2014-02-24
1830
IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (THE 2nd HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY)
The period got its name because of the Queen Victoria. Her reign was the longest in English history (1837-1901).
The 1830s which followed the industrial revolution saw the sharpening of с la s s contradictions. One of its signs was the Chartist movement (Чартистское движение) which followed the Parliamentary reform ofl 832. Then a move was made towards "democratizing" parliamentary representation. The reform was carried out by the English bourgeoisie with the support of the proletariat. The latter however got no political benefits from it. Amd because of that the proletariat expressed their protest and discontent in the paper called "People's Charter" ("Народная хартия") and later in strikes, marches and demonstrations which lasted for some 10 years.
Slavery was denounced and the British colonies were officially rid of it in 1833.
The last two thirds of the 19th century is looked on as the period of stabilization. England was the most powerful country in the world - an industrial state with sea power, "the workshop of the world" with highly developed textile, machine building industries, trade, etc.
The new class of bourgeoisie was becoming more and more powerful and confident. It fell into three categories - so, the middle class was not homogeneous. 1) the upper bourgeoisie; 2)themiddlebourgeoisie; 3) the lower (the petty) bourgeoisie.
The upper middle class came very closely to the aristocracy. The claimed to be equal to the nobles: they even could afford and gave education to their children at Cambridge, Oxford; they copied the aristocratic manners, etc. So the bourgeoisie had money and the aristocracy had titles. That is why the bourgeoisie became keen on marrying aristocratic boys and girls to acquire the titles and become the members of aristocratic families. We can see the arranging of such a marriage in Hogarth's picture "Marriage a la Mode" ("Модный брак"). In Fowles's novel "The French Lieutenant's Woman" we see an example of such a kind of marriage and manners of that time.
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Philosophers of that time were concerned with some political problems. For example, Thomas M a 11 h u s (1766-1S34) saw that the problem of poverty could only be solved by artificially limiting the birth rate (he was derided in his days but nowadays his theories are being accorded some respect). A bigger problem for writers of that time was that presented by the challenge of the new science to the old Christian faith. Darwin's Theory of Evolution hit at the Book of Genesis - man had evolved from lower forms of life; he had not been created completely by God. "The Origin of Species" ("Происхождение видов"), presenting his revolutionary theory appeared in 1859.
M a ve r i a 1 i s m that denied the existence of everything except matter (материи) - man has no soul, and even thought is secreted by the brain as bile is secreted by the liver - was another challenge to the Orthodox belief. Marx's epoch-making "Das Kapital", written in Londodn and published in 1867, preached a new conception of society and of the distribution of wealth, and it was based on a "materialistic interpretation of history" ("бытие определяет сознание").
The Victorian Age thus had a large number of problems to face. In many ways this was an age of progress -of railway building, steamships, reforms of all kinds - but it was also an age of doubt. There was too much poverty, too much injustice and too little certainty about faith and morals. It was also, with all its ideals, a curiously puritanical age: it was easily shocked, and subjects like sex were taboo. (Men like В о w d 1 e r, who published in 1818 his "Family Shakespeare", from which all doubtful lines and words had been crossed out, anticipated the spirit of the period.) It was an age of conventional morality, of large families with the father as the godlike head and the mother as a submissive creature like Milton's Eve (Ева). The strict morality, the holiness of family-life, owed a good deal to the example of Queen Victoria herself, and her indirect influence over literature, as well as social life, was considerable.
The new generation of writers which emerged at that time realized that Romanticism was too aloof and distant to deal with the actualities. A new approach to literature was needed which would reflect the problems of that time. Thus a new trend was bom in English as well as in the Continental literature -Critical or Social realism, dealing with the needs of society.
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So, life needed a new approach as well as literature needed a new angle of vision, which would differ from the romantic one. The writers turned to day-to-day realities. Many writers were influenced by the Chartist movement. They didn't take part in it but sympathized with the workers. In their works the reasons which led the workers to their protest were traced.
Unlike Romanticists who portrayed individuals outside society, people who rebelled against society, who were different from the rest of their contemporaries, realists on the contrary portrayed people typical of the time and of the society they came from. Realists resorted to generalization, so their characters embodied the most characteristic features of the class group they came from. Thus the personages of the realistic works were social types (not psychological as in the Romantic works).
