British Literature Unit 4: Chapter 1 Notes

the manner of speech - diction, grammar, and pronunciation - characteristic of a certain area or class (in Burn’s case, rural Scotland)

Dialect

• Poor tenant farmer who became the national poet of Scotland 

• Poetry captures the voice of the common Scottish people 

• A prototypical romantic poetry because of his deep nationalism, his love for the common worker, and his strong stand against authority

• He also uses images and themes in his songs/poems to convey an underlying meaning to the words

Robert Burns

the manner of speech - diction, grammar, and pronunciation - characteristic of a certain area or class (in Burn’s case, rural Scotland)

Dialect

• Author is Robert Burns 

• A farmer destroyed the mouse’s home when he was plowing the fields 

• Theme: Plans don’t always go the way we want and sometimes lead to sadness instead of happiness

• Imagery: cold weather and the mouse

To a Mouse

• Author is Robert Rose 

• Uses a simile to compare his love to a rose and a melody 

• He says his love is timeless and sweet

A Red Red Rose

• Poetry considered among the most imaginative in English literature 

• Invented his own technique of engraving that allowed him to print colored, beautifully illustrated editions of his own poems 

• Believe strongly in Christianity and the Bible, but his interpretations and religious views were totally unorthodox 

• William Blake’s language is simple, his poetry is complex, using symbols (a person, place, or thing that represents something else in addition to itself) to express the different facets of his worldview 

• In addition to this, he included many sensory details (details that appeal to the five senses in his poetry)

• He also uses a combination of apostrophe, rhetorical questions, repetition, parallelism, and anaphora to add to the poem's overall effect. 

• Blake wrote his poem “London” during tumultuous times (1794) something the poem alludes to in its content and theme

William Blake

a person, place, or thing that represents something else in addition to itself

symbols

details that appeal to the five senses in his poetry

sensory details

the idea that good versus evil (and man’s reason versus his instincts) is a timeless universal combat and both sides are necessary

dualism

• Author is William Blake 

• He critiques religion, labor laws, the church, and lack of social reform 

• Uses the church as a symbol of religion

London

• Issued the first feminist manifesto 

• Participated in a radical literary set that included William Blake and William Wordsworth 

• Argued against women’s limited education and political disenfranchisement 

• Died days after giving birth to her daughter Mary Shelly of Frankenstein

• Wollstonecraft framed her essay in the neoclassical style, based on augmentation — an exercise in human reason 

• She also incorporated all three rhetorical appeals into her arguments: logos (logic), ethos (ethical), and pathos (emotional)

Mary Wollstonecraft

 an exercise in human reason 

augmentation

 predicts the problems that will result from the inadequate conception of women’s natures

Logos

appeals to the authority of scripture in referencing the equality of all mankind 

Ethos

uses sarcasm in her arguments (i.e. “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures…”)

Pathos

• Author is Mary Wollstonecraft 

• Wollstonecraft takes aim at concrete issues she believes is both a symptom and a perpetuator of these attitudes: the neglect of women’s education 

• “I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that civilization which has hitherto taken place in the world has been very partial.” 

• “One cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education.”

• Purpose of the essay: 

1. Gaining the right to vote 

2. More Access to education 

3. More access to certain vocations

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

• Wrote timeless novels that transcend their settings through their keen observation of human character and social mores 

• Name was never attached to her works during her lifetime 

• Work is characterized by both a careful attention to the detail of human life and a concern for the mortal uplift of the reader

• Informal style of writing

Jane Austen 

conversations between characters

Dialogue

those with whom the reader identifies or for whom the reader has favorable feelings

Sympathetic Characters

ones with whom the reader cannot identify or whom the reader has strong feelings of dislike

Unsympathetic Characters

characters used to highlight another’s opposing traits in connection to the book's themes

Foil Characters

besting another’s remark or turning it to one’s own advantage in a contest of wits

Repartee

• Author is Jane Austen 

• Themes: 

1. Love and marriage 

2. Importance of social class 

3. Money/wealth

Pride and Prejudice

• Author is Jane Austen 

• Characters: 

1. Elizabeth Bennet: protagonist of the novel - wishes to marry for love not money; tends to judge others based on first impressions (prejudice) 

2. Mr Darcy: male protagonist; is attracted to Elizabeth despite her low social class (pride) 

3. Mrs. Bennet: Elizabeth’s mother, obsessed with getting her daughters married off 

4. Mr. Bennet: Elizabeth’s kind but sometimes distant father 

5. Jane: the eldest and most beautiful Bennet daughter, falls in love with Mr. Bingley at the start of the novel 

6. Mr. Bingley: Darcy’s best friend, falls in love with Jane Bennet at the start of the novel 

• Themes: 

1. Love and marriage 

2. Importance of social class 

3. Money/wealth 

• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife!”

• “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humor at present to give consequences to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” 

Pride and Prejudice