British Literature Notes: Unit 4 Chapter 3

holds that reality is constructed by or is at least dependent on perceptions of the individual mind

Idealism

believes that since society had brought about mankind’s misery, returning to nature will restore happiness

Primitivism

believes that societal happiness will be brought about by reform

Progressivism

teaches that God inhabits all nature and mankind; when we die, we are absorbed into the World Spirit

Transcendentalism

present a generally traditional Christian viewpoint in their writing

Robert and Elizabeth Browning

tried to blend traditional Christianity with transcendentalism

Tennyson

holds that man’s purpose is to pursue long-term happiness, so actions are deemed appropriate if they cause happiness. Applied to society, then, the mantra is “the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

Utilitarianism

despised utilitarianism, a view he expressed throughout many of his works

Thomas Carlyle

hoped to restore to society its moral and emotional nature

Charles Dickens

addressed the place of women in society.  

The Bronte sisters

• Painful childhood led to a lifelong struggle between religion faith and doubt 

• Published his great lyrical work, In Memoriam, in memory of close friend Arthur Hallam. 

• Most significant poet of his generation 

• Was an international icon of the morals and taste of the Victorian Era. 

• Tennyson showed himself a master of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) in his poetry. 

• He also achieved a clear sense of rhythm through his use of meter and sound devices (alliteration, assonance) 

• Additionally, Tennyson often structured his ideas using rhetorical devices, especially parallelism, in order to emphasize main ideas and help tie them together 

• Tennyson’s work as a poet includes both elegies (poems about death) and dramatic monologues (poems narrated by one speaker to a silent listener.) 

Aldred, Lord Tennyson

• Author is Aldred, Lord Tennyson 

• Tennyson records his thoughts and emotions as he grieves his friend’s (Arthur Hallam’s) death. He seeks to come to terms with human life and death and thus with his own grief. 

• “We have but faith; we cannot know; for knowledge is of things we see;” - we have faith because we believe in something we can’t see 

• “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” - there is more joy to experience love with knowing that it will end in grief, than to never have loved at all. 

• His evolution of grief is how he got to assurance and peace. 

In Memoriam 

• Author is Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

• Ulysses (Odysseus), returned to his kingdom after twenty years, expresses discontent with the mundane tasks of ruling. He decides to appoint his son Telemachus (who thinks is better suited) to rule instead. Then he challenged his mariners to take a final voyage with him, beyond the bounds of human knowledge.

• “We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” 

Ulysses

• Author is Lord, Tennyson 

• The speaker paints the passage from life to death as the start of a sea voyage and pictures it as a return to where the soul came from. As evening appears, he hears a call to make this voyage. Believing he will find his “pilot” at journey’s end, he hopes those left behind will not sorrow unduly. 

• “I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar.” - he hopes to see God when he goes into eternity 

• This poem is always at the end of his book of poetry.

Crossing the Bar

• Married to poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• One of England’s most learned poets 

• Signature form is the dramatic monologue 

• Spent the last years of his life as literary celebrity, even seeing the inauguration of the Browning Society 

• Poetry presented a morally nuanced but optimistic view of humanity 

Robert Browning 

a character the author creates and inhabits momentarily

Persona

a poetic form in which: 

• A single character 

• At a critical moment in his life that reveals the narrator’s character 

• Speaks to either himself or a silent listener 

Dramatic Monologue

• Author is Robert Browning 

• An example of a dramatic monologue 

• The overall mood is stormy weather (atmosphere) which reflects the unhappy mindset of the speaker and foreshadows an uncertain/shocking ending to the poem.

• Conflict: the narrator doubts Porphyria' affections and commitment 

• Resolution: once assured of her love, the narrator strangles her in order to preserve her beauty and purity 

• “Made my heart swell, and still it grew while I debated what to do.” 

• “That moment she was mine, mine fair, perfectly pure and good: I found a thing to do,and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangled her.” 

• The narrator was possessive and obsessive 

Porphyria's Lover

• A poet, literary critic, and translator whose poetry was widely celebrated during the Victorian Age 

• Inspired other authors such as George Eliot, Emily Dickinson, and Virginia Woolf 

• Was an invalid due to ongoing health problems 

• Published Aurora Leigh, a highly controversial but successful epic verse-form novel that discussed issues such as education and vocation for women

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• Author is Eizabeth Barrett Browning 

• Related to a simple theme of love with great richness and depth through the use of similes, metaphors, and hyperbole. 

• She uses several concrete images (“everyday’s most quiet need” “sun” "candlelight" “breath” “smiles” “tears”) throughout the poem in order to illustrate the consistency and intensity of her love. 

• “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.”

Sonnet 43

• Scottish historian and essayist 

• Turned away from materialism to a transcendental, deistic religion 

• Was both a polarizing figure and a profound influence 

• Prose style inspired countless imitators and remains captivating to this day 

• He is from Scotland, which provided no workhouses as shelter for the poor. The poor could only be helped by the charity of religious or other non government sources. 

• Supports his arguments by providing stories of the poor in dire material straits and suffering spiritual malaise from those conditions. 

Thomas Carlyle

brief nonfiction prose compositions that explore a subject or argue for a thesis regarding a particular subject

Essays

essays seeking to convince the audience to accept the author’s point of view

Argumentative essays

embraced the utilitarian philosophy that suggested the poor would choose the more pleasant option of relief as opposed to the unpleasant option of work, and so outside relief (the provision of money, clothing, food, and other goods) was virtually eliminated.

English Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834

• Author is Thomas Carlyle 

• The thesis of this selection is that England has accrued great wealth through the Industrial Revolution, but that wealth has offered no real benefit to poor or rich. The English are still largely in material or spiritual poverty.

• “Neither can the rich master-idlers, nor any richest or highest man escape, but all are like to to be brought low with it, and made ‘poor’ enough, in the money sense or a far fataler one.” 

• He describes the poor in the workhouses as examples of English who are both poor in material good and poor in spirit, lacking a fulfilling purpose and a sense of dignity that comes with one’s labor.

Past and Present: The Condition of England

• Author is Thomas Carlyle 

• States that current science is concerned only with the physical and does not even consider questions of the human mind  of morality) formerly sciences worth investigating or even the kind  of thing science is suited to investigate. 

• Instead, he posits that science as applied to humanity should have two branches: one investigating the more intangible parts of man’s nature and one investigating aspects of his life and behaviors. 

• The Industrial Revolution has resulted in the loss of real work, which has been replaced by deifying mechanisms and man’ efforts. 

• “By which outward circumstances are made more powerful than man’s inner forces, his will, and his abilities.” 

Signs of the Times

• Born in Portsmouth and spent his formative years in London 

• Father was thrown into debtor’s prison in 1824 forcing him to find work to survive 

• His time in law courts as well as his career as a journalist gave him an encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary English society. 

• First novel Pickwick Papers brought him instant fame and success. 

• His works are characterized by their sympathy for the poor and criticism of social injustice

Charles Dickens

• Author is Charles Dickens 

• When Dickens published this novel in 1854, Dickens titled it Hard Times because of Thomas Carlyle's influence on him. The book expresses a Carlylean anti-utilitarian philosophy. 

• Explores the personal and moral consequence of what Dickens saw as the philosophy of “Facts,” which reduces the complexity of human experience to the brute facts of economics. 

• Dickens posits the solution as a return to traditional, humane values. 

• For Dickens, neither unfettered capitalism or trade-unionism can save society: only love can.

Hard Times