British Literature Exam #2

Victorian Period

• 1832: the Great Reform Act

• 1837-1901: the reign of Queen Victoria

• Advent of realism as a literary mode

• Much debate about gender politics

Gender Politics

• Victorian rhetoric

  • “Separate spheres” for men and women

    • Men: public and political

    • Women: private and domestic

• Masculinity

  • Strength and stoicism

• Femininity

  • “The angel of the house” vs “the fallen woman”

Imperialism

“The sun never sets on the British empire”

“Civilization in the name of progess”

Crimean War

• October 1853 - April 1856 (Crimean peninsula, Black Sea, Turkey)

• Russian Empire vs alliance of the Ottoman Empire, U.K., France, and Sardinia

• Disease accounted for a disproportionate number of the causalities on both sides

Heroism

The qualities of bravery, courage, and noble actions, often associated with individuals who perform great deeds for the benefit of others or in the face of adversity

Bildungsroman

• Genre of Jane Eyre

• From the German “novel of education” (first used in 1810): a story that shows the protagonist’s psychological and ethical growth

• Reflects (some sometimes departs from) social conventions for the development of “gentlemen” and “ladies”

• Afterlives extend into more contemporary “coming of age” novels

Realist Novel

• Realism is a theory advanced in John Ruskin’s Modern Painters (1843-1860)

• Faithful representation of everyday life

• Revolt against pictorial “conventions”

• Emphasis on portraying things as they are

• Challenges novel characters that are typically seen as perfect

Gothic Novel

• Adapts elements derived from folklore and fairytale

• Plays with the boundaries of unspeakable fears and desires

• shows how the (irrational) past intrudes into the (rational) present

Gothic Elements

• Name: derived from Goths (Germanic tribe); used to describe medieval architecture

• Gothic writing flourished in the 1790s and into the next century

• Key tropes: gloomy castles, hidden archways, ghosts, disappearances, haunting, innocent heroines, lustful villains

Gothic Tropes

• Places: liminality and entrapment; secret passageways

• Times: movements of transition; past confronts present

• Sexual desire: forbidden lusts and loves; asymmetrical power dynamics

• Nightmares and the Uncanny: frightening and strangely familiar

• Doubt/Epistemic Uncertainty: about the supernatural and spiritual

• Sublime: encounters with the mighty, the terrifying, the awesome

Sensation Fiction

• Genre related to Gothic fiction and detective fiction

• Heyday: 1860s and 1870s

• Disturbing the domestic, household sphere

• Designed to excite and shock the reader

Autobiography

• Tells the story of the author’s developing self

• Creates a pact between author and reader

  • Author overcomes challenges

  • Reader learns to sympathize with the author

Comedy of Manners

A comedy that satirizes behavior in a particular social group, especially the upper classes

Satire

The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

“Bunburying”

• The practice of creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and responsibility

• Algernon has invented an imaginary friend named “Bunbury” who is always falling ill; homosexual illusion to the “Bunbury”

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)

• Author of Jane Eyre

• Born and raised in Yorkshire

• Worked as a governess (1839-1841)

• Studied and taught in Brussels (1842-1844)

• Returned to England and began writing

  • Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley (1850), Villette (1853), and The Professor (1857)

Charlotte Brontë’s Family

• Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848): painter, poet, vagabond

• Emily Brontë (1818-1948): Wuthering Heights

• Anne Brontë (1820-1849): The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; Agnes Grey

Pseudonymous Publication

Jane Eyre was originally published under a pen name “Currer Bell" (The same initials as Charlotte Brontë)

• This was likely due to the prejudice against female authors at the time

Ordering of the stages in Jane Eyre’s journey

• Gateshead

• Lowood

• Thornfield

• Marsh End

• Ferndean

Jane at Gateshead

• Being treated poorly by the Reeds

• Believes she has no other family and that she is being haunted by Mr. Reed in the Red Room

• Sassy with Mr. Broklehurst when he asks what it takes to not go to Hell

• Bessie is the only one who treats Jane somewhat kindly

Jane at Lowood

• A school where she meets Helen Burns

  • Helen is a deep thinkers and has stoic resilience (happy with who she is)

  • Helen is typically late and sloppy

  • Helen speaks about God as a mighty universal parents

• There is a time where she is made to feel shamed in front of the whole school

• Miss Temple was the nice teacher

• Helen Burns was sick and died with Jane in her arms

• Jane spent 8 years at Lowood (6 years as a students and 2 as a teacher)

• Advertised to find a new job

• Before setting off the Thornfield she reunited with Bessie who tells her about Jane’s family being gentry and that Jane had one living relative

Byronic Hero

• A character type names after the Romantic poet, George Gordon Byron

• A handsome, melancholic, usually aristocratic man

• A man with a dark past and hidden secrets

• A figure of sexual intrigue and psychological complexity

Edward Rochester as Byronic Hero?

