lest they should look; Laura read'd her glossy head."
- - - - Especially in the beginning of the novel, Sherlock Holmes displays an incredible amount of vanity and self-centeredness. Watson complains about these qualities in Holmes, and says, “I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings." Watson tried his best to impress Holmes, but all Holmes did was criticize the work.
      - Watson wanted to test Holmes because of how much Holmes bragged so he gave him a task he deemed impossible. Watson says, "I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart, for the test was, as I thought, an impossible one, and I intended it as a lesson against the somewhat dogmatic tone which he occasionally assumed." Watson was hoping Holmes would fail, because his ego was becoming insufferable. Watson was also disappointed when Holmes was able to quickly solve the question that Holmes had posed.
- - - - When recounting her childhood as a slave, she describes it as "happiest period of [her] life." This is heartbreaking that what most people would consider to be a horrendous situation is the happiest that Mary Prince ever was. This says a lot about what life is like as a slave.
      - When going into detail about what horrors she suffered as a slave, she tells of how "Mr. D—— has often stripped me naked, hung me up by the wrists, and beat me with the cow-skin, with his own hand, till my body was raw with gashes." Prince's story is heartbreaking, and it is very effective at convincing people to support the abolitionist movement.
- - - - Eliot tells of a place that sounds like hell. He explains, "After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead." The imagery of what Eliot describes is very clear and vivid, and it is easy to see and hear the scene of suffering that he describes.
      - He goes on to describe a place that is "In this decayed hole among the mountains In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home. It has no windows, and the door swings." His description seems eerie and foreboding, which is in line with the rest of the poem.
- - - - He mentions different people that were treated badly at the hands of the police, and says, "all
        these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt." Orwell sees what is happening at his work, and has a hard time coming to terms with what he witnesses.
      - While he gets harassed by people on the street, he says that "For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically—and secretly, of course—I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British." While he was a part of a system, he did not agree with what the group was doing to other people.
      - Orwell describes the harassment he went through in his time as a police officer, and says, "As a police officer I was an obvious target whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter." Ironically, while he was there to keep order for the British, he was one of the groups that was targeted the most.
- - - - In "We Shall Fight on the Beaches," Churchill talks about the war, and it seems less hopeful and instead it seems more depressing.
        
        He tells everyone that Germany is being brutal in this war, and he urges them to prepare for the worst. He says, "We are assured that novel methods will be adopted, and when we see the originality of malice, the ingenuity of aggression, which our enemy displays, we may certainly prepare ourselves for every kind of novel stratagem and every kind of brutal and treacherous maneuver."
        
        Once again, he ends the speech with a call for unity, although this time, it does not seem quite as motivational, but instead ominous. His final words are, "We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."
    - - In this speech, Churchill tries to boost morale among his people, and he wants them to stay united against Germany.
        
        After he talks about the suffering ahead of them, he gives them a reason to keep fighting. He says, "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs —Victory in spite of all terrors — Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival" He brings hope into the people, and gives them something to look forward to. He ends the speech with a call to unity, and says, "Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."
        
        Churchill does not lie to his people, and he tells them honestly how much they will suffer until the war is over. He tells them that "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many months of struggle and suffering." Churchill could have lied or brushed over the suffering they will face, but instead, he tells them that they have a hard road ahead of them. This makes the speech more inspiring, and it calls the people to fight back.
- - - - After she wakes up from a nightmare, she thinks, "Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do. There must have been a draught for the flame flickered and I thought it was out. But I shielded it with my hand it burned up again to light me along the dark passage.” Even though we know what she is about to do, we only feel bad for what she is going through and we understand her motivations.
      - Rhys challenges the sexist belief that she was just a raging mad woman, and gives the character more depth and humanity.
      - After the fire, she saw her friend Tia, and ran to her, but "When I was close I saw the jagged stone in her hand but I did not see her throw it. I did not feel it either, only something wet, running down my face." We see her abused time and time again, so we feel bad for how she suffered.