VICTORIAN AGE
The period of Victoria's Reign was one of the longest Reign in the history of England
Victorian Compromise: period of contraddition caracterised by poverty of the working class and progress of the upper/middle class
Victorian Novel: become the most famous novels over the literature world, most of the novels were published in instalments
Realism: victorian novelist used to describe society and show real things. They denounce all the bad aspects bute it doesn't had a political function
Most of them in the last part of the novel eplained everything and justified everything and the reader find the key words
Narrator omniscient: create a split between fake and true things
CHARLES DICKENS
His novels were influenced by gotic novels, bible, fairy tales and nursery rhymes
We find some realistic details in his novels, like real places of London
He want the reader pay more attention to the reality of the society
Characters: most of the characters belong to middle and low class
Childhood: was import characters of his novels as main characters in a lot of novels
Social issues: in most of his late novels he wanted to express a refuse of capitalism and the bad effect of industrial revolution
OLIVER TWIST
The irony make the situations more cruel and create a gap between the work of art and the reader
HARD TIMES
Contrast between immagination and facts
Mr Gradgrind, director of a school, ask his teachers to teach "Nothing but facts"
for Dickens immagination is important
The run that people focus on facts and statistics make the fear that humans could become a kind of machine and he criticized the materialism
OSCAR WILDE,
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
Theme of double: Dorian is a rich and respectable man, but it isa criminal and only his copy, the portrait show this part
Theme of the beauty: Dorian follows the cult of beauty everlasting pursuit of beauty
Use of paradox and epigrams
Epigrams: short surprinsing and satirical instalments make the reader laugh and think
LOUIS STEVENSON,
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE
The double nature of the setting
London
Respectable West End
poverty East End
Jekyll's house
front of his house, used by the doctor, is fair
back of his house, used by Hyde, is a sinister block of buildings without windows
The double nature of human beings
Dr Jekyll
Mr Hyde
had led a virtuous life
his face is handsome
his hands are white
his body is large and armonious
he's pure hate and devil
his face is pale
his hands are dark and hairy
his body is tiny and deformed
Style
4 narrators: Mr Utterson, Enfield, Dr Lanyon and Dr Jekyll
most important events happens in the night
ALFRED TENNYSON
Most important victorian poet, his poetry reflects tendencies of his time
Investigation of the poet's feelings, instrument to analize his feelings and share its complexity
Dramatic monologue: speaker is a single character, add resses an audience and share personal feelings with a silence audience
ULYSSES
Ulysses is a legend because of what he did, the war of Troy and the adventure and the danger he forced
Materialistic life: inhabitants of Itaca are savage, they don't know him, they aren't interested to know his ambition
Ulysses follow the knowledge "like a sinking star", so like a desire, that embodies the essence of Ulysses
Contrast between Ulysses and his child Telemachus, that embodies what ulysses si not