• Rochester has a dark past, with sexual energy'; wealthy

• He is also not seen as a Byronic hero because he typically gets put in the place of the victim with Jane being his hero (reversed gender roles)

  • Humanized and softer in Jane’s eyes

Jane’s Inner Monologues and Addresses to the Reader

• Much of Jane’s internal monologues involve her conflicting over different ideals, such as why she is disliked by the Reeds, her views on Christianity, her fairytale like descriptions of other characters, the debate about how she feels about Rochester, and what she should do from that point

Jane Navigates Her Feelings for Rochester

• Jane feels led on when Rochester says he is to marry Blanche Ingram

• Rochester says he was just trying to play hard to get and that he wants to marry Jane

• Jane debates if she should marry him

  • She does not want to be confined (“I am no bird”)

  • Does not want to conform to being the angel of the house (rather be a thing than an angel)

• After she learns about his first wife, she decides he is not good for her, but still is in love with him

• Believes he became more humble after she left and he had been blinded

Jane Eyre at Marsh End

• Taken in by Mary and Diana Rivers

• Introduces herself by a fake name (Jane Elliot) at first before later telling them the truth

• Gets a job as a teacher teaching at a village school for girls (thanks to St. John)

• When telling St. John who she actually is, he says that he is her cousin and that his Uncle John who passed away was also her uncle

• The cousins split Uncle John’s inheritance so they each get 5,000 pounds

• St. John proposes to Jane, but she refuses because marriage is about love to her and knows that she is truly in love with Rochester

Jane Eyre at Ferndean

• Reunites with Rochester

• Marries him

How does Jane Eyre reflect and challenge Victorian gender norms?

• Reflects

  • Blanche Ingram is seen as the stereotypical upper class woman

  • St. John is the controlling patriarchy

  • Bertha Mason is the marginalized women who are unable to speak out

• Challenges

  • Jane Eyre seeks out independence

  • She expresses strong emotions that would seem out of place for a woman to do in the Victorian era

  • Rejects submissive roles

  • Speaks her mind and speaks out against others who she thinks are wrong

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

• 1854: Born October 16th in Dublin, Ireland

• 1871-1874: Attended Trinity College in Dublin then onto Oxford

• 1882: First American tour

• 1884: Marries Constance Lloyd on May 29th

• 1889-1891: Published The Picture of Dorian Grey

• 1891: Relationship with Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (“Bosie”) begins

• 1895: The Importance of Being Earnest premiers on February 14th

• 1895: Series of trails in April and May; Wilde sentenced to 2 years of hard labor in prison

• 1896-1897: Wilde writes De Profundis while in prison

• 1898: Wilde publishes “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”

• 1900: Wilde dies on November 30th

Names of Characters (The Importance of Being Earnest)

• John (Jack) Worthing (Christened name “Ernest John”)

• Algernon Moncrieff (Bunbury is his imaginary friend who is always falling ill when he wants to get out of a social obligation)

• Gwendolen Fairfax (desires to marry Jack, who she knows as Ernest, because she is fixated on the name; She says it “inspires absolute confidence”)

• Cecily Cardew (also interested in the name Ernest; lives in a fantasy almost especially when she says that Algernon (known as Ernest to her that the time) and her are already married)

• Lady Bracknell (represents the old world; Algernon’s aunt; has an issue with Jack marrying Gwendolen because of his parentage)

• Rev. Canon Chausible (Minister; has trouble living in his public life as a clergyman and private life as a man in love with Miss Prism)

• Miss Prism (Governess; claims there is a clear difference between right and wrong; was still a woman in love; though she was all talk in good and bad, she left baby Jack in a handbag at the railway station when she was meant to be caring for him)

• Merriman (Jack’s Butler)

• Lane (Algernon’s Butler)

Basic Features of Wilde’s “Comedies of Society”

• Juxtaposition of the comic and the serious

• Driven by witty banter and wordplay

• Themes: mistaken identities, love triangles

• Moves quickly from chaos to resolution, often within a single day or two

• Critique of Victorian manners and social norms (class, gender, marriage, “the good”)

Aestheticism

• Often identified with the motto “art for art’s sake”

• Art should not be evaluated for its functionality or morality but soley for its beauty

• Shifted emphasis from realist claims about objectivity to a focus on subjective perceptions

How does The Importance of Being Earnest reflect and challenge Victorian norms of gender and class?

• Reflects

  • The importance of social class when getting married

  • The men are suave and witty which are stereotypical traits for Victorian men

    • They also care about their social and outward appearances

  • The women tends to be charming and wanting of good husbands

  • Marriage is seen as a way to rise up in social class

• Challenges

  • The men are trying to play into the women’s wishes to make them fall in love

  • The women are very self-possessed and are able to show intellect

  • Jack ends up being apart of a wealthy family in the end

Mary Seacole

• Born in Kingston, Jamaica (Jamaican and Scottish ancestry)

• Ran lodging houses and taverns in the Caribbean and Central America, where she learned her medical skills

• Set up “the British Hotel” during the Crimean war and nursed British soldiers (funded by herself)

• Wrote Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands

What happens when Mary Seacole meets up with Florence Nightingale?

• Nightingale is impatient with Mary Seacole; very brash

• Nightingale says that Seacole can room with the washer women

  • This is likely because Seacole seems like she would fit in better with the washer woman instead of being seen out as a nurse

How does Seacole’s autobiography reflect or challenge Victorian gender norms and imperial biases?

• Reflects

  • Tries to favor the British readers by playing up her Scottish ancestry and by using the term “lazy Creole” even though she does not play into that term

  • States that racism is an American thing, not something the British do

  • Tries to reason with why she was not allowed to be a nurse through many companies

  • “Only women know how to soothe and bless”

  • Uses gender stereotypes to overcome racial stereotypes

  • Quotes the Bible

• Challenges

  • Comparing the Creole to the British

    • Creole people cry openly while the British hide their pain

    • Creole are used to seeing places like Constantinople while the British are outwardly judgy and serious

  • Proves her experience

  • Raises money to get herself to being a known nurse even though other companies pushed her away

How does Seacole overcome challenges and invite the reader’s interest in her story?

• Seacole overcomes challenges by being self-reliant and wanting to go out and help others

• She invites the reader’s interest in her story by proving how she is worthy and qualified to be a nurse in the war, so that the readers can be a source of empathy as well as credibility.