British Literature Unit 3: Chapter 2

The Genre that came to the forefront during the English Civil War?

prose

one significant result of readers demanding more information

journalism

• a type of extended prose fiction 

• From the beginning, the novel was characterized by an emphasis on realistic details describing ordinary, middle-class characters and the events of ordinary life. 

Novel

or Virtue Rewarded is considered to be the first modern novel written by Samuel Richardson

• Is it considered the first modern novel because it contained the following characteristics: 

1. Realistic characters 

2. Definite plot

3. Obvious theme

Pamela

• the arrangement of incidents or events in the story 

• must have a discernible beginning, middle, and end

Plot

struggle between opposing forces

Conflict

main character of the story

Protagonist

opposed the protagonist

Antagonist

the physical background against which the events of the novel take place

Setting

the imaginary persons who carry out the action of the plot

Characters

the author tells you what the character is like 

Direct exposition

the reader must infer the character’s personality and thoughts from what they say or do

Indirect Revelation

remains the same throughout the novel (usually a secondary character)

Static character

undergoes some change by the end of the novel (usually the protagonist)

Dynamic character

 the central idea that gives a work its meaning

Theme

• One of England’s first great journalists and the father of the novel 

• Wrote for both the Whig and Tory publications 

• Formula for life, as for art, was resourceful persistence in a role

Daniel Defoe

minute, even superfluous, detail creating an illusion of reality in a work

Verisimilitude

contributed to the writing’s realism, emerging in 2 ways: Fire Person Narration and Rambling, Conversational narrative

Journalistic Style

storytelling with the narrator as one of the characters, uses first person pronouns 

First Person Narration

in the manner of extemporaneous reporting

Rambling, conversational narrative

1. Author is Daniel Defoe

2. The theme of Robinson Crusoe is the dominance of man over nature as he depends on God’s providence. 

• “And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make the most miserable condition mankind could be in, worse.” 

• “When I was on shore, I fell on my knees and gave God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat;”

3. Uses verisimilitude to make the story become more realistic. 

4. Defoe proposed to write a morally worthy hero in Robinson Crusoe. The events of the novel trace his path from prodigal to penitent. 

5. The novel showcases his following characteristics: 

• Frugality (save things), resourcefulness (using all your resources), resilience (figuring out how to survive), and orderliness (maintaining order) .

Robinson Crusoe

• Collaborated on the Whig journals the Tatler (1709-1711) and the Spectator (1711-1712) 

• Tatler contained commentary and organized its material by sources of information (local coffeehouses) 

• Spectator included more literary criticism and virtually no political discussion through the use of a fictitious club (the Spectator Club)

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

gentle mockery aimed at a person or group of people in need of correction

Horatian Satire

• Author is Richard Steele 

• Dueling rarely offers true justice 

• “By this means it is called ‘giving a man satisfaction,’ to urge your offence against him with your sword”

The Tatler

• Author is Joseph Addison

• Criticize someone in a gentle way to not offend people 

• Don’t criticize a particular person; criticize everybody 

• Criticize in a humorous way 

• “For I promise him never to draw a faulty character which does not fit at least a thousand people; or to publish a single paper, that is not written in the spirit of benevolence and with a love to mankind.”

The Spectator

• Chief poet of his age 

• Leading spokesman for early neoclassical values: first became famous for his An Essay on Criticism 

• Translated Homer and edited works of shakespeare

• In An Essay on Man, Pope examines the relationship between man, God, and the world

• In An Essay On Criticism, he offers a general critique of poor writing and critiquing and stresses qualities of good writing. 

• His neoclassical style illustrates balance, symmetry, and parallelism.

Alexander Pope 

a pair of rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter that expresses a complete thought

Heroic Couplet

• Author is Alexander Pope 

• First Epistle: 

- “But vindicate the ways of God to man. Say first, of God above, or man below, What can we reason, but from what we know?”

- Study the world and creation to understand God instead of going to scripture. 

• Second Epistle: 

- “Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet to prey to all;” 

- We are created by God, but we are flawed

An Essay On Man 

• Author is Alexander Pope

• One unified thought and keep your writing simple 

• You will lose the meaning of poetry if you don’t keep your writing simple

An Essay on Criticism

• Often called Britain’s chief satirist 

• Wrote commentary on the problems of his day in a simple neoclassical style 

• Published Gulliver’s Travels in 1726

Jonathan Swift

a type of more biting, savage, and serious corrective ridicule than Horatian satire

Juvenalian Satire

the individual telling a story to readers

Narrator

hatred or mistrust of humankind

Misanthropy

• Author is Jonathan Swift 

• Gulliver is the narrator of the story 

• Introduces readers to groups Swift created to fictionalize real-life counterparts 

• The Tramecksans and Slamecksans represent the Tory and Whig parties 

• Lilliput (England) and Blefuscu (France)

• Gulliver is a surgeon on a ship, but the ship sinks and he is the only one who survived. He ends up on an island with people who are only 6 inches tall. Gulliver is tied down by the dwarfs in Lilliput. 

• Mildundo (the dwarfs' capital city) is supposed to represent London because it is a perfect square. 

• The people in the city are prideful of their wealth which is criticizing London for their people being prideful. 

• The egg controversy is absurd because it's a conflict on whether you crack your boiled egg on the small end or big end. 

• “Of so little weight are the greatest services to princes, when put into the balance with a refusal to gratify their passions.”

Gulliver’s Travels