Realists stressed the link between man and the social environment in which the personage grew and functioned (remember this materialistic idea - the social environment determines the character - "бытие определяет сознание"). So from the materialistic point of view man is predetermined by the conditions of his life.
The first generation of Victorian novelists was made up of:
1) Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffham) (1812- 1870);
2) William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 - 1863);
3) Charlotte Bronte (1816- 1855);
4) Emily Bronte (1818 - 1848);
5) Anne Bronte (1820- 1849);
6) Elizabeth Gaskell (1810- 1865).
Karl Marx called them "brilliant school of English novelists". Indeed, the influence of literature was very, very great in Britain as well as in Russia. The power of the printed word was enormous. Literature had a great influence on the political life of the time, not only on the people's mentality. For example, after the novel "Oliver Twist" by Dickens was published the Parliament formed a special Committee to investigate the problems touched upon in the novel. This was a story of a small poor boy, Oliver Twist, who went through many misfortunes and sufferings. And one of the main problems shown in the novel was the problem of workhouses (работные д о м a) for extremely poor people. The image of the debtor's prison (долговая тюрьм a) appears in Dickens's novels very often. He stressed that it was a shame for the country. In the long run such prisons were abolished. Dickens also protested against the nightshifts for women (and in the 19th century they also were abolished), against the payment for the quantity of windows in the house, etc. Dickens believed in the reforming power of his works. He and other writers considered their works to be the tool of reforming.
Revolutionary writers also realized that the revolutions had already entailed bloodshed, sufferings, terror. They did not look forward to another society, but they criticized this society, exposed the vices to the readers and hoped for the reformation of society.
The most prominent poets of this period are:
1) Robert Browning (Роберт Браунинг) (1812 - 1889);
2) Alfred Tennyson (Альфред Теннисон) (1809- 1892);
3) Algernon Charles Swinburne (Алджернон Чарлз Суинберн) (1837 - 1909).
CHARLES DICKENS (CHARLES JOHN HUFFHAM) (1812 - 1870)
The word "dickens" means "devil" ("чёрт, дьявол").
Dickens's literary work comprises a whole epoch in the development of English literature.
From his childhood Dickens knew what the life was like at that time as he had to work hard. His father was a clerk with a small salary in the Navy Post Office. When Dickens was 7 he went to a school where he was taught by a young Baptist minister. At the beginning of the 20s the family moved to London (Dickens was bora in Landsport in a middle-class family). In London they settled in a mean small house. There were 6 children in the family then and Charles had to make himself useful about the house instead of going to school. Soon his father was taken to the debtor's prison and Charles started to work in a blacking factory, though he dreamt of the career of an actor. Dickens rarely spoke of his life at that time afterwards but he never forgot its misery. When the father came out of prison Charles went to school again. At 15 he left school and went into a lawyer's office. He had got no regular education but then worked hard at his self education. At 19 he found himself in the Gallery of the House of Commons as a reporter for a daily paper. His articles were becoming popular. Besides them he wrote short tales and sketches (очерки) which were signed "by В о z " (Boz was a pet name of Charles's youngest brother), and it was the name under which Dickens got his early fame.
Dickens's first book was not a novel but a book of essays describing the life of common Londoners - "Sketches by Boz". After the success of this first book he undertook another literary adventure which brought him real fame. Dickens was offered to write stories to the series of drawings about the funny adventures of 4 gentlemen. The drawings with the stories were published in the magazine "Punch". The stories became even more popular than the drawings themselves. Of course, "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" ("Посмертные записки Пиквикского клуба") aren't a novel either. That is a series of scenes which hang together. In this book Dickens showed himself a brilliant humourist and one of the chief features of his humour was caricature. To many people "Pickwick" remains Dickens's best work - "the glory of Charles Dickens will always be in his Pickwick, his first, his best, his inimitable triumph".
Just when Dickens began to write "Pickwick" he got married and comfortably settled in a London house while many other writers gathered round him as his friends. Dickens traveled a lot (America, France, Italy, again A m e r i с a). As the years went on Dickens wrote more and more books. He started a magazine, too. At first it was called "Household Words" and later on- "All the Year Round". His own works as well as the works by other writers were being published in the magazine. Of course, it helped to gain even a greater fame and prosperity. So he managed to buy a very good house and moved there with his large family.
It was about that time that Dickens started public readings. Besides, acting had always been his passion. He was the leader of a group of actors (He fell in love with a young actress and even abandoned his family). Dickens also founded a new phenomenon in theatrical life. He was the first to found a one-actor theatre. He introduced a tradition of reading extracts from the stage. He made long tours in England and abroad. When he went to America on a reading tour it was a great success (though many of Dickens's friends were against such readings as they considered them to be beneath his dignity as the author). But the strain and excitement were too great and these tours accounted for his premature death. He had a stroke and died in June in 1870 in his house at Gad's H i 11. He was buried in Westminster, and although the funeral was very simple as he himself had wished, for two days a constant stream of mourners was coming to his grave.
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Dickens influenced not only the development of English literature but even English customs, traditions (so Christmas became so widely celebrated thanks to Dickens), political matters, etc.
Most of Dickens's novels have a happy end. There might be several reasons for this:
-all Dickens's works proceed from his idea of the social role of literature. He believed in educational moralizing value of literature and hoped that his works might contribute to the reformation of every individual member of society and thus to the reformation of the society at large;
-Dickens wanted to give his readers a hope for the better, to install in their minds the idea that justice and kindness would triumph, etc.
Dickens's characters fall into 3 groups:
1) heroes - mostly young people, beares (носители) of positive traits (Oliver Twist, Florence Dombey, David Copper fi eld, etc.);
2) villains (негодяи) - negative characters (Mr. Dombey, Mr. Carcker, etc.);
3) quaint people (чудаки) - a bit odd people (Mr. Pickwick, Solomon Jills,
etc.).
Dickens's literary work can be divided into the following periods:
1) the early period - 1833-1841 -
" Sketches by Boz Illustrative of Every-Day Life and Every-Day People" - stories ("Лондонские очерки Боза") (1836);
"The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" -("Посмерт ные записки Пиквикского клуба") (1837) they are very bulky, consisting of thick 67 chapters, 160 characters. The characters set out to travel. And if characters in a story travel a lot and the plot is about their adventures (even if the adventures are not very decent but nevertheless interesting and attractive), we may say that it is a picaresque story (плутовской). So is "The P i с k w i с k ". It enabled the author to give a broad panorama of life. The most picturesque episodes in this book deal with parliamentary election and staying in debtor's prison. Dickens's criticism is sharp and precise. The tone is humorous, not satirical yet. Dickens was very optimistic at correcting people's vices and reforming the society at large. All his novels touched upon some specific features of contemporary British society, disclosing its vices and drawbacks through the life stories of his characters (like in his next novel);
"Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress" - a novel ("Оливер T в и с т ") (1838). In this novel the author sends us to another phenomenon of British life - workhouses (работные дома) and the life of the very bottom of society: thieves, robbers, beggars. To the cruelty of some people the writer opposes the kindness, charity, benevolence of the others;
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"Nicholas Nickleby" -a novel ("Жизнь и приключения Николаса Никльби") (1839). In this novel Dickens mocked at the system of private schools, showed the painful process of consolidation of capital which led to bankruptcy of small owners, showed the drama of debtor's prison.
2) the period of 1842 - 1848 -
"American Notes for General Circulation" - sketches ("Американские очерки") (1842);
"Martin Chuzzlewit" - a novel ("Жизнь и приключения Мартина Чезлвита") (1844). One of the strong points of this novel is the author's criticism of America which he knew from his own experience (he visited America twice). He was shocked by the phenomenon of slavery - this showed the hypocrisy of American democracy;
"Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail and for Exploration" - anovel("Домби и сын. Торговля оптом, в розницу и на экспорт") (1848). In this work Dickens showed the power of money in aristocratic and bourgeois society.
3) the period of 1849 - 1859 -
"David Copperfield" -a novel ("Жизнь Дэвида Копперфильда, рассказанная им самим") (1850). This is Dickens's autobiographical and his favourite novel;
"Bleak House" - a novel ("Холодный дом") (1853);
"Hard Times, for These Times" - a novel ("Тяжёлые времена") (1854). This novel deals with the class struggle of workers and their owners;
"Little D о r r i t " - a novel ("Крошка Дорит") (1857);
"A Tale of Two Cities" - a novel ("История двух городов") (1859). This is Dickens's only historical novel, dealing with the events of the French Bourgeois Revolution. The writer showed this period as a time of bloodshed and terror. Yet he realistically emphasized that the poor people of France were forced to rise against their poverty into which they were thrown by their masters and the King's policy.
4) the period of 1860s -
"Great Expectations" - a novel ("Большие о ж и д а н и я ") (1861). It is one of his last works. It showed the author's growing pessimism. It is called the novel of broken illusions and frustrated hopes;
"Our Mutual Friend" -anovel("Ham общий д p у г ") (1861);
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" - a novel ("Тайна Эдвина Д p у д a ") (1870). This novel was left unfinished as Dickens died. The book has a detective plot (about a murder).
Besides these novels Dickens wrote a lot of short stories, long short stories, essays, fairy tales, plays.
The language of the writer is really brilliant. Its main features are:
- pathos and sentimentality;
- the talent in making a humourist portrait and a caricature;
- the main character is a "small man" ("маленький человек");
- the writer's belief in the victory of virtue;
- the very precise technique of description.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THAKERAY (1811 - 1863)
He studied law and art, and was going to become an artist, but gave up both for the sake of literature. His first significant book which testified to his talent was a collection of stories - essays -called "The Book of Snobs" ("Книга снобов") (1848), in which the writer presents a gallery of snobs from the bottom to the very top of society. The author gave a new meaning to the students' word "snob". Originally the word was used to denote "students of low origin". With Thackeray the meaning changed and the word began to mean "a person who judges about others according to their social position, i. e. a person who flatters and looks up to those who are superior and looks down with contempt on those who are inferior, who occupy a lower position in the social ladder." By showing people coming from different social groups Thackeray stated that snobs can be found in any social layer. He proved that snobbism was a typical feature of English character.
His most important works are "The History ofPendennis; His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy" ("Пенденнис") (1850) - this novel - Bildungsroman (роман воспитания) - is about a gifted artist whose life was spoiled by social conventions (условности); "The Newcomers: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family" ("Ньюкомы") (1855); two historical novels - "The History of Henry Esmond, Esq." ("История Генри Эсмонда") (1852) and "The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century" ("Виргинцы: Роман минувшего столетия") (1859) - this is a d i a 1 о g у, the first part of which is set in the early 18th century, and the second part of it is set in the late 18th century.
Thackeray's principal work is his novel "Vanity Fair; A Novel Without A Hero" ("Ярмарка тщеславия; Роман без героя") (1848). Rebecca Sharp and Amelia S e d 1 e у are the two girls whose stories are given in the novel. They are not heroines as
neither of them is an embodiment of the author's ideal bearer of positive traits. But it does not mean that the author denounces them both: Rebecca is "wit without virtue" and Amelia is "virtue without wit".
Rebecca is really sharp (наблюдательная, остроумная) (this stylistic device is called a n t о n о m asia - "антономазия"): she is intelligent, clever, but unprincipled and immoral, she stops at nothing to achieve her ambitious aim - to enter the upper class.
Amelia is too naive, too simple-hearted, too weak-minded to be called a heroine. However, the author justifies Rebecca by showing that she was the product of her time and society, in which she grew, because there was no other way for an intelligent woman like her to fulfill herself by any other means but by marrying a rich man.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE (1816 - 1855) EMILY BRONTE (1818 - 1848) ANNE BRONTE (1820 - 1849)
Charlotte Bronte's principal work is the novel "Jane Eyre: An Autobiography" ("Джейн Эйр") (1847) which tells a story of a poor orphan - a girl whose high moral standards, her dignity, chastity, strong will helped her to get through all her life hardships and won her the respect and love of a man (Rochester).
Her novel "Shirley" ("Шерли") (1849) was inspired by the Chartist Movement and has class struggle for its background.
Emily Bronte's work was smaller in scope but not in importance. Her only novel " W u t h e ring Heights" ("Грозовой перевал") (1847) combines elements of romantic aesthetics and literature on the one hand (Heathcliff has all the features of the Byronic character he is a strong individual, very passionate, struggling for his independence) and realistic features on the other hand (all the characters, especially the main ones, are not only psychologically, but also socially motivated).
Anne Bronte is known for her poems.
ELIZABETH GASKELL (1810 - 1865)
She was a disciple and great admirer of Charles Dickens. The main characters of her best novel "Mary Barton" ("Мэри Бартон") (1848) come from the working class and embody the best features that could be found in common people.
Her novel "Cranford" ("Городок Крэнфорд") (1853) - the name of the town - is a subtle light-hearted humorous picture of the English provincial life.
LITERATURE OF THE LAST DECADES OF THE 19"1 CENTURY;
