conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh: –– it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God‘s feet, equal –– as we are!‖
These words are taken from chapter 23 of Jane Eyre. The speaker––Jane is trying to show Mr. Rochester that she must leave him because she doesn‘t want to become his accessory. She feels hurt because Mr. Rochester has not told her about his wife and in her mind he doesn‘t treat her as an equal being.
Emily Bronte (1818-1848)
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He was a poet and novelist, a more passionate and rebellious character than her sisters, most gifted. Emily Bronte wrote only one novel entitled ―Wuthering Heights‖ in 1847. ? Wuthering Heights （1） Wuthering is Yorkshire dialect for ―weathering‖. （2） Wuthering Heights is a morbid love between Catherine and Heathcliff. （3） It is also the story about two families– the Earnshaw family and the Linton family, and an intruding stranger, Heathcliff, an orphan adopted
by Mr. Earnshaw.
（4） The novel is a bitter attack on the bourgeois marriage system. ? Techniques
The story is told in flashbacks.
The narrators: Lockwood & Nelly Dean(most part)
? Themes （1） A love that lingers in hatred of the past or totally governed by overpowerful passion can be extremely destructive to every one involved. （2） Forgiveness is the best way to make life happy.
Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
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She is a novelist and one of the three bronte sisters. Agnes Grey《艾格尼丝·格雷》
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Victorian Poets
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Victorian Poetry
The second half of the 19th century in England produced a number of outstanding poets such as Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), and Robert Browning(1812-1889). Browning has paved the way for modern English poetry in the 20th century.
（1） Victorian poetry developed in the context of the novel. Poets sought new ways of telling stories in verse.
（2） All poets show the strong influence of the Romantics, but cannot sustain the confidence the Romantics felt in the power of the imagination. （3） Victorian poets often rewrite Romantic poems with a sense of belatedness.
（4） Dramatic monologue – the idea of creating a lyric poem in the voice of a speaker ironically distinct from the poet is the great achievement of
Victorian poetry.
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
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His Major Poetical Works In Memoriam《悼念》1833—1850
Idylls of the King《国王之歌》1850—1885 Selected Poems in our textbook
Tennyson’s Ulysses ―尤利西斯‖
Break, Break, Break” ―拍吧，拍吧，拍吧‖ Crossing the Bar ―穿过沙洲‖
? Break, Break, Break
This short lyric is written in memory of Tennyson’s best friend, Arthur Hallam, whose death has a lifelong influence on the poet. Form—The poem contains four quatrains, with combined iambic & anapaestic抑抑扬格feet. Most lines have three feet & some four. The rhyme scheme is abcb. Themes Grief
The main theme is bereavement丧友 , heartache, emptiness. In the narrator's dark hour of grief, the sun rises, children laugh, business goes on as usual. How could the world be so cruel and unfeeling? Preciousness of Youth
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Tennyson's friend, Arthur Hallam, was only 22 when he died. The shock of Hallam's death impressed upon Tennyson how priceless youth is. To underscore this idea, and to express the agony he suffers at the loss of young Hallam, Tennyson presents images of youthful joy: the fisherman's son playing with his sister and the \ Indifference of Nature
Nature continues to function according to its rhythms and cycles regardless of what happens, good or bad, to human beings. The temperature may plummet just when a poor family runs out of fuel. The sun may shine and the birds may sing in the middle of the bloodiest of battles. And the sea will rise and fall in a defiant, indifferent rhythm that refuses to acknowledge tragedy in the everyday life of average men. Tennyson laments this cold indifference in \? Crossing the Bar
This poem was written in the later years of Tennyson‘s life. We can feel his fearlessness towards death, his faith in God & an afterlife. In the poem, the poet compares Death to putting out to sea in the dusk, which vividly reflects his fearless attitude toward death, for in his opinion, he may achieve lasting peace & see God face to face after death.
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
? Robert Browning is an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. ?
Robert Browning‘s contribution to literature: Dramatic monologue (戏剧独白)：A dramatic monologue is a combination of the words dramatic and monologue (obviously). The ―dramatic‖ says that it could be acted out, and is a form of drama, while the ―monologue‖ defines it as a speech that one person makes, either to themselves or to another. ? His Major Works
My Last Duchess《我已故的公爵夫人》 Meeting at Night《月夜相会》
Parting at Morning《晨别》
The Ring and The Book《指环与书》
Home Thoughts from Abroad《异国相思》
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? My Last Duchess
Main Idea—In this poem, Browning creates a character of chilling coldness and cruelty. The speaker is a Duke who is conducting negotiations for a bride, a new duchess. He is talking with the representatives of potential father in law. Almost casually, he shows them the picture of the ?last‘ duchess whom he had killed because he could not dominate her.
Form—My Last Duchess is written in heroic couplets（英雄体双行诗）, but most of the lines being ―run-on‖ lines and the riming syllables（音节） often getting little or no stress, the metrical（有节奏的） effect of the poem almost resembles that of blank verse. Somewhere it was called rhyming pentameter(押韵的五音部).
Part IX Twentieth Century Literature
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Social Background
Two main factors influencing literature 1. Imperialism 2. Widespread demand for social reform ? Ideological Background
Ideologically, the rise of the irrational philosophy and new science greatly incited modern writers to make new explorations on human natures and human relationships.
1. The theory of Scientific Socialism 2. The Social Darwinism 3. Freud‘s analytical psychology ? The Poetry in England in the 20th century
The modernist poets fought against the romantic fuzziness and self-indulged emotionalism, advocating new ideas in poetry-writing. They advocate to use the language of common speech, to create new rhythms as the expression of a new mood, to allow absolute freedom in choosing subjects, and to use hard, clear and precise images in poems. ? Novels of the 20th century
The development of 20th century fiction is characterized by two simultaneous but contrary tendencies.
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The first of these tendencies is modernism, a movement deeply affected by psychoanalysis and existentialism and represented in fiction by stream of consciousness narration.
The second tendency is a continuation of the tradition of realism inherited from the 19th century. Most critics today agree that the currents of 20th century fiction move like a pendulum swung between these two poles. ? The Modernistic Drama
The modern dramatist expressed their satire towards the upper-class people by revealing their corruption, their snobbery, and their hypocrisy. The English dramatic revolution developed in directions: the working-class drama and the Theater of Absurd. ? Term—modernism
(1) Modernism is an international movement in literature and arts, especially in literary criticism, which began in the late 19th century and flourished until 1950s. It is a reaction against realism.
(2) Modernism takes the irrational philosophy and the theory of psycho-analysis as its theoretical base.
(3) The major themes of the modernist literature are the distorted, alienated and ill relationships between man and nature, man and society, man and man, and man and himself.
(4) The modernist writers concentrate more on the private than on the public, more on the subjective than on the objective. They are mainly concerned with the inner being of an individual. In their writings, the past, the present and the future are mingled together and exist at the same time in the consciousness of an individual.
(5) James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner are prominent modernist writers.
? Term—The Angry Young Man
(1) A group of young novelists and playwrights with lower-middle-class or working-class background in the mid-1950s and early 1960s.
(2) They demonstrated a particular disillusion over the depressing situation in Britain and launched a bitter protest against the outmoded social and political values in their society.
(3) Kingsley Amis was the first to start the attack on middle-class privileges and power in his novel Lucky Jim (1954). The term \came to be widely. ? Term—Stream of Consciousness
(1) It is a method of story-telling in which the author tells the story through the freely flowing thoughts and associations of one of the characters. (2) It is used to depict the mental and emotional reactions of characters to external events, rather than the events themselves.